French publishing giant Ubisoft might not have jumped on the battle royal train, but the company is entering the auto chess market.

The firm has announced Might and Magic: Chess Royale, which will be launching on January 30th. This is a 100-player auto battle title and will be available on both PC and mobile devices.

This follows auto chess - or the 'auto battler' - genre booming from the start of 2019 when Chinese indie developer Drodo Studios made Dota 2 custom game Dota Auto Chess which attracted millions of users in no time at all.

That studio signed up with Chinese publisher Dragonest to release a full and official version of the game, which Epic has nabbed as a store exclusive on PC. Meanwhile, Valve has launched its own Dota Underlords title, having failed to woo Drodo to come in-house - though this hasn't managed to retain its players apparently. Meanwhile, League of Legends studio Riot Games is making its own take on the genre in Teamfight Tactics.