Two major Warhammer 40,000 strategy games are now heading to market within roughly a year of each other – and the team behind one of them isn’t sweating it.
In a recent interview with PC Gamer, developers at King Art Games were asked directly whether Total War: Warhammer 40,000 poses a competitive threat to their upcoming Dawn of War 4.
Their answer was an emphatic no – and the reasoning is worth unpacking.
What the Dawn of War 4 Team Actually Said
Senior Game Designer Elliot Verbiest addressed the question head-on, framing the two games not as rivals but as fundamentally different beasts wearing the same IP.
“I have seen a couple of comments online being like ‘Oh that doesn’t make any sense, wouldn’t they eat into each other’s market?'”
Verbiest said. “But I think it’s comparing apples and oranges. They’re both real-time strategy games, but they’re very different types of RTS.”
He went further, drawing a line through the genre’s history: “It’s the same as how Dawn of War isn’t Starcraft, and Starcraft isn’t Total War, and so on and so forth.”
That’s not deflection – it’s a genuine structural argument about how these games actually play.
Verbiest also revealed he has friends who worked on the Creative Assembly project and reached out to congratulate them on the announcement.
His final word on the matter was characteristically enthusiastic: “This is definitely a case of ‘Holy shit, it’s two cakes!’ I’m super thrilled for Creative Assembly that they’ve got this going on right now. It’s a good time to be a Warhammer fan.”
The full interview appears in PC Gamer magazine issues 420 (UK) and 408 (US), out in late February and late March respectively.
Why the Comparison Exists in the First Place
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 was officially announced by Creative Assembly to considerable fanfare, and it’s easy to see why fans started asking questions.
Both games draw from the same Games Workshop universe, target a broadly similar PC audience, and both carry the strategy label – even if that label covers wildly different terrain.
Creative Assembly’s pedigree in the space is formidable.
The Total War: Warhammer trilogy is one of the most successful strategy franchises of the last decade, and translating that engine into the 41st Millennium carries enormous pull.
The concern that two high-profile 40K strategy titles could cannibalize each other’s audience is at least a reasonable question – it’s not pure internet noise.
King Art Games, meanwhile, is a newer name in the RTS space.
The studio’s prior strategy work, Iron Harvest, landed generally positive reviews but didn’t move the needle the way the Dawn of War name carries expectation.
The scrutiny isn’t unfounded – it’s proportionate to the stakes.
Can Two Warhammer Strategy Games Actually Coexist?
Verbiest’s confidence is well-founded – but not for reasons that are immediately obvious from the genre label alone.
Dawn of War 4 is a traditional RTS: real-time tactical combat, base building, unit management.
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is a grand strategy title with real-time battle resolution sitting on top of a turn-based campaign map. They share a skin, not a skeleton.
The historical precedent backs this up. Total War: Warhammer III and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide coexisted without meaningfully competing.
The Warhammer IP has demonstrated, repeatedly, that its fanbase is large enough and diverse enough to support multiple major releases simultaneously – Mechanicus 2 is also launching in 2026, making this a three-title year for 40K games alone.
The more legitimate concern for Dawn of War 4 isn’t Total War – it’s whether King Art can deliver an RTS that honours the original series’ legacy.
Community skepticism about the studio’s RTS credentials is the real competitive pressure, and that gets answered by the game itself, not by what Creative Assembly is building.
What We Know About Both Games Right Now
Dawn of War 4 is targeting a 2026 launch, developed by King Art Games and published by Deep Silver. Key confirmed details include:
- Four playable factions, including the debut of Adeptus Mechanicus
- Over 70 campaign missions, playable solo or co-op, written by Black Library author John French
- Classic modes returning: Last Stand (horde survival), Skirmish, and multiplayer
- Set on Kronus, the setting of the beloved Dark Crusade expansion
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is in development at Creative Assembly, with a major information drop scheduled for late 2026 and a release window of 2027 at the earliest.
The two games will not be launching in direct competition.
What to Watch For
The real verdict on Verbiest’s confidence arrives when Dawn of War 4 ships and players can actually compare it to the franchise’s peak – not to whatever Creative Assembly is building.
A staggered release schedule means these two titles won’t be fighting for the same wallet at the same time, which removes the sharpest edge of the market overlap concern.
The more interesting test is whether Dawn of War 4 can rebuild trust with a fanbase that’s been waiting since 2017.
That’s where King Art’s credibility is on the line – and a few good previews between now and launch will matter more than anything Creative Assembly announces.
GamesHub will continue covering both titles as their respective release windows approach.
