Games Workshop announces WARHAMMER streaming service, to be led by 11 new animated shows

Games Workshop has announced their own home streaming service, Warhammer+, which will be blasting its way onto people's desktops and Smart TVs in July.

The service will be the home of no less than eleven new, animated series set in the two main IPs Games Workshop owns: Warhamer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar.

The shows will include Astartes 2, Altar of Wrath, Interrogator, Blacktalon, Pariah Nexus, Angels of Death, Hammer and Bolter, utilising a number of animation styles from 3D photorealism to 2D and anime-influenced styles. It won't include the Eisenhorn live-action TV series currently in development at Amazon.

Games Workshop launching their own streaming service feels ambitious (recalling that the vastly-better-known DC Comics were unable to get their own streaming service on the air) given the niche appeal, but they are promising additional benefits from being a subscriber, including possibly discounts and exclusive offers for the tabletop game. There's also some speculation that this move is to enable GW to start producing original content for later distribution via other, larger platforms once a deal can be reached.

Frontier Developments developing a WARHAMMER: AGE OF SIGMAR real-time strategy game

Frontier Developments have confirmed they are working on a real-time strategy video game based on Games Workshop's Warhammer: Age of Sigmar fantasy setting.

Frontier are best-known for their online space game Elite: Dangerous, but have recently branched out with a series of well-received management games, starting with Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo, as well as the dinosaur sim Jurassic World: Evolution. They haven't tackled the RTS genre before, but it is at least somewhat in their wheelhouse.

More surprising is that the game isn't being handled by Creative Assembly, who have released two critically-acclaimed strategy games in the Warhammer fantasy line, Total War: Warhammer (2016) and Total War: Warhammer II (2017), with a third game in development.

The game isn't due for release until late 2022 or early 2023, around the same time that Games Workshop is due to relaunch the fantasy line as Warhammer: The Old World. It is unclear if Age of Sigmar is continuing as a separate line or will coexist alongside The Old World.

Games Workshop and Marvel join forces to make WARHAMMER comics

Games Workshop and Marvel Comics have joined forces to produce a range of Warhammer comics.

Games Workshop and its publishing arm, the Black Library, have published Warhammer comics and graphic novels in the past (sometimes in collaboration with Titan), but Marvel's much greater worldwide distribution network and reach will give them access to a much larger market.

The official statement is a little terse, but it sounds like Marvel and GW will be publishing at least one Warhamer 40,000 title and another based on Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. The first comics are expected to arrive in late 2020.

New TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER trailer

Creative Assembly and Sega have released a new trailer for Total War: Warhammer (sadly, still not Total Warhammer or Warhammer: Total Waaagh!), this time featuring actual in-engine battle footage.

The trailer depicts Emperor Karl Franz leading the forces of the Empire of Man into battle against various enemies. The trailer shows both magic and flying units in action, both new additions for the Total War engine.

News of a new game set in the Warhammer Fantasy world came as a surprise. Earlier this year, Games Workshop officially retired the setting after thirty-three years of supporting it. Sales of the game and models had fallen to an all-time low, so the Old World of the Warhammer setting was obliterated in a game and novel crossover event known as End Times. A new fantasy game called Warhammer: Age of Sigmar has been introduced to replace it, although its reception has been lukewarm so far. Retiring the fantasy setting before the video game's release may have been a premature decision; the Dawn of War video games (starting in 2004) are credited with helping build the brand, success and sales of the Warhammer 40,000 SF sister-game, especially aiding the growth in the franchise's success in the United States. The Total War game could have done something similar for the fantasy setting, but clearly not if it no longer exists.

Total War: Warhammer will be released in 2016.