Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, a new open world RPG set in the Seven Kingdoms, just came out last month. There's also a strategy game based on House of the Dragon called Game of Thrones: Dragonfire knocking around. Now, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced Game of Thrones: War for Westeros, a real-time strategy game that will allow players to play a solo campaign or go head to head with each other.
Check out the official description below:
In War for Westeros, players will lead the armies of House Stark, House Lannister, House Targaryen, or the Night King in ruthless free-for-all battles where trust is fleeting and power is everything. Engaging in epic real-time strategy battles, forging strategic alliances, and weaving deceit against rival forces will be key. Each faction offers deeply asymmetric strategies, with signature heroes, armies, and mechanics forged from the brutal legacy of Westeros. Players can deploy infantry, cavalry, siege engines, giants, and dragons to break enemy lines as they work to outplay and outmaneuver rivals with inspiring hero abilities and the ruthless instincts of a true war commander.
From the Wall to King’s Landing, players can jump into skirmish matches or take on a longer war across the Seven Kingdoms both solo and with others, where every decision matters and every battle carries forward. Whether playing solo or with friends, Game of Thrones: War for Westeros will give fans the chance to re-envision the most iconic battles and turning points from the Game of Thrones series, manipulating the politics of the realm to rally powerful bannermen, sway loyalties, and outmaneuver enemies in a shifting struggle for power.
The ability to play as any faction, even the army of the dead, is interesting. As for the gameplay, it looks and sounds like something out of Starcraft or the early Warcraft games, where each group you play as has their own set of units and strategies. It doesn't sound like the story will stick that close to the show or the books; if you play as the Night King, there's no way his story ends with getting killed by Arya Stark at Winterfell. As you can see in the cinematic trailer below, there's a scenario where he kills Jon Snow and brings him back as a wight:
Although maybe you play as each faction for a while and won't be playing as the army of the dead during the final Battle of Winterfell. We'll get more details on that as time passes.
Let me emphasize that the trailer above is the cinematic trailer; that is not gameplay. In fact, it doesn't remotely resemble gameplay. You can see what gameplay looks like in the behind-the-scenes video below, where the developers talk us through their work:
Game of Thrones: Westeros looks pretty fun. And unlike Kingsroad and Dragonfire, it looks like it's being made primarily for PC, rather than for mobile devices, meaning there's less risk of players getting nicked and dimed by annoying monetization techniques, which was an issue with Kingsroad.
That said, I maintain that if a Game of Thrones video game is going to succeed in a big way, it should probably be a big-budget, story-heavy action-adventure RPG designed for home consoles. But real-time strategy is also a pretty good fit for this universe, so we'll see how this goes. Game of Thrones: War for Westeros is due out sometime in 2026.
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