With Dawn of War 4, the dark world of Warhammer 40,000 gets a new installment in a popular strategy game series – and a sequel that hardly anyone expected. The developer is the German studio King Art, which has actually made a name for itself with adventure games. In a conversation, the co-founder explains how all of this came about.
What kind of game is this?
- Dawn of War is considered one of the best strategy games of all time. The first part is even the highest-rated Warhammer game on Steam.
- With various factions, you compete against each other in classic real-time strategy: building bases, training troops, capturing objectives, or annihilating the opponent. The different races provide a perfect introduction to the world of Warhammer.
- After over 8 years and a failed third installment, King Art announced Dawn of War 4 out of nowhere at gamescom 2025. That it came to this was a stroke of luck.
This is what the boss says: In the “DevPlay” podcast on YouTube, the heads of three successful German studios discuss their games: Antony Christoulakis from Keen Games (Enshrouded), Björn Pankratz from Pithead (Cralon, formerly Gothic), and Jan Theysen from King Art (Dawn of War 4).
Theysen is Co-CEO and co-founder of King Games. The studio has previously developed games like The Book of Unwritten Tales, a point-and-click adventure. They entered the RTS field with Iron Harvest.
With exactly this game, they eventually came to Dawn of War 4. With a bit of material for their engine and what they can offer with their games, the creators of Warhammer themselves approached them:
Someone at Games Workshop must have seen this. When we were still working on Iron Harvest, they contacted us and said, “Hey, if there were to be a Dawn of War 4, what would you do with it?” […]
Then we made a concept, we did a presentation, and then we didn’t expect anything to come of it. It was more like, “We can give it a shot, it won’t hurt.” Then suddenly, when Iron Harvest was released and received well, they contacted us again and asked, “What’s the deal? Do we want to talk about this seriously?”
Jan Theysem on YouTube (about minute 12:35)
Together with Deep Silver, they decided to pursue the project – a “pretty big leap,” as Theysen explains. Iron Harvest was already large, but with Dawn of War came much greater expectations: “A huge burden on top.”
“You compete with the memory of the people”
With Dawn of War, King Art is working on a game that already has fans for the first time, at least on this scale. Warhammer is an IP where “hundreds of thousands” watch what the studio is doing: “Everyone has an opinion and knows the subject matter.”
King Art tries, according to Theysen, to connect more with the first part of Dawn of War. The series has changed significantly over the years and iterations, moving away from base building to become a skirmish simulation.
Theysen explains that they work with the vision of returning more to the roots, and that poses its own challenges:
We clearly stated that we take Dawn of War 1 as a model. It’s a kind of reinterpretation or evolution of Dawn of War 1. And then, of course, you suddenly have the problem that you are not really competing with the game from back then, but with people’s memories of the game.
Jan Theysen on YouTube (about minute 16:06)
The other two veterans agree: Nostalgia is a major factor in such projects.
There is still not much gameplay for Dawn of War 4, but some visitors at gamescom were already able to play a first mission – including me. And what I have seen so far clearly matches what Theysen has been saying: I played Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 for only 30 minutes, but I’m already as excited as I haven’t been in years
