Two years ago I wrote a dumb post listing just how many Warhammer games had been released in the past few years. That post is now massively out of date, because there are so many Warhammer games coming in 2023-24 that Games Workshop was able to host their own damn show about it.
With E3 gone, many publishers and platform holders have decided that they’re still going to spend the next month showcasing their slate of upcoming games, they’re just going to do it on their own terms and with their own events. Meaning that we had an event today called Skulls that was, I kid you not, only about Warhammer games. And there was enough for a show because there were EIGHT Warhammer games featured.
Two of them—Darktide and Total War Warhammer III—are already out and were just getting new content, so they’re a bit less interesting, and another (Boltgun) only just came out, and rules, so it wasn’t really as big on news either.
But that still left five whole games to cover, ranging from an update on Space Marine II to new footage from Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, revealing that the CRPG will feature space battles. There’s also a PowerWash Simulator x Warhammer 40,000 collab in the works, which will be doing important work in exploring the fiction from a perspective I don’t think I’ve ever even thought of, let alone contemplated playing in a video game:
Warfare in the 41st Millennium is a messy business, but if you think the soldiers who fight against the galaxy’s horrors have it bad, spare a thought for the unfortunate custodians who clean up after them. Imagine all the blood, ichor, and who knows what else left over when the Space Marines have blown through yet another daemonic incursion or Tyranid invasion – you’ll need more than a mop and bucket to get that lot off.
Perhaps you should try a power washer?
There was also some stuff for a card game, but whatever. That left room for two full game premieres. One is Speed Freeks, a vehicular combat game. So think Twisted Metal, only with lots of Orks.
The other was the big announcement for the show: Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, which is described as “the first ever AAA real-time strategy game set in the world of Warhammer Age of Sigmar”, which is an important distinction to make since...we just had an incredible run of AAA real-time strategy games set in the older Warhammer universe. In the tradition of Warhammer games like Dawn of War it was announced with a very lovely CG trailer, though there won’t be a proper gameplay reveal until next month:
So, yeah, a lot of Warhammer! If you want to see all the trailers and screenshots, you can check them out at the event’s main site.