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Frost Giant Studios is a development company founded by former members of the StarCraft 2 and Warcraft 3 development teams at Blizzard Entertainment. Today, Frost Giant Studios announced that their new RTS, Stormgate, will enter Steam Early Access on August 13, 2024. Those that pre-purchase the Early Access bundle can begin playing on July 30th. You do not need to spend anything though, as the full game will be free-to-play.
Today's release announcement also includes a look at the newly announced third faction: The Celestial Armada. This group is a race of "highly technologically advanced interstellar travelers who have come to Earth to challenge the demonic Infernal Host for control over our planet - with humanity caught in the middle."
The Early Access bundle is available to purchase now through Steam.
Get a Head Start with Early Access Bundles
Stormgate will be free-to-play, but Early Access bundles offer players the opportunity to pick up a collection of exciting new game content to explore once the game is live.
Early Access: A Partnership With Our Players
“Launching Stormgate in Early Access represents a major milestone for our team and our community,” said Tim Morten, CEO and Production Director at Frost Giant Studios. “We believe Early Access is a better way to make games, as it allows us to form a true partnership with our players. Their feedback and participation have already been invaluable in shaping the future of Stormgate, and we can’t wait to see what future contributions they’ll make as together we forge a bright future for the real-time strategy genre.”
A Global RTS Community
The Frost Giant team developed SnowPlay, a custom layer of technology that transforms Unreal Engine 5 into the most powerful and responsive real-time strategy engine to date. It allows for next-generation improvements for the genre such as the inclusion of rollback netcode--which revolutionized online play in the fighting game community--now in an RTS featuring massive armies. Supported by a globally distributed server network and the improved gameplay feel that results from SnowPlay and rollback, Stormgate makes a truly global RTS community a possibility, with the potential to bring together players around the world like never before.
A More Approachable RTS
Stormgate features a variety of innovative features meant to make this style of game more approachable than ever. The Quick Macro Panel (QMP) puts all of the actions players need to perform to build and maintain their armies at their fingertips while automated control groups make controlling armies a cinch. Stormgate also features a customizable player-assist tool called the BuddyBot that provides varying degrees of automated assistance. Designed for the benefit of new players as well as those with differing abilities, the BuddyBot gives players a helping hand by providing as much or as little help as desired. While it won't turn a new player into a world champion, the BuddyBot can help anyone dive right into the fun of leading armies in epic battles.
Frost Giant Studios will be self-publishing Stormgate in the West and is partnering with publisher Kakao Games to bring the future of real-time strategy to gamers in Korea–considered by many the birthplace of competitive RTS. Korean gamers can look forward to exciting regional support plans to be announced by Kakao Games in the days ahead. Stormgate will initially be localized in French, German, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Stormgate will be free-to-play, but Early Access bundles offer players the opportunity to pick up a collection of exciting new game content to explore once the game is live.
- The Early Access Pack ($25 USD) includes the Amara Human Vanguard Hero, the first Chapter of the Vanguard campaign, and the Gold Vanguard Army Accent.
- The Deluxe Early Access Pack ($40 USD) includes everything in the Early Access Pack plus the Maloc Infernal Host Hero, the Auralanna Celestial Armada Hero, and the Chicken Pet.
- The Ultimate Early Access Pack ($60 USD) includes everything in the Deluxe Early Access Pack plus Chapters 2 and 3 of the Vanguard campaign (available sometime after August 13) and the Firestorm Fog of War Shader.
Early Access: A Partnership With Our Players
“Launching Stormgate in Early Access represents a major milestone for our team and our community,” said Tim Morten, CEO and Production Director at Frost Giant Studios. “We believe Early Access is a better way to make games, as it allows us to form a true partnership with our players. Their feedback and participation have already been invaluable in shaping the future of Stormgate, and we can’t wait to see what future contributions they’ll make as together we forge a bright future for the real-time strategy genre.”
A Global RTS Community
The Frost Giant team developed SnowPlay, a custom layer of technology that transforms Unreal Engine 5 into the most powerful and responsive real-time strategy engine to date. It allows for next-generation improvements for the genre such as the inclusion of rollback netcode--which revolutionized online play in the fighting game community--now in an RTS featuring massive armies. Supported by a globally distributed server network and the improved gameplay feel that results from SnowPlay and rollback, Stormgate makes a truly global RTS community a possibility, with the potential to bring together players around the world like never before.
A More Approachable RTS
Stormgate features a variety of innovative features meant to make this style of game more approachable than ever. The Quick Macro Panel (QMP) puts all of the actions players need to perform to build and maintain their armies at their fingertips while automated control groups make controlling armies a cinch. Stormgate also features a customizable player-assist tool called the BuddyBot that provides varying degrees of automated assistance. Designed for the benefit of new players as well as those with differing abilities, the BuddyBot gives players a helping hand by providing as much or as little help as desired. While it won't turn a new player into a world champion, the BuddyBot can help anyone dive right into the fun of leading armies in epic battles.
Frost Giant Studios will be self-publishing Stormgate in the West and is partnering with publisher Kakao Games to bring the future of real-time strategy to gamers in Korea–considered by many the birthplace of competitive RTS. Korean gamers can look forward to exciting regional support plans to be announced by Kakao Games in the days ahead. Stormgate will initially be localized in French, German, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Vietnamese.
