Video Games

Wargaming’s mecha shooter Steel Hunters is coming to PC in 2025

From the studio behind World of Tanks

Marco Wutz

Wargaming

Wargaming, the company behind World of Tanks and World of Warships, has announced its first new IP in years – Steel Hunters, a mecha hero extraction shooter with battle royale elements. Steel Hunters will release on PC in 2025 with a closed beta test taking place in December 2024 following The Game Awards and further trials ahead of launch next year.

Steel Hunters has been in development using Unreal Engine 5 for a bit more than three years at this point and is planned to come to consoles at some point after the PC launch. A PvPvE game set in a post-cataclysmic sci-fi world in which humankind either lives on space stations or deep underground bunkers due to Earth being contaminated with deadly and highly valuable crystals from space, Steel Hunters’ main game mode pits six teams consisting of two players against each other.

Get a glimpse at the action with the announcement trailer:

Though players can fight the neutral drones on the map for loot and XP, dynamic objectives will drive them towards other teams and into tactical firefights that require good cooperation to win. Another factor is going to be resource management – ammunition, for example, is limited, so spraying and praying won’t be the best approach to a match.

Before the timer runs out, a team needs to conquer and hold the extraction point in the center of the map or eliminate all other squads to win. Revives will be possible as long as one member of the team survives and the currently dead squad members can even grant their active ally a buff while they’re waiting on their comeback.

Steel Hunters screenshot of combat between two mechas.
Ursus is one of the cooler mech designs. / Wargaming

Aside from the more standard-looking humanoid mechs, Steel Hunters’ initial seven characters include one wolf-like, one bear-like, and one arachnoid machine, giving the line-up some great diversity. Each mech has unique weapons and abilities that can be swapped and upgraded.

Steel Hunters doesn’t have much in common with Wargaming’s existing titles, the studio stated, but the monetization of the free-to-play title will be familiar. Users can expect customization tools like paintjobs and emotes to come through purchases.

You'll be able to spot more details in this gameplay trailer:

The closed PC beta will feature three different maps, two set in the United States and one in the United Kingdom, to play on.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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