New free-to-play game officially launches on Steam, built by StarCraft 2 and Warcraft 3 creators

Real-time strategy (RTS) games have a rhythm of their own - building, commanding, adapting - all in real time, no pauses. Fans of games like StarCraft II, Warcraft III, and Age of Empires IV know this dance well: you have to gather resources, construct bases, rally armies, and try to outthink (sometimes just out-click) your opponent. In recent years, the glory days of the genre have felt somewhat distant. Classic titles still have loyal followings, but (good) new entries have been rather scarce.

Stormgate belongs to this genre. Developed by Frost Giant Studios, the game has now officially quit early access and launched as a free-to-play experience on Steam. Built by many of the same hands that gave us StarCraft II and Warcraft III, Stormgate has high ambitions: keep the competitive spark alive but open the doors for a new generation of players.

Development timeline

• June 2022: Stormgate announced.
• December 2023: Closed beta launched.
• July 30, 2024: Early access available (via pre-order; full free access August 13, 2024).
• August 5, 2025: Official 1.0 release featuring "Campaign One - Ashes of Earth," a 12-mission narrative arc for the Vanguard faction.

Set in a sci-fi future where Earth fends off interdimensional threats, players get to control one of three factions: the human Vanguard, the Infernal Host, or the Celestial Armada. The foundation should be instantly familiar to RTS veterans - base-building, resource economics, army management - but Stormgate’s design adds some new twists to the genre. Quality-of-life features, like smarter production controls and streamlined army commands, are included to sand off the genre’s rough edges.

If you’ve played Company of Heroes, Command & Conquer, or Supreme Commander, you’ll see both respect for tradition and an intent to modernize the genre. Stormgate’s campaign, "Ashes of Earth," provides single-player and co-op challenges, but the meat of its offering is in ranked matches and custom games.

The official release of Stormgate introduces a campaign featuring twelve missions for the Vanguard, 1v1 multiplayer, co-op modes, and a map editor out of the box. Previous criticisms around story and campaign length were substantively addressed before launch, giving the users a more refined narrative and improved production values. Still, not all is perfect: a lot of players are wary of the monetization model - free core play, with optional paid content like cosmetic upgrades and hero characters - but frequent developer updates and patch notes are promised. Also, if you're a Steam Deck (curr. $770 on Amazon) user, you can play the game - but not without attaching an external mouse (and ideally a keyboard).

You can check the Steam store page for Stormgate here.