Taking to LinkedIn, Emmert made the announcement with a post confirming the cancellation of the project. As part of this announcement, he also noted that the studio will be hit with lay-offs. UI engineer Joseph Sierejko posted his own response to this announcement, revealing that he had been working at the studio for the last two and a half years.

“Well the news is officially out,” wrote Sierejko. “My time at Jackalyptic and the studio as a whole is coming to an end. The last 2 1/2 years have easily been the most informative of my entire career, and it’s in no small part because of the insane talent every one of my colleagues exhibited.”

Unfortunately, more details about the cancelled projects haven’t yet been revealed, with UI/UX artist Will Austin confirming that his work on the project during his tenure at Jackalyptic Games is part of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that the developers had to sign. Whether the project would focus on Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, or Warhammer 40,000 also wasn’t confirmed.

NetEase pulling its support of Jackalyptic Games likely comes as part of larger moves being made by the company as part of its efforts to scale back on its non-Chinese investments. These moves first came to light back in February, with analysts at the time noting geopolitical tensions mounting as well as some key investments not quite paying off being the core reason.

“China is in retreat: geopolitical tensions, some big bets not paying off, and the whims of certain CEOs mean that a massive pullback has begun,” said VC firm F4 Fund David Kaye. “One MAJOR strategic that has made dozens of investments in the past several years is reportedly pulling the plug and divesting ALL investments outside China. Some will likely find buyers. Others will not be so lucky.”

The company being referenced by Kaye in this statement is believed to be NetEase. For its part, the company has noted that it is still forging ahead with its “two-pronged” approach that revolves around self-research and investments to explore overseas markets. The company also pointed to successful projects like Marvel Rivals and Once Human.

“As far as overseas business efforts are concerned, NetEase has not wavered in its global expansion plans,” said the company in a statement. “Our ‘two-pronged’ approach, proposed in 2022 (combining self-research and investments to explore overseas markets), is still actively progressing and yielding positive results.”

“For titles developed by the self-owned studios, we successfully launched games like Once Human and Marvel Rivals in 2024. These projects demonstrate NetEase’s ability, along with our talented development teams, to produce high-quality games loved by players worldwide. For 2025, we have an extensive pipeline of titles in development, featuring a variety of genres, including FragPunk, Ananta and more.”

Amidst the news that Vampyr and Call of Cthulhu would be coming to the Nintendo Switch, publisher Focus Home Interactive has quite a lot of other suff in the pipeline as well. We already know about its partnership with Dontnod Entertainment of Life is Strange fame for an ambitious new project. But the publisher will also be working with Sumo Newcastle (known for EVE: Valkyrie) on a new “uncompromising multiplayer experience.”

Other interesting points in the company’s plan for 2019 include Deck13’s The Surge 2 launching in “a few months”, though a more concrete release date wasn’t provided. Focus Home Interactive did confirm that it would be working with the studio on a new IP after that. It will also be working with World War Z developer Saber Interactive on two more games. One is confirmed to be based on Warhammer.

Asobo Studio, which has A Plague Tale: Innocence coming up next month, will also continue its partnership with Focus as well. In what capacity the two will collaborate is unclear. But on another note, the publisher owns the rights to Call of Cthulhu for the next ten years. Whether that’s a good thing following its most recent title is a different matter.

Warhammer may be getting a lot of love in the coming year – there is the rumored Dawn of War III, the announced Total War: Warhammer, as well as yesterday’s curious Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor Martyr announcement – but that doesn’t mean one can’t look fondly at the franchise’s past, and its rich history of great games.

And if you wanted to do just that, you’re in luck, because CD Projekt RED has added classic Warhammer games, to the GoG service, marking the first time that these games will be sold digitally. And since they are being sold via GoG, there will be no DRM on any of them whatsoever.

The list of games being added is:

• Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat (1995)
• Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate (1998)
• Warhammer 40,000 Epic: Final Liberation (1997)

“These games have been next to impossible to find anywhere for years,” GoG business development executive Oleg Klapovsky said. “Reviving them meant that we had to dig a lot deeper, but we’re excited to have acquired the rights to re-release some of the most important entries in the Warhammer legacy.”

GoG also assured players that the game had been rigorously tested, and should run without any hitches on modern systems. That, plus the lack of DRM, plus the free soundtrack that you will get with each game, should certainly add to their overall appeal

Do you all remember Dawn of War? Before there was Company of Heroes, Relic Entertainment used to be known for Dawn of War, a science fiction fantasy strategy game based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe. With Sega now owning the Warhammer license, as well as Relic themselves, it appears as though the time may be ripe for the Dawn of War franchise’s return. And how do we know that? Why, we know that because Sega has registered a domain for Dawn of War 3, that’s how.

Usually, domain registrations can be defensive, but this might be the real deal- Sega does own both, the license and the developer in this case, and they are already working on reviving the Warhammer license in a big way with The Creative Assembly’s upcoming Total War: Warhammer. Plus, Company of Heroes 2 came out in 2013, and we haven’t exactly heard from Relic since- what might they have been working on?

Whatever this is, we will keep you guys posted. Stay tuned.

Players of the fantastic table top sports game Blood Bowl, which pits members of various species against each other in a vicious game of American Football styled insanity, has been officially announced to be coming to the PC, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. The turn based sports classic that introduced players to a high fantasy world of tactics and sports was shown off in the Kickoff Trailer that you can see above.

Based of the monolithic Warhammer IP courtesy of GamesWorkshop, which is set in a highly stylized and beautifully recognized fantasy world, the game is set to release in the Spring of 2015 on PC with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 builds hot on its heels (fleet of foot, roll one D6).

Classic duo Jim Johnson and Bob Bifford are set to reprise their roles of the gut shatteringly funny commentators as they oversee the game of bloodsport which will have Humans, Orcs, Dwarfs, Elves, Skaven and Beastmen battle it out for supremacy on the pitch.

We’re little more than a week away from this year’s Game Developers Conference to be held on March 19th to 21st in San Franciso and Focus Home Interactive today has revealed the games that will be present.

These include Bound by Flame, Crimes & Punishments, Blood Bowl 2, Styx: Master of Shadows, Act of Aggression, Etherium and Space Run. The most interesting addition is that from Eugen Systems, who will be unveiling a new strategy game with Act of Aggression. The game will be a real time strategy title and apparently the studio’s most ambitious project yet.

There will also be a new tactical game set in the Warhammer universe, which should be as exciting as anything considering how long its been since a new Warhammer has been out. What are your thoughts on the line-up? Let us know which game you’ll be looking forward to most at the show in the comments below.

Sega has announced that Total War developers, The Creative Assembly, have signed a deal that will have them working on five new Warhammer games, and all of them will focus on “Warhammer universe of fantasy battles”, which is exactly how I- and most of you, I believe- like it.

Remember, THQ still has the rights to develop games in the future, gritty universe of Warhammer 40K.

“With this year being our 25th anniversary it seems fitting for us to embark on such a dream project with such a well-established partner,” Tim Heaton, studio director at Creative Assembly said of this. “The incredibly rich and detailed Warhammer world is something we grew up with, and has left an indelible imprint on us as both designers and gamers.

“We’ll be doing the Warhammer universe justice in a way that has never been attempted before. We’re bringing those 25 years of experience and expertise in extremely high-scoring games to bear, delivering a Warhammer experience that videogamers will absolutely love.”

This seems like a perfect match. What do you guys think? Tell us in your comments below.

We have some new information from Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium. The game’s release date hasn’t been announced yet, but check out the complete info below. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Game Design Notes:

• Relic is lending a very small hand in the overall development of dmo. Winking, a chinese based developer is also on board. They helped with Spacemarine as well.
• Vigil is doing 90% of the work. Most of the shared work load is art, and animation.
• Spacemarine is built on the same engine as darksiders (and darksiders 2 respectively)
• Dmo is using the same engine, with gameplay (at least combat) akin to Spacemarine.
• Contrary to what I was told, the art style is NOT like Spacemarine, rather the whole game is more like darksiders (1 & 2), very stylized. The videos released at the last E3 are fairly accurate to the current state of the art style. Less realistic.
• Revision to what I was told by the rep, is that Spring 2012 is unlikely… maybe for more announcements on the game’s progress. Though a Darsiders 2 release in spring is likely, Vigil is working on both.

Class related notes:

• Races broadly put into forces of “Order” and “Disorder” similar to 40K World-wide campaigns.
• The “spacemarine” is a class, with a chaos counterpart.
• Tactical, heavy, assault as specialties.
• Each class starts as something familiar, and through progression changes.Ie. Scout to Marine
• Other classes include: psyker, techpriest, and assassin
• The assassin starts as a guardsman-esque character.
• Chaos have similar counterparts, cultist themed.
• Instead of an assassin, think demon host.
• Orks are with Chaos (disorder), Eldar are with the Imperium of man (order)
• Ork class rundown: Nob, mekboy, runt herda, mad dok
• Eldar class rundown: Scorpion, Avenger, Warlock, Reaper
• Expect Tau & Dark Eldar later, likely an expansion, though dark eldar npcs will be present on release, as well as Necron, and Tyranids. (Interesting idea, going for the ‘faceless’ races as NPCs, though I suspect you won’t be getting quests from the Swarmlord!)
• 60 character levels.

Gameplay related notes:

• A crashed space hulk will be one of the zones.
• Another zone will take place on an Imperial Cruiser, and Chaos Cruiser.
• Expect several instanced missions much like WoW, as well as open world.
• It will include instanced & open world pvp.
• Players will be able to dual weild things like pistols and melee weapons… yes that means two chain swords.
• The featured chapter is Black Templars. (As evidenced by the banner art)
• The featured chaos god is Khorne, at least for playable
• Word Bearers will also take a major role in the Playable chaos faction
• Nurgle & Fabius Bile will have a big Chaos NPC presence. (I suspect not Nurgle himself, but perhaps Typhus?)
• Possible shooter/RPG mode controls, like StarTrek Online.
• Third person action, plays like Gears of War/Space Marine mixed together for shooting.
  Melee is more like Space Marine/Darksiders, with the target lock on.
  Blocking melee attacks is a maybe, sheilds may be NPC only.
• NPC creatures vary from: Necromunda like humans, Chaos Cultists, Dark Eldar; from Grotesques to Warriors, Chaos Daemons and beasts, Orks, Grots, Guardsmen, defected Guardsmen, most of the minor Demons, Dreadnoughts, Tyranid Warriors, Genestealers and more.
• Forgeworld things may be present. Thunderhawk, terrain sets, Aquila landers, FW-esque equipment on vehicles.
• Environments range from snowy mountains, to the innards of a crashed space hulk… from cities destroyed, and orkified, to ancient eldar cities, overgrown with nids… from ancient battlefields, littered with the carcases of Titans and tanks, to a hive city, nostalgic with necromunda…. from the halls of Imperial Cruisers, to tge desecrated throne rooms of Chaos.
• Everything is large, beefy, and sticks to 40k very well. People already invested in the background and game will progress at a snails pace, as we will be distracted by everything.
• Left mouse uses the weapon in your character’s left hand, Right mouse uses the weapon in your character’s right hand. Rather cool mechanic.
• All abilities have a cooldown… No spamminh your “3” key like most MMOs. This will likely annoy WoW diehards. This pleases me.
• Melee combos – dual weilding gives new moves
• There is sprinting.
• “Guilds” will be present.
• Team/party/squad size is 5
• “Raid” size is 50… subject to change.
• Ranged weapons have infinite ammo, but there is reloading, overheating, venting, and reloading.
• Weapons rarely get to take full advantage of their range when inside… lots of cover and turning corners, it’s very dynamic.
• Hero classes are possible, unlocked once you get a character high enoigh level.
  • Imperium: Grey Knight
  • Chaos: Chaos Sorcerer
  • Ork: ‘Ard boy or Weird boy
  • Eldar: Farseer
• Hero classes will begin at higher level…
• Likely 40.

A player progressing as a marine will do so as follows:

Lv. 0: an adept, think a marine wearing just carapace armor.
Lv. 10: more or less a scout.
Lv. 20: equipped like the marine character in th sm codex… forgot his name.
Lv. 30: a standard marine
Lv. 40 honor guard or Sergeant, some decoration
Lv. 50 sternguard, maybe captain.
Lv. 60 artificer armor, iron halos, the whole sha-bang.

Grey knight fits in fairly well at around 40.

Other classes progress similarly.

Misc. Notes

• Tech priest are very, very pure adeptus mechamicus themed…Backpacks with a robot arm.
• A cover system is implemented.Waist high cover and standing cover.
• Cross platform is very possible.
• Shooting mechanics will have aim assist
• Similarly, melee attacks will lock on.
• Abilities work similar to Warhammer Online. A common resource, then each class has a unique resource used with abilities.
• Weapons inxrease in “coolness” as far as progression is concerned.
• A lv. 1 autogun may be it’s familiar form in necromunda and early IG… by lv 60, sone autoguns look cool enough for inquisitors to be using, lathered in fancy trim, aquilas, etc.
• Same goes for other weapons…. think Call of Duty, as you unlock the various weapon upgrades, you guns start looking cooler.

Each class has 3 specialties.

• Marine: Tactical, Devastator, Assault
• Assassin/guardsman: the major assassin type, callidus, vindicare, eversor (however you spell it)
• The Marine is by far the most flushed out.
• most abilities are still very WIP.
• Jump packs- not sure how they’ll work.