King Art Games released gameplay footage of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 featuring creative director Jan Theysen and senior game designer Elliott Verbiest competing against Hard mode artificial intelligence. Rather than the typical developer showcase where the creators achieve victory, both matches ended in decisive defeats for the player-controlled Space Marines, demonstrating the game's challenging difficulty settings and the developers' confidence in their work.

The video shows two consecutive losses in 2v2 team skirmish matches. The first encounter lasted just over four minutes before defeat, whilst the second extended to thirteen minutes before the developers surrendered. Despite attempting to adjust match parameters and promising to be "locked in" for the second attempt, the pair found themselves unable to accumulate sufficient victory points or resources to mount a defence against relentless Ork attacks. The developers joked about reconsidering the hard mode difficulty balance, whilst acknowledging the AI's strength. The game launches on PC on 3 December 2026, and the developers' willingness to showcase failure rather than edit for a victory has resonated positively with viewers.