King Art Games Showcases Brutal AI in Dawn of War 4 First-Look Video, Embraces Developer Defeats

King Art Games has released the first official gameplay footage of its upcoming real-time strategy title Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4, and the studio has done something rather unusual: it deliberately shows its own developers getting crushed by the game’s artificial intelligence. In the video, which features two matches of two-player co-op against enemy AI, the developers — Theysen and Verbiest — suffer a humiliating defeat in the first match in just over four minutes, then lose again in the second match after 13 minutes despite raising the difficulty stakes. The footage is set to premiere the game’s challenging AI to fans ahead of the title’s PC launch on December 3, 2026.

What makes the reveal notable is that the studio chose not to edit the footage into a triumphant victory. Instead of re-recording a clean win on a lower difficulty setting, King Art Games opted to present the matches exactly as they unfolded, complete with the developers’ candid reactions to their own failures. The first match collapses spectacularly against an overwhelming Ork force, with Theysen and Verbiest unable to fend off wave after wave of attacks even with auto-reinforce enabled. Behind in Victory Points and starved of resources, the pair are unable to generate a response army when the Orks push toward their base.

A Boss Supposed to Win

The video’s title — “The Boss Is Supposed to Win!” — captures the developers’ self-aware humor about the punishing difficulty. As the Space Marines fall, Theysen jokes that he needs to have a stern word with the coders about the hard-mode difficulty, noting that while the mode is “supposed to be hard,” the boss is also “supposed to win.”

“I have no doubt that players will come back to us within like a few weeks of launch and tell us, ‘Actually we’ve managed to beat this within two days,'”

Theysen / King Art Games

Verbiest adds that the community will likely respond with even more pointed commentary, while Theysen concludes the first match by acknowledging that the second attempt — despite increasing the Victory Points required to extend the game — still ends unceremoniously with him hitting the surrender button before the Orks deliver the final blow.

“This might be the second loss in a row which tells you two things,” he says. “First of all, we are not that good at our own game. And also the AI is pretty strong.”

Theysen / King Art Games

A Statement of Confidence

Despite the defeats, the footage reads as a deliberate statement of confidence from the studio. The developers could have thrown the losing matches out and recorded a polished victory, or cycled through hard AI settings repeatedly until they secured a win. Instead, they wanted fans to see what Dawn of War 4 looks like as it stands today — warts and all — even if that meant the developers were not covered in glory in the process.

The reveal also offers a rare first look at two-player co-op gameplay against the enemy AI, a mode that appears to be a central pillar of the game’s design. Fans have responded positively to the unfiltered footage, with one commenter noting that showing the defeat and the difficulty of the AI was “quite interesting,” while another joked that they would “never do hard” in a Warhammer game, given how Orks simply nuke their opponents.

Looking Ahead

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 is scheduled to launch on PC on December 3, 2026. With the AI clearly a focal point of the campaign and multiplayer experience, the studio’s willingness to showcase its own losses suggests that difficulty will be a defining feature of the release. For players hoping to enjoy the game without the pressure of a relentless Ork horde, the footage may signal that normal difficulty remains a viable option — though the challenge mode is evidently designed to test even the most dedicated veterans of the Dawn of War series.