The Dawn of War 4 release date is Thursday 3 December 2026, on PC through Steam only. Players who pre-purchase the Commander Edition can start three days early, on 30 November. On Steam the Standard Edition is $59.99 and the Commander Edition $89.99, and both are 10% off until launch day. Nobody has published an unlock time yet.
We do not sell Dawn of War IV itself, but you pay for it on Steam, so Steam wallet funds work. A Steam $50 US gift card plus a Steam $10 US card covers the $53.99 pre-purchase price. Below: the dates, what each edition includes, what the Year One Expansion adds, and what is still unannounced.
Dawn of War 4 release date
| Date | What happens | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| 21–26 Oct 2026 | Closed Beta: 1v1 Skirmish and Multiplayer with all four factions (under NDA) | Players invited after applying (over) |
| 30 Nov 2026 | Advance Access: the 3-Day Early Unlock starts | Commander Edition owners |
| 3 Dec 2026 | Full launch on Steam (PC, Windows) | Everyone |
| 3 Dec 2026 | The 10% pre-purchase promotion ends | Anyone buying before launch |
| Fall 2026 – Spring 2027 | Year One Expansion: free updates plus two paid DLCs | Free updates for all; paid DLCs in Commander Edition |
The date is the same on every official page. The FAQ on Deep Silver’s Dawn of War IV site answers “When does Dawn of War IV release?” with: “Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV launches on December 3, 2026, with Commander Edition players deploying from November 30 through a 3-Day Early Unlock.” The Steam store page shows “Coming Dec 3, 2026” above the purchase box, and the Commander Edition carries an “Advance Access · Starts Nov 30” label.
What time does Dawn of War 4 unlock?
Not announced yet. When we opened the Steam page on 28 October it said only that the game “plans to unlock in approximately 5 weeks”, and the Commander Edition box said early access “starts in approximately 4 weeks”. Neither Deep Silver nor KING Art Games has given an hour or a time zone. Steam usually switches that countdown to hours in the final days, and we will add the exact unlock time to this page as soon as it is published. Until then, be wary of any site that quotes a precise time.
Why it moved from 17 September
Dawn of War IV was first dated for 17 September 2026, with Commander Edition early access from 14 September, in Deep Silver’s 21 May announcement. On 12 August, the developer’s Steam announcement “Release Date Update” moved launch to 3 December, with game director Jan Theysen explaining the extra time in a video. Plenty of pages still rank with the September date, so check the publication date of anything you read.
Dawn of War 4 editions and price
| Steam region | Standard (list) | Standard (pre-purchase) | Commander (list) | Commander (pre-purchase) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $59.99 | $53.99 | $89.99 | $80.99 |
| United Kingdom | £49.99 | £44.99 | £74.99 | £67.49 |
| Euro area (Germany) | €59.99 | €53.99 | €89.99 | €80.99 |
| Canada | CDN$82.99 | CDN$74.69 | CDN$124.99 | CDN$112.49 |
| Australia | A$95.95 | A$86.35 | A$144.95 | A$130.45 |
There are only two editions, and both are digital and Steam-only. Steam’s package data says the Commander Edition “includes 2 items”: the base game and the Year 1 Expansion. Deep Silver lists what that expansion contains: the Blood Ravens Story Prologue, the Aftermath campaign expansion with a new faction, and the digital soundtrack. The 3-Day Early Unlock is only included with the Commander Edition. The Standard Edition gets the 10% discount and nothing else.
Is the Commander Edition worth it?
At pre-purchase prices the gap is $27.00 in the US ($80.99 against $53.99). For that you get three days of early access plus both paid DLCs and the soundtrack. Deep Silver has not priced either DLC on its own yet. Steam does have a separate Year 1 Expansion page, but on 28 October it showed $89.99, the same as the whole Commander Edition, which looks like a placeholder rather than a real price. So nobody can yet say whether the bundle saves money. If you mainly want multiplayer and the base campaign, the Standard Edition is the safe buy: the free Year One updates come to every owner.
- Get the Commander Edition if you want to play on Monday 30 November rather than Thursday 3 December.
- Get it if you already know you want the Blood Ravens prologue and the Aftermath campaign, with its new faction.
- Stay on Standard if you have not played a Dawn of War game before. The free updates and the base game’s 70+ campaign missions are plenty to judge it by.
- Either way, buy before 3 December to keep the 10% discount.
Year One Expansion: free vs paid
Crusade is the replayable, open-ended mode. A turn-based map of the planet Kronus sits on top of real-time battles, your units keep their experience between fights, and KING Art says a typical Crusade takes eight to ten hours. The 21 May roadmap lists Crusade among the free Year One drops. KING Art’s Crusade post, published the same day, says five Commanders will have their own Crusade “when the game launches”, with more added for free later.
Is Dawn of War 4 on PS5, Xbox or Game Pass?
No. Deep Silver’s FAQ answers the platform question in one line: “Dawn of War IV will be released on Steam for PC (Windows).” No PS5 or Xbox version has been announced, there is no Mac or Linux build on Steam, and the official site links only to Steam. That rules out Game Pass, the Microsoft Store and the Epic Games Store at launch. The Steam page does list Family Sharing, so if you are in a Steam Family, another member can play your copy. Our Steam Families guide explains the rules.
“From our checks: on 28 October we read Steam’s store data for Dawn of War IV in five regions, opened the purchase box in a browser, and read Deep Silver’s FAQ and KING Art’s Steam announcements from May onwards. Every official page agrees on 3 December and on Steam-only. The unlock time and the PC requirements were both still missing.”
— Rayyan Omar, Games editor, Virtwave
Dawn of War 4 questions
When does Dawn of War 4 come out?
Was Dawn of War 4 delayed?
How much is Dawn of War 4?
What comes with the Dawn of War 4 Commander Edition?
Is Dawn of War 4 on Xbox Game Pass?
How many factions are in Dawn of War 4?
Factions, campaign and modes
Dawn of War IV is a real-time strategy game from KING Art Games, the studio behind Iron Harvest, published by Deep Silver. It goes back to the series’ base-building roots. Deep Silver promises 70+ campaign missions, with each faction’s campaign feeding into one story on the planet Kronus. Many modes, including the campaign, can be played solo or in co-op. The game is fully voiced in English, with on-screen text in 12 more languages, from French and German to Japanese, Korean, Polish and Turkish.
The four factions
| Faction | Play style, per the developer |
|---|---|
| Space Marines (Blood Ravens; Dark Angels sub-faction) | Elite units that win most one-on-one fights; on-field reinforcements, fortifications and the Thunderhawk Relay to move troops fast |
| Orks | Strength in numbers: many bases, Waaagh! Banners, armed buildings, and Stratagems that cost Orks nothing |
| Necrons | Slow but resilient; Resurrection Galleries recover losses and the Power Matrix gives bonuses to units fighting inside it |
| Adeptus Mechanicus (new) | A Noosphere Network linking resource points unlocks research and upgrades; a strong ranged firing line |
Last Stand, Skirmish and Crusade
Beyond the campaigns, the launch list on Deep Silver’s site covers competitive multiplayer, Skirmish against the AI, and the returning Last Stand co-op survival mode. KING Art’s 23 October update also shows an Army Painter for colouring your forces. Press had three weeks with a preview build before that update. According to the developer, the build held the Astra Militarum and Space Marine prologues, the full Ork and Adeptus Mechanicus campaigns (over 30 missions between them) and 1v1 Skirmish. The coverage it collected was warm. Polygon wrote that the game “has the potential to be the best Warhammer 40,000 game ever”, and PC Gamer’s preview called the two campaigns it played “everything I hoped they’d be”. These are previews, not reviews: review scores will not exist until launch.
Dawn of War 4 PC requirements
Not published yet. On 28 October, the minimum and recommended sections on the Steam page both said only “Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system”, with the operating system marked “Coming soon”. No processor, graphics card, RAM or storage figures have been announced. Any spec sheet you find elsewhere right now is a guess. We will add the official table here when Steam lists it. To judge how long the download will take once the size is known, our game download time calculator does the sums.
Paying for Dawn of War 4 with a Steam gift card
Steam pre-purchases are paid from your Steam wallet, so a gift card in your account’s currency covers them. In our store, a Steam $50 US card with a $10 card covers the $53.99 Standard pre-purchase. A Steam $100 US card covers the $80.99 Commander Edition with change left over. In the UK, the Steam £50 card covers £44.99. In the euro area, the Steam €50 card plus a €10 card covers €53.99. Not sure which currency your account uses? Our Steam store country and currency guide shows where to check, and the Steam gift card guide covers redeeming.
Want a Warhammer strategy game to play before December? We stock Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, a turn-based Grey Knights tactics game, and the RTS Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, both as Steam keys. Our Steam statistics report has the platform’s user and concurrency numbers.
| Edition and region | Pre-purchase price | Cards that cover it | Left in wallet (before tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (US) | $53.99 | $50 + $10 | $6.01 |
| Commander (US) | $80.99 | $100 | $19.01 |
| Standard (UK) | £44.99 | £50 | £5.01 |
| Commander (UK) | £67.49 | £50 + £20 | £2.51 |
| Standard (euro area) | €53.99 | €50 + €10 | €6.01 |
| Commander (euro area) | €80.99 | €50 + €20 + €20 | €9.01 |
Rayyan covers console and PC gaming wallets for Virtwave, with deep specialism in PlayStation Network, Xbox, Razer Gold and Steam. He has been writing about digital gaming commerce since 2020.
Sources & how we checked this
We read every date and price on 28 October 2026, between 03:00 and 05:00 UTC. We pulled Steam’s store and package data for the US, UK, Germany, Canada and Australia, opened the US Steam page in a browser for the purchase-box screenshot, and read KING Art’s announcements through Steam’s news feed. We also searched our own catalogue to confirm we do not stock Dawn of War IV, and checked that every Steam card and Warhammer game linked above was in stock. Previews are quoted as published, and we have not played the game ourselves.
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV, official site (Deep Silver: FAQ on release date, platforms and languages; editions; factions; 70+ missions)
- Release date, pre-order & DLC plans confirmed (Deep Silver, 21 May 2026: editions, Year One free and paid DLC)
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV on Steam (release date, regional prices, pre-purchase promotion, Advance Access, Family Sharing, languages, system requirements)
- Dawn of War IV news on Steam (KING Art Games: “Release Date Update”, 12 August; “Crusade mode returns”, 21 May; Closed Beta, 7 October; “Game Overview Trailer, Previews & Closed Beta”, 23 October)
- I’ve played 2 of Dawn of War 4’s campaigns (PC Gamer preview)
How we write these guides: our editorial policy. We will update this page when the unlock time and PC requirements are published, and again at launch with download size and reviews. Other big PC launches this season: Football Manager 27 (10 November) and World of Warcraft: Forever (4 November).
