The Warhammer 40,000 setting has offered THQ some hit releases until now, as the company has used it to create two extremely good real time strategy games.

Now, the publisher is interested in developing something entirely new with the official unveiling of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, an action title that will put the player in the powered armor of a Battle Brother as he faces off against the aliens seeking to threaten the Empire of Man. 

Jonathan Dowdeswell, who is a general manager at Relic Entertainment, stated that “Space Marine is an Action-RPG built from the ground up for the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 systems, and will allow gamers to take control of individual units and fight in epic battles across the Warhammer 40,000 universe.”

“Relic has a deep understanding of the license based on our previous projects with Games Workshop, and our goal is to ensure Space Marine delivers the most intimate and brutal Warhammer 40,000 experience to date.”

With Relic releasing Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 in February of this year and with support for the game still going strong, it's interesting to see that the development studio is moving so swiftly to create another title in the same universe while moving away form the real time strategy genre to something more action-oriented and focused on a console release.

The developer did not say whether Space Marine would take place in the same areas covered by Dawn of War II or whether the player would again be controlling a member of the Blood Ravens Space Marine Chapter.

Still, we can be confident that the title will be bloody, intense, filled with combat but also offering something new, like the light role playing game progression introduced in Dawn of War 2.