Complex Games will take Warhammer 40,000 game franchise to mobile devices

Complex Games is announcing today that it will make The Horus Heresy: Drop Assault, a mobile game based on the Warhammer 40,000 sci-fi universe. The game will test how well a franchise born with miniature wargame pieces in the 1980s will carry on in the modern digital gaming era.

The tactical strategy game will hit iOS and Android devices this fall. Winnipeg, Canada-based Complex Games will develop the game in partnership with tabletop war game maker Games Workshop, which owns the franchise, and Japanese mobile game publisher Crooz.

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Complex Games has been making titles for 12 years, and it has its Multiplex Engine, which can be used to make real-time synchronous multiplayer strategy and action games for smartphones and tablets. Making synchronous games is not an easy task on mobile platforms.

The title is the first time a video game will be based in the universe’s Horus Heresy setting. In the title, players can choose a side in the intense civil war that erupted among the Emperor’s Space Marine Legions in the 31st Millennium. Players will be able to build and customise bases, muster armies, and break their enemies’ strongholds in intense tactical battles. Different factions will fight to dominate territories.

“We are thrilled to be working with Games Workshop on the first videogame set in the Horus Heresy”, said Noah Decter-Jackson, CEO of Complex Games, in a statement. “We have been dedicated Warhammer 40,000 gamers since we first started playing games, and we are confident that the tactical experience we are bringing to mobile will satisfy what 40K fans have been craving.”

Games Workshop has more than 400 “hobby center” retail stores where it sells is Warhammer and Warhammer miniatures and other games. That should help with marketing the new mobile title.

Meanwhile, Jon Gillard, head of Games Workshop Licensing, said, ““The Horus Heresy is an iconic and seminal part of our IP that describes the dark period in the Imperium’s history that ultimately led to the way the Warhammer 40,000 universe looks now. As a setting it has been the basis for numerous New York Times best-selling novels, card games, and more recently some amazing models from our Forge World division. The dark treachery and over the top battles of this epic civil war make it perfect for the game Complex are making and aficionados of our worlds will be very excited about this legendary setting being brought to life as a video game for the first time.”

Here’s a trailer for the game.