Ex-Blizzard devs' RTS Stormgate enters early access Summer 2024
Shang-Chi actor Simu Liu will also voice the Infernal Host faction leader
Move over, Henry Cavill. Your time as PC gaming's celebrity uber nerd is under threat. There's a new faction leader in town and he's coming to take your RTS lunch money when Stormgate - the very Starcraft 2-looking strategy game that's being made by ex-Starcraft 2 devs - launches into Steam Early Access in summer 2024. Yep, it's Shang-Chi actor Simu Liu, who took to the stage at tonight's Game Awards to announce he's not only a dab hand at Starcraft (handy), but that he's also the voice of its demonic Infernal Host chief, Warz. Yes, they actually named him Warz. Never changes, does it?
We first got a glimpse of some of the units on the Infernal Host side of the Stormgate fence back in August during Geoff's Gamescom Opening Night Live show. Warz is their leader, and he'll be a recurring playable character in Stormgate's campaign.
It's been just over a year since Stormgate was first announced, and developers Frost Giant Studios have been running various closed alphas in the intervening months. Just this week, the team launched their official Kickstarter campaign for the game, which took all of 15 minutes to fully fund, and by its second day it had raised over $1 million. Fair to say, then, that there's a lot of interest in Stormgate.
There's a closed beta running right now, too, showing off its three-player co-op and competitive 1v1 mode, and various streamers will be broadcasting their matches over the weekend if you're keen to give it a look.
Stormgate will be free-to-play when it launches in early access next summer, and in addition to its competitive modes (which will go up to 3v3), it will also have what Frost Giant are calling a "living campaign", which will regularly add new chapter missions that can be played solo or in co-op. Each faction will have its own unique campaigns, too, with new stories introduced over time.
To find out more, you can head to its Steam page and Kickstarter campaign.
Can't get enough of Geoff's annual advert hype machine? Find all the announcements and more on our Game Awards 2023 hub page, and why not pop into our liveblog while you're here?