14 DAY TRIAL // After some players have reported big similarities between the design for tanks seen in the Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances title and that of units from the Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000 series publisher Electronic Arts has officially said that they were all due to accidental exposure.
A representative from Electronic Arts has told Gamespot that, “Games Workshop and EA are aware of the IP issues around the artwork in question, which have now been resolved.”
He added, “The artwork was internal EA concept art that was unintentionally released publicly. No Warhammer 40,000 tanks have ever made an appearance in Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, and never will.
“Games Workshop and EA continue to have a strong relationship working together on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and the new free to play game Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes which just entered open beta.”
The vehicles spotted by gamers were the Bombard and the Grinder from Tiberium Alliances and the Bonecruncha for the Orks and the Baneblade of the Imperials in Warhammer 40,000.
At the moment the license for video games based on the Games Workshop universe are linked to THQ, with a team at developer Relic already doing preliminary work on Dawn of War III, which will probably once again mix real-time strategy with role-playing game elements.
Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances is a free-to-play and browser based game that uses the GDI, the NOD and the Forgotten as factions, but it offers a pretty traditional base building and combat experience that we detailed during a Quick Look.
Video game designers have used the Warhammer universe, both the science fiction and the fantasy side of it, as inspiration for quite some time and the roots of well-known franchises like Starcraft or Gears of War can be traced back to them.