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Real-time strategy is smaller than it was during the 1990s, but composer Frank Klepacki says it is not disappearing. In a report published by PC Gamer on October 14, 2026, following Klepacki’s interview in Edge, he argues that continuing releases prove the genre remains alive. His bigger concern is creative: publishers need to let unusual RTS concepts receive the budgets once reserved for safer blockbusters.
Is the RTS genre dead?
Klepacki rejects that conclusion. “Obviously, if there are games coming out, [the genre is] not going away,” he said. In his view, real-time strategy has lost attention rather than ceased to exist. Other game categories have moved into the spotlight, while RTS development continues at a smaller scale.
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That distinction matters. A genre can be less dominant without being commercially or creatively finished. The 1990s produced a concentrated mainstream moment around Dune 2, Command & Conquer and Warcraft. Today’s ecosystem is more dispersed: established series return intermittently, independent teams experiment, and new projects compete for attention across a much larger games market.
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Why Klepacki sees RTS popularity as cyclical
Klepacki describes game popularity as cyclical rather than permanently linear. “Everything runs in cycles, you know? That’s how it always is,” he said. He recalled the “doom-and-gloom talk” from roughly a decade earlier that questioned why developers would continue making games in a supposedly vanishing genre.
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A cycle does not guarantee a new 1990s-style boom. It means audience attention can move, publishers can reassess neglected formats, and a successful release can make familiar design ideas visible again. The evidence available in the report supports continued activity, not a quantified comeback: it provides no sales, player-count, market-share or release-count statistic that would establish the size of any revival.
Which RTS games are active, returning or forthcoming?
The report points to a broad set of examples rather than a single revival leader. They show that traditional and modern interpretations of the formula continue to appear.
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| Example | What it demonstrates |
|---|---|
| Age of Empires | A long-running historical-strategy line that remains part of the current conversation. |
| Age of Mythology | A classic fantasy-leaning RTS identity that has received renewed attention. |
| Company of Heroes | Continued interest in tactical, squad-focused real-time warfare. |
| Ruse | Room for distinctive information, deception and command mechanics. |
| Tempest Rising | A newer project drawing on the traditional command-and-build lineage. |
| Game of Thrones RTS project | Evidence that recognizable entertainment properties are still being considered for the format. |
These examples should not be treated as proof of a market-wide surge. They do show a continuing release pipeline across established franchises, returning concepts and new licensed or original projects.
What creativity does Klepacki want from RTS developers?
Klepacki’s criticism is aimed less at the existence of RTS games than at the range of ideas receiving serious investment. “I would love to see more unique ideas that are allowed to be triple-A titles,” he said. He sees independent developers taking creative chances, but says the industry has lost much of the middle ground between small experimental projects and the largest productions.
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The missing middle tier
That middle tier once gave ambitious concepts enough money, staff and marketing to reach a broad audience without requiring the scale and risk profile of a blockbuster. Its decline creates a difficult choice: a developer can make an unusual RTS with limited resources, or pursue a heavily conventional design that is easier to explain to a major publisher.
For players, the result can be a gap between inventive mechanics that struggle to gain visibility and expensive games that iterate cautiously on familiar structures. Klepacki’s proposal is not simply “make more RTS games”; it is to fund distinctive ideas at a level where they can compete for mainstream attention.
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How traditional RTS design survives outside the genre
RTS design has also spread into hybrid descendants. The report notes that multiplayer online battle arenas retain elements of RTS DNA, including strategic map control, resource priorities, timing and coordinated unit pressure, even when players directly control one hero or character instead of an entire army.
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What Klepacki’s view means for the genre’s future
- Continued releases are the clearest sign of survival. Klepacki’s test is straightforward: if developers keep shipping RTS games, the genre has not vanished.
- Attention can return without recreating the past. A future upswing may come from a new structure, setting or audience rather than another direct imitation of a 1990s hit.
- Funding determines which experiments reach players. Independent teams can take risks, but larger budgets are needed for unusual concepts to receive comparable production quality and visibility.
- Hybrid games extend the genre’s legacy. RTS ideas can remain influential even when a game is marketed as a different category.
For readers who want to revisit the lineage, the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection offers a playable route into the classic command-and-build tradition Klepacki helped define. It is a way to experience that historical design directly, not evidence by itself that the current market has returned to its former scale.
The practical answer for RTS fans
Are real-time strategy games making a comeback? The most defensible answer is that they are enduring and periodically regaining attention, but the available evidence does not establish a measured boom. Klepacki’s argument is more optimistic and more demanding: RTS is alive, and its next important phase should give genuinely new ideas enough support to stand beside the established names.
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