Those dastardly Slitherine kids have got their hands on the Warhammer 40K license. Wait, no, it’s not anything to do with Harry Potter, you say? They’re the folk that published Unity of Command as well as a large gaggle of other strategy titles? You’re not actually an existent entity but just a rhetorical persona that I’m able to bounce questions off in an illuminating fashion?
Well, I’ll be.
While Relic have long held a monopoly on the Warhammer 40K license, at least when it came to strategy games, making their largely excellent Dawn of War series, it seems that Games Workshop are looking elsewhere for their next tie-in game.
They’ve turned to the Slitherine Group, a publisher of fiendishly difficult and involved strategy games. The sorts of games that Rob & Paul love and make me & Jeremy cry.
There are no details as to what game the publisher is planning on developing, the press release only had this almost wholly unhelpful quote from JD McNeil, chairman of the Slitherine Group, to go on:
“This deal represents yet another testament to our continuous aim to reach new audiences, without losing sight of who we are and what we do best. It’s all about creating strategy games that are targeted to a particular audience and addressing a very specific need in the market. The Warhammer 40,000 setting is a perfect fit for the style of strategy games that we make and will be very popular with fantasy and science fiction fans alike. Joining forces with Games Workshop will allow us to bring an wonderfully deep and appropriate IP to the Turn Based Strategy genre”.
So, we know it will be turn-based but that is all.
We’ve not yet managed to confirm whether this is a result of the recent closure of THQ, which may have resulted in the Warhammer 40k license reverting to Games Workshop’s ownership.