
We all know that the past year or so has been rough on new games and new studios, but it still sucks when we learn about interesting titles that will never see the light of day as a result. This is definitely the case for an unannounced Warhammer 40K co-op ARPG, which died on the vine as a result of layoffs and a lack of funding.
The game in question was being developed by Thought Pennies, a studio founded in 2020 with the aim of creating MMORPGs “where the game supported and encouraged collaboration.” Details about the game were never released, but resumes of former devs working at the studio reference an “unannounced Warhammer title” described as a co-op PvE action RPG where players controlled heroes that specialized in melee or ranged combat and fought against unspecified monstrous enemies in a dark fantasy world. It was also being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and called a “multi-platform social role-playing game.”
Unfortunately, layoffs that hit the studio in 2023 and then again in 2024 as part of lost funding for its project, both of which ended up killing the game despite it getting great feedback and never missing a development milestone according to studio CCO Daniel Erickson – a name familiar to MMO vets as he was the former lead dev on SWTOR. It’s not clear who the publisher was.
While it does suck to consider what might have been, especially since a PvE MMOARPG set in the Warhammer 40K universe sounds like fun, there is still hope for those wanting their dark fantasy MMO and multiplayer fix, such as the recently released Space Marine 2, the in-development MMO by Jack Emmert’s NetEase-funded Jackalyptic Games, and the player-run emu for Warhammer Online.