Warhammer 40,000 license goes to Slitherine

Games Workshop has announced a licensing deal for its grim-dark sci-fi tabletop war-game franchise, Warhammer 40,000, with game developer and publisher Slitherine.

Slitherine Software is known for a bevy of lesser known historical strategy games predominantly on the PC with some titles on Mac and iPad. It has also produced a tabletop war-game of its own, Field of Glory.

What games will be developed and which platforms they will be developed for as a result of the deal is yet to be announced, but a statement from the Slitherine Group suggests that it will be working on turn based strategy titles.

'This deal represents yet another testament to our continuous aim to reach new audiences, without losing sight of who we are and what we do best,' said Slitherine Group chairman JD McNeil.

'The Warhammer 40,000 setting is a perfect fit for the style of strategy games that we make and will be very popular with fantasy and science fiction fans alike. Joining forces with Games Workshop will allow us to bring a wonderfully deep and appropriate IP to the Turn Based Strategy genre.'

The Slitherine Group includes Matrix Games and Ageod and has published games for the BBC, Showtime, Scholastic and Buzz Aldrin Enterprises.

'Slitherine are clearly established and successful masters of their genre of games, and there are many fans of their work here at GW. It’s a pleasure to work with such like minded individuals who share our passion for strategy games of all types,' said Games Workshop head of licensing Jon Gillard.

It had previously been thought that the Warhammer 40,000 license would be heading to Sega following its acquisition of Relic Entertainment during the THQ auction. In addition to them now owning Relic, responsible for the popular and mostly source-material-faithful Dawn of War series, Sega-owned Total War developers Creative Assembly also recently licensed the setting's fantasy counterpart, Warhammer.

However, despite the deal with Slitherine, it does not necessarily mean that Sega is out of the running completely for producing Warhammer 40,000-based titles.