Marvel actor Simu Liu wins playtest of upcoming RTS game Stormgate
Simu Liu is probably best known for his role as Shang-Chi in Marvel’s ever expanding cinematic universe, winning several awards for this achievement. Perhaps a little less known is the fact that the Canadian actor is a huge fan of real-time strategy games, specifically of genre classic StarCraft.
It’s no surprise then, that Liu’s pretty damn good at playing RTS games as he recently showed at a closed playtest for Stormgate, the upcoming and highly anticipated free-to-play RTS title by developer Frost Giant.
Dubbing Liu a “future Stormgate esports superstar”, the company tweeted a photo showing the lead co-op designer and former Hearthstone pro gamer Kevin Dong handing him a trophy, which reads “Simu Liu, First Asian Man to beat Stormgate” in a reference to an older SNL skit in which Liu got a trophy jokingly naming him the “First Asian Man to beat StarCraft 2”.
It seems like Stormgate, which is being developed in a heavily modified version of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5, is coming along pretty well, if Frost Giant is willing to invite big names like Liu to a closed playtest.
The game was announced at The Game Awards 2021 and will be Frost Giant’s debut work. The studio largely consists of former Blizzard employees who worked on WarCraft 3 and StarCraft 2 with CEO Tim Morten and President Tim Campbell, both genre veterans, leading the development themselves.
Reaching full funding status shortly after announcing its first project, Frost Giant received big investments from industry players like Riot Games as well as South Korea’s kakaogames. Co-founder and former President of Blizzard, Mike Morhaime, also partnered with Frost Giant, supporting it through his own new publishing company, Dreamhaven.
Stormgate is an ambitious project, featuring an ongoing single-player campaign, a co-op mode, and a multiplayer mode with a focus on esports in 1v1 as well as an emphasis on casual play in its team-based modes. Frost Giant is planning to launch a beta test in 2023 and is hoping to captivate the audience of Blizzard’s two neglected RTS series.
