Games Workshop And Owlcat Games Reveal Feature Trailer And Announce Beta For ‘Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader’

John F. Trent |

May 26, 2023

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (2023), Owlcat Games

Games Workshop and Owlcat Games revealed a new trailer and announced a beta test for their upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader game.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (2023), Owlcat Games

As part of Games Workshop’s Warhammer Skulls 2023 presentation a new trailer for the game introduced a new member of the Rogue Trader team, the Space Marine Ulfar. It also showcased the game’s combat system, both on various planets as well in the vast reaches of space.

Owlcat Games notes that the game puts players in the role of a Rogue Trader, which they describe as “one of the few truly unique individuals in the Imperium of Man, a galaxy-spanning human civilization living through a dark age of eternal warfare and terror, besieged from all sides by xenos, heretics, and existential horrors.”

They add that a Rogue Trader is “a combination of an explorer, voidfaring merchant, and a powerful feudal lord.” Interestingly, the Rogue Trader also operates “on the fringes of known space, moving freely across the Imperium and beyond, standing far above most of the laws and limitations of the Imperium.”

Being beyond the laws and limitations of the Imperium apparently allows Rogue Traders to procure the services of a diverse group of characters.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (2023), Owlcat Games

The characters include Abelard Werserian, a former first officer of an Imperial Navy voidship, Idira Tlass, an unsanctioned psyker and a diviner of events yet to come, Pasqal Haneumann, a Magos Explorator of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Cassia Orsellio, the daughter of a Navis Nobilite House native to the Koronus Expanse, Yrliet Lanaevyss, an Aeldari who has chosen to walk the Path of the Outcast, Sister Argenta, a member of the Adepta Sororitas or the Sisters of Battle, Jae Heydari, one of the leading figures in the Footfall underworld, and Heinrix Van Calox, a sanctioned Imperial psyker.

The game takes place in the Koronus Expanse, an area described as a backwater sector “rife with opportunities for explores and adventurers alike.”

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (2023), Owlcat Games

As for the combat, on the ground, it features turn-based combat and expects players to use the various’ characters different abilities using a Movement Points and Action Point system similar to standard strategy role playing games.

The game does feature friendly fire, so players will have to be careful on how they position their units.

As for space combat, you pilot the Rogue Trader’s ship, but have access to six officers who can use one of their abilities per turn. Interestingly, you are unable to bring your ship to a full stop in space combat, but must actually move the ship. Not only do you have to move the ship, but you also must position your ship carefully given the ship’s weapons have their “own arc of fire and can only shoot in a certain direction.”

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (2023), Owlcat Games

Along with this new trailer, Owlcat Games announced the game’s beta will begin on June 1st and it will feature, “Dozens of hours of gameplay, new locations, enemies, and intrigues filled with friends and traitors…”

According to a press release, the closed beta “extends the amount of content available for the players and features the prologue and the first three chapters of the game.”

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (2023), Owlcat Games

They also revealed the game is already available for pre-order with a Collector’s Edition that includes an 8-inch painted figure of Cassia, a hardcover art book, a Warrant of Trade that can be personalized, a Rogue Trade banner, and a sticker pack.

Pre-order options also provide access to the beta and range in cost from $39.99 to $99.99 with various perks depending on the level you choose to purchase.