Tucked away in an investor relations note, Frontier Developments announced that it has acquired a license from Games Workshop to develop a real-time strategy game based on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar setting. Age of Sigmar is Games Workshop's current fantasy tabletop miniatures game, which replaced Warhammer Fantasy Battles in 2015, with a second edition released in 2018, and is one of the most popular miniatures games in the world. Frontier has exclusive rights to develop and release an RTS based on Age of Sigmar on both PC and consoles, and plans to release the game in FY2023, or the fiscal year ending May 31, 2023. So it is still a long way off.

David Braben, CEO of Frontier Developments, is excited, according to the release. 'I am pleased to announce our licensing agreement with Games Workshop. Personally, I think it's great news that two such well-established, world-class, creative British companies are working together on a new project."

Games Workshop previously licensed Age of Sigmar's predecessor, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, to the U.K.-based Creative Assembly, which has enjoyed much success as the Total War: Warhammer game. In fact, it has been successful enough that this setting will eventually return to the tabletop.

The Age of Sigmar setting lends itself quite well to the classic model of RTS, as the units are already divided into four factions: order, chaos, death, and destruction. Each faction has various units from both classic fantasy races and Age of Sigmar-specific races, and those units fight in a variety of different planes of existence called the Mortal Realm. in a fairly clear setup for a four-faction RTS, each with unique terrain different maps with unique terrain. We will keep you posted as more information becomes available. More information about Frontier Development can be found on their website, and more information about "Age of Sigmar" can be found on Games Workshop's website.

The announcement of a new RTS in 2020 is not that unusual for a genre that many consider to be on its deathbed. While top-tier RTS Starcraft 2 continues to do well as a popular esport, spin-off genres such as MOBAs have absorbed much of the former RTS audience. Frontier also makes an interesting choice as a developer for the genre, as RTS is a deeply system-dependent genre that requires precise balance and well-crafted basic game features to succeed. As evidenced by the fact that "Dawn of War 3" was not well received and quickly faded into obscurity, despite being developed by Relic, a veteran of the genre. Frontier is not known for its systems-driven design, rather focusing on customization and visual flair rather than strategic depth. It will be interesting to see what they produce.