Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 4 delayed for extra polish and optimizations

Around this time last year, Deep Silver and King Art Games announced the return of the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War franchise at Gamescom. While the Dawn of War IV real-time strategy title was supposed to release this September, now it has been pushed back to December.

Developer King Art revealed that community playtests and feedback from players have been positive and that it has already made changes to the game for making it better. However, it said that a few more weeks of development will help improve Dawn of War IV's performance, polish, and stability before launch.

“Like many of you, we were looking forward to playing the game in September, but we really believe this is the right decision, and the additional time will be worth it," says game director Jan Theysen in a video update. "We know from your feedback that the game feels right, and we captured what makes Dawn of War so special. So why delay it? It’s because we need the extra weeks to get more of your feedback into the game. We want to deliver a game that lives up to our ambitions and to your expectations."

Fans of the series may have already noticed that the new installment's developer is not the same as the old trilogy. That's because Relic Entertainment is not the lead developer behind the Dawn of War project this time.

Publisher Deep Silver has appointed King Art Games for that role. This was the studio behind the Iron Harvest project, a Company of Heroes-style experience but set in an alternate universe with dieselpunk machines and aesthetics.

To keep fans occupied while waiting for the new release date, the developer says that more gameplay footage and deep dives of different mechanics will be coming out. A roadmap for the game's first year of support was shared as well, seen above.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 is now coming to Steam on November 30, 2026. The title is already available for pre-order with a 10% discount in the store. Anyone who purchases the Commander Edition will also get three days of advanced access.