Games Workshop’s Warhammer license has been getting a lot of love from gamemakers in recent years. From the fantasy label, Namco Bandai just this week pushed out Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March, a sequel to the 2006 fantasy real-time strategy game, and Mythic Entertainment is poised to launch its long-in-development massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, later this month.

THQ has been no slouch on capitalizing on its Warhammer 40K sci-fi license, which it has held the exclusive rights to since 2001. Most recently, the publisher has contracted esteemed developer Relic Entertainment to create the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War line of RTS titles. THQ is also financing a MMOG set in the far-future sci-fi universe, which is in development at Vigil Games.

It now appears as if THQ also has a mind to take its Warhammer 40K universe back to the ever-popular shooter space. Last night, a video appeared online purporting to be leaked in-game footage of THQ’s as yet unannounced third-person shooter, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. The video, which offers nearly nine and a half minutes of early-in-development in-game footage, depicts a lone-wolf space marine serving the Imperium as he gruesomely dispatches a host of Chaos servants.

The high production values of the video notwithstanding, the most convincing evidence that the leaked footage is a product of THQ is the overlaid developer commentary. The disembodied voice accompanies the entirety of the footage, explaining the development team’s motivations for including certain features, such as the epic, gothic art style, as well as providing a backdrop of work-in-progress gameplay details.

"In our version of the game, it’s really about an up-close, personal, visceral melee experience," describes the commentator of the action. "We have range combat in the game, and it’s fun and important, but properly used, it’s really a means to end in order to get up close to the enemy, where the player has a tactical advantage. We call this intimate brutality."

Though the game is rumored to be in development for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, the clip begins only with the logo for Microsoft’s console.

By TomM_GScom