For those of you that don't know, Homeworld and its sequel are some of the best RTS games out there, combining great gameplay, compelling storytelling and a kick-ass musical score. While the original games are a decade old this point they did get remastered earlier this year so if you haven't played Homeworld but consider yourself an RTS fan I'd heartily recommend the Homeworld Remastered Collection.
Once you're finally finished with them you'll be just on time for the release of the upcoming Homeworld prequel titled "Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak", coming this January 20.
Despite seemingly coming out of nowhere, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak was actually in the making for about three years now, although under a different name. The story is that a couple of old Homeworld developers decided, and rightly so, that the series is ripe and ready for a new installment but even with their enthusiasm and pedigree they couldn't secure the rights to the Homeworld name so they set out to make a "totally not-Homeworld" game.
Hardware: Shipbreakers was its name and from the very first trailer it was obvious that this is to be the next, albeit unofficial, Homeworld sequel. Thankfully Gearbox, who owns the Homeworld license these days, saw potential in the game and officially partnered with the studio giving them both the license and much needed resources in order to have it finished.
After that things went quiet for a few years until very recently when Gearbox announced the final title and the release date. Since then Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak was put on Steam and we finally got a glimpse of what exactly the game will feature.
Story wise its going to be a prequel to the events that occurred in Homeworld and will follow Rachel S'jet as she leads her people to their destiny, whatever that might be. I don't know how far in to the past this story will be but I'm assuming Rachel will be the mother, maybe grandmother of Karan S'jet, the Fleet Commander in Homeworld. For any concrete answers to that question I'm afraid we'll have to wait a little while longer.
The story aisde, while I'm usually not the one to advocate preordering this time its a bit of a special situation because the preorder bundle is an especially good deal. By preordering Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak you will get, for free, the remastered versions of the two previous games with which you can occupy yourself until Deserts of Kharak finally arrives.
The reason this is such a good deal is because the Homeworld Remastered Collection still holds a pretty high price on Steam so by getting it for free you are, theoretically, chopping off a significant part of DOK's price. So if you feel like binge-playing some great RTS games the following month or two you might as well get it.