It’s an exciting time to be a Game of Thrones fan, with a ton of new content on the way to look forward to. Love it or hate it, House of the Dragon Season 3 has finally given us an on-screen depiction of some of Fire & Blood’s most famous and beloved moments. Meanwhile, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 was an absolute smash-hit success, with season 2 looking even more promising, not to mention the Aegon’s Conquest film that’s currently in production.

Aside from all these exciting projects, Game of Thrones is making big moves on the gaming front as well. While many fans of the franchise would argue that Game of Thrones deserves a proper RPG more than any other genre of game, it’s clear from the divisive release of Kingsroad that it really needs to be done right to be considered a major hit. While Kingsroad has seen a resurgence in APAC markets recently, it never caught on quite as well for Western audiences.

As such, given the massive success of Game of Thrones: Dragonfire, it’s no wonder that GoT is officially switching genres when it makes its epic return in 2027 with War for Westeros (via Steam).

There’s no question that Game of Thrones deserves a proper open-world RPG, and now that Warhorse Studios has announced an official Lord of the Rings Middle-Earth-based RPG, there may actually be hope for that at some point down the road. While games like Kingsroad had a certain appeal to certain audiences, mobile-focused experiences simply aren’t what the larger gaming community is looking for when it comes to RPG adaptations of beloved IPs like Game of Thrones.

As such, it may be a good thing that the next major ASOIF-based video game we get is War for Westeros, an RTS (real-time strategy) game that Game of Thrones very much lends itself to. While Dragonfire is still a mobile game first and foremost, its success is largely owed to the fact it’s a 4X strategy experience that doesn’t rely so blatantly on mobile monetization methods in the way Kingsroad does.

It’s also a great sign that War for Westeros won’t be a free-to-play experience either. While “free” games may seem appealing on paper, there’s always a catch. A return to a classic RTS experience where players get what they pay for up front is a breath of fresh air when it comes to Game of Thrones games, considering nearly all the major releases in recent years have been monetized as mobile experiences from the get-go.

At the end of the day, War for Westeros will likely mark the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Game of Thrones video game content. While it may not be the massive open-world Westeros RPG that many fans of the IP have dreamt of for years, it has the potential to be one of the best Game of Thrones games of all time once it finally launches in 2027.