Iconic Warhammer 40k strategy games Dawn of War (released in 2004) and Dawn of War 2 (2009) have just been re-packaged into new ‘Anniversary Editions’ including every single DLC expansion or skin released for either game. And, if you own either game on Steam, your copy has been automatically upgraded to the shiny new, all-in version.
Publisher SEGA announced the change on Thursday via two Steam news updates and a tweet from the official Dawn of War account – the first time that account had posted anything in months. The publisher says the update is “to celebrate 20 and 15 years of these seminal titles”.
It confirms that “the Anniversary Editions will be a free upgrade for all existing owners of Dawn of War 1, and Dawn of War 2”. Meanwhile, as part of the promo, both upgraded games are currently 80% off on Steam, so if for some reason you don’t have them already, you can (and absolutely should) get the 2004 original for $7 (£5.60) and the 2009 sequel for $10 (£8).
Both the first and second Dawn of War games rightly sit in our list of the best Warhammer 40k games ever made – and both have some outstanding expansions, too – so unlocking all that for existing players, and offering it to newcomers for cheaps, is very exciting. And suspicious.
Because – as fans on Twitter very quickly commented on the announcement post – the last time a classic 40k game pulled a move like this, it was the original Space Marine, a few months before Space Marine 2 was announced.
Since, by the grace of the Emperor of Mankind, two and two do in fact make four, many have come to the conclusion these Anniversary Edition could presage the announcement of a Dawn of War 4 – something I beseeched Games Workshop and friendly developers for last year; click that link to read my pleas.
Up to now, neither Games Workshop, nor SEGA and Relic Entertainment (the first three games’ publisher and developer respectively) have ever said or done anything to suggest a Dawn of War 4 was in talks or development. The series has been deathly quiet since Relic mournfully announced they were ending development on Dawn of War 3 in 2018.
But effectively giving away years’ worth of (still popular) DLC for free would be a pretty expensive stunt just to celebrate two classic games’ birthdays, unless there was a greater business purpose behind rekindling fans’ excitement about the series.
While we consider Dawn of War one and two among the best RTS games ever, poor old Dawn of War 3 flopped harder than a Gargantuan Squiggoth slipping on a banana peel – but there’s still a lot of love out there for Dawn of War, so we wouldn’t be overly surprised if a fourth game turns out to be on the horizon. We’ll be watching carefully.
In the meantime, here’s a reminder of all the juicy Dawn of War DLC you now have, if you already owned the base game:
- Winter Assault
- Dark Crusade
- Soulstorm
And in the Dawn of War 2 Anniversary Edition, you now get:
- Retribution
- Chaos Rising
- “All additional DLCs such as exclusive multiplayer army skins, and campaign and Last Stand wargear previously only available as DLC packs.”
If anything was going to tear me away from trying to get good at all the Space Marine 2 classes in multiplayer, it’s this – I’m off to finally play as the Tau Empire commander in Dawn of War 2 Last Stand mode!
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Source: Wargamer
