Slitherine has built a reputation as one of the best strategy game developers and publishers in the world, worthy of the likes of Paradox Interactive and The Creative Assembly. Its focus has long been on works with deep tactical and strategic options, and it’s long adapted tabletop wargames, and in recent years, it’s worked with big licenses like Battlestar Galactica and Warhammer.
And it’s just added a new big name to its roster: Starship Troopers.
Today, Slitherine and Sony Pictures announced Starship Troopers: Terran Command, a real-time strategy game based on Sony’s 1997 film adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 sci-fi novel. It’s coming in 2020 to PC. The Artisocrats are developing it for Slitherine. This Belgian studio has made the Order of Battle series and Commander: The Great War. Slitherine said the dev house has been working on Terran Command for two years. 2016’s Order of Battle: Pacific got a 81 score on Metacritic.
For years, Hollywood brands have relied on mobile gaming, but we’re starting to see them embrace console and PC again. While Marvel does have a mobile game ecosystem, it’s also working with Sony and Square Enix on big-budget console games again. Marvel’s Spider-Man was one of the biggest hits of 2018, and it has The Avengers coming in the future as well. And the most talked-about video game of the past few weeks has been Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order from EA and Respawn.
Terran Command is an isometric game. The gameplay trailer shows a horde of the warrior bugs assaulting a human base. The Earthers respond with dropships, machine guns, and more as they defend the walls, and you can see the blue trails of plasma shots coming from the giant tanker bugs. It ends with bomb strike before the signal on the broadcast cuts off.
Winning strategy
Slitherine has been making strategy games since 2000, when it first hit the market with Steel Panthers: World at War — Generals Edition. It’s released dozens of games since then. And many fans and critics consider it one of gaming’s major strategy game houses since 2010. Its top-seller is 2011’s Panzer Corps with more than 1 million copies (including DLC)
It got its first major license outside tabletop wargames in 2007 with the History Channel and then in 2010 with the BBC. It’s been making a line of Warhammer strategy games since 2014.
