You might remember last fall a nine and a half minute leaked game play demo of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.  News comes today of an official announcement from THQ that Relic's Action/RPG hybrid will release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime next year.

I've read some rumors that Relic's Space Marine title is different from the leaked footage from last fall, which detailed a game being developed by another studio.  The rumors state that THQ canceled the game and gutted it for assets, then shipped that off to Relic for what we see today.

The Eurogamer preview article reveals little about the game, other than a "RPG-lite" system that piggy-backs off of Dawn of War II's wargear mechanic.

Producer Chad McFarlane was hesitant to reveal combat details as well, but did state that the game would be more like the God of War series than the Diablo games.  I wonder if the "intimate brutality" detailed in the leaked game play demo is still a central focus of combat.

McFarlane also hinted at possible co-op play for the game in addition to competitive multiplayer.

The trailer definitely has me excited.

[Edit: Shacknews just updated to confirm the mentioned rumors.]