Dawn of War II: Retribution Beta Coming in Early 2011

Developer Relic has announced that it will be delivering a beta stage for its Retribution expansion for the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II real time squad based strategy title in the early days of 2011 and that the new content will include support for Steamworks, the Valve developed system that allows chat, matchmaking, Steam Achievements.

The move is a bit surprising considering that both the original Dawn of War II and the Chaos Rising expansion, which arrived earlier this year, were delivered with support for Games for Windows Live from Microsoft.

The two expansions will remain linked to the Microsoft system but Retribution is moving to Steamworks because it allows the introduction of free multiplayer weekends, pre loading before launch, faster delivery of patches and new content and allows the gamer to be part of a larger gamer group with his Steam friends.

Relic says that more information about the beta for Retribution will be delivered later in the year, with the focus probably on the multiplayer content, allowing gamers to send feedback to the studio before the official launch.

Retribution for Dawn of War II was officially announced in the middle of August and Relic has confirmed that other races than the Space Marines will be playable in the single player campaign, with the Orks confirmed at this time and another race getting an announcement later.

There are also suggestions that Retribution will also allow the gamer to build a base of operations, something which Dawn of War II had previously eliminated from the single player campaign.

Players can also expect more role playing elements, new gear that can be used and new abilities for the various squads that they will be controlling.

THQ is also working on moving the Warhammer 40,000 franchise to the shooter genre, with Vigil Games working on the game called Space Marine which is set to arrive in the summer of 2011.