What you need to know
- Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is a turn-based RPG developed and published by Owlcat Games.
- Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader recently crossed 500,000 copies sold, making it the fastest-selling game ever from Owlcat Games.
- The development team also launched a new patch across all platforms, with over 1,800 fixes and improvements.
The vast Koronus Expanse is becoming well-populated.
Turn-based role-playing game Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader crossed 500,000 copies sold since its launch in December 2023, as shared by developer and publisher Owlcat Games. The game first launched back on Dec. 8, 2023 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5, and with this latest milestone, it's sold faster than Owlcat Games' prior titles, Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
Marking the occasion, the game has received an utterly gargantuan update on all platforms, with over 1,800 fixes and improvements. The catalog of patch notes is available, but beware of major story spoilers if you haven't already finished the game. To summarize in spoiler-free fashion, an extremely high number of glitches and errors have been fixed, while characters have been rebalanced, the overall difficulty has been adjusted, and the game's prologue section is now fully voiced.
What else can Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader players look forward to?
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is slated to get two expansions later in the year. The first big DLC pack, Void Shadows, is all about the ship, bringing new ways of interacting with the Von Valencius flagship. New side stories, upgrades, and even a new companion are being added, and this expansion is slated to launch in June 2024.
The second expansion is called Lex Imperialis, and when it arrives in December 2024, it'll have another new companion, as players grapple with the effects of the Imperial Tithe. Both expansions are estimated to add around 15 hours of gameplay to the already-grand length of the game. Due to the nature of the game's narrative progression, both of these expansions are also being build explicitly with fresh playthroughs in mind.
Analysis: A deserved milestone for an underrated game
2023 was an absolutely packed year for games, and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader launched toward the end of the year as many people were getting ready for the holidays, so I understand why some may have missed it. That said, I'm very glad it's still finding an audience, and with this latest massive round of updates, hopefully even more people hop in.
I really enjoyed the dozens of hours I poured into that game. The writing is superb, and it truly captures the nature of Warhammer 40,000 in a way that a lot of media doesn't.
In my review of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, I wrote that "Choices and options aplenty never detract from or feel ill-suited to the setting, and a clever layout makes this a solid entry point for any Warhammer newcomers."
