Codemasters to publish WWII RTS

Codemasters has just announced that it has secured the global publishing rights to WWII RTS (working title). The game is currently in development at Russia-based 1C Company, the same studio responsible for the excellent IL-2 Sturmovik flight simulator.

"We are as excited to sign World War II RTS as we were with Operation Flashpoint," said Mike Hayes, Codemasters' marketing director. "Military gaming is a massive market and this title has the appeal to widen its market beyond core players. 1C's high production values will make this a movie blockbuster of a tactical wargame and a firm category leader."

The game will be epic in scale, with more than 100 missions spanning the six years of the second World War. Taking command of a band of soldiers, players will have the option to concern themselves with the needs of individual units, as well as with those of the army as a whole. Each soldier in the game will have his own skills, abilities, identities, and personality--players will even be able to zoom in on the battlefield and find out how individuals are feeling and what they're thinking about. For gamers daunted by that kind of level of detail, the game will offer scalable levels of interaction whereby certain functions such as managing unit behavior and operations can be handled by the game's AI.

"This is a real advancement in tactical wargaming," said Nikolay Baryshnikov, 1C's international sales director. "We're creating a game that's incredibly rich in content and historical authenticity. With a leading graphics engine to deliver incredible visuals, it's set to be the most detailed WWII military command simulation on PC."

WWII RTS was originally due in stores sometime next year, but Codemasters, which is now consulting on the game's design, now has it scheduled for release in the spring of 2004. The game will be premiered at next year's E3, but in the meantime, you can find more information on the game in our IL-2 Sturmovik .