At one point in time, old-school war games were quite popular on the PC front, including simulations based on classic battles, as well as more modern themed titles like Command & Conquer. Lately, we’ve seen a switch-up in popularity with more first-person shooters, like Call of Duty and Battlefield, a sign that the war game may be on its way out. However, that isn’t the case.

A new article in VentureBeat talks about how the war game genre is getting a nice little opportunity to shine again, thanks to a number of new independent game offerings on the horizon, as well as the ease of downloading the games through digital distribution, rather than needing to track down a physical copy of the game.

Titles such as Ultimate General: Gettysburg, which recreates the battle between the Union and Confederate armies at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, are thriving thanks to the addition of the game in the Steam Early Access department. It brings back the classic strategy of war, while staying true to the overall theme of it.

Other games, like IL-2 Sturmovik: The Battle of Stalingrad, is another game that’s benefitting from being on the indie gaming scene, with a digital download release. “There is no way we could have made this game if it were only for physical retail,” said Albert Zhiltsov, producer of IL-2 over at Moscow-based 1C Game Studios. “This genre has not gotten a lot of love from the AAA development community.”

A lot of games also prove easy to use in the market, so that they can accommodate newcomers as well as “hardcore” fans. These include Wargaming’s World of Warplanes (along with its World of Tanks offerings), as well as the recently released War Thunder, which features a number of biplanes from the World War II era. For good measure, that game isn’t just a darling on PC, as it’s available for PlayStation 4 as well.

“We re-create every detail, because most of our fans are pilots,” said Zhiltsov. “We want you to feel the emotion of the freedom of flight. This is not fantasy. We talk about casualties and how terrifying it was.”

War gaming, welcome back to the fold.

Source: VentureBeat