[UPDATE] THQ has given an official statement. Turns out Kevin Dent was full of it.
THQ has not cancelled its 2014 line-up, and has not made any decisions regarding the planned MMO.
[ORIGINAL] It is a sad day for fans hopeful that Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium Online could be what Warhammer Online was not. According to Kevin Dent, industry veteran, THQ has canned the upcoming MMO. The cancellation comes alongside information that THQ has wiped all of its 2014 release titles off of the table, and is returning its licenses on all applicable intellectual properties associated with those projects. Dent’s tweet:
“Apparently, The Game Workshops MMO has been cancelled by THQ”
Granted, there has been no official announcement by THQ that the Warhammer 40k MMO is cancelled, so there is still hope. Hopefully. More on this story as it appears.
“We don’t need the kind of subscriber levels that people throw around, like a million subscribers, to make a lot of money on this title. If we get anywhere near that level, we’ll be making a lot of money.”
Why thank you, THQ CEO Brian Farrel. MMO success is, as I have said before, relative. Technically any MMO that can make a profit and sustain both its viability in the market and the love of its developers over a period of several years is a successful MMO. Back in March, EA’s announcement that The Old Republic would require one million subscribers to satiate the title’s massive budget, and that they were hoping for two million, I wasn’t the only one to become worried. As far as Western MMOs go (discounting free to play eastern titles), one million is a lot if your name is not World of Warcraft, and very few titles have hit that one million mark.
So, those looking forward to the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO may be worried, as a number of forum threads have indicated: Will Warhammer 40k be placed on the same pedestal of Warhammer Online, where the developers expected the MMO community to jump on the title as if it were the second coming of Jesus, resulting in substandard results and the great majority of servers shutting down?
Nope! THQ wants you perfectly aware that they are not expecting one million subscribers, like some other studios. Warhammer 40k is aiming small. Not too small, mind you, but small enough that were the title to get even five hundred thousand subscribers, Farrel wants us to know that they’ll be making plenty of money. The aim is to develop the title with a small group of experienced programmers and developers, who will put out gold almost immediately, rather than beginning with flaky bronze and moving up from there.
Until then, get back into your formation soldier! What are you, some kind of free thinker? You will burn for that!
We will have more news on Warhammer 40k as E3 comes closer, so next month.
“We don’t need the kind of subscriber levels that people throw around, like a million subscribers, to make a lot of money on this title. If we get anywhere near that level, we’ll be making a lot of money.”
Why thank you, THQ CEO Brian Farrel. MMO success is, as I have said before, relative. Technically any MMO that can make a profit and sustain both its viability in the market and the love of its developers over a period of several years is a successful MMO. Back in March, EA’s announcement that The Old Republic would require one million subscribers to satiate the title’s massive budget, and that they were hoping for two million, I wasn’t the only one to become worried. As far as Western MMOs go (discounting free to play eastern titles), one million is a lot if your name is not World of Warcraft, and very few titles have hit that one million mark.
So, those looking forward to the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO may be worried, as a number of forum threads have indicated: Will Warhammer 40k be placed on the same pedestal of Warhammer Online, where the developers expected the MMO community to jump on the title as if it were the second coming of Jesus, resulting in substandard results and the great majority of servers shutting down?
Nope! THQ wants you perfectly aware that they are not expecting one million subscribers, like some other studios. Warhammer 40k is aiming small. Not too small, mind you, but small enough that were the title to get even five hundred thousand subscribers, Farrel wants us to know that they’ll be making plenty of money. The aim is to develop the title with a small group of experienced programmers and developers, who will put out gold almost immediately, rather than beginning with flaky bronze and moving up from there.
Until then, get back into your formation soldier! What are you, some kind of free thinker? You will burn for that!
We will have more news on Warhammer 40k as E3 comes closer, so next month.
Warhammer 40k Online is one of those titles you don’t read too much about, except for plenty of speculation on the part of the public. Announced three years ago, we know now that the MMO will be slated for release in 2012 (Competing year with the Fallout MMO Beta). I’ve wanted to do an article on the Warhammer MMO because, as far as titles go, I feel Warhammer 40k’s hype may end up killing it before it comes out of the womb.
As it stands, Warhammer has a following of what I refer to as the disgruntled Ex. Players who left Warhammer Online, who are now looking towards the 40k MMO for everything they expected from Warhammer Online. Such conditions can only lead to even higher disappointment than what the players may have experienced had Warhammer Online never entered the picture. The 40k MMO will also have to pass the hurdle of being the “spiritual successor,” despite absolutely no links to the original game aside from lore, where the two face a level of comparison down to the microscopic level.
In the absence of information, people will fill in the void with their own speculation, and the end result is never good. THQ hopes to fill this void this summer at the Electronics Entertainment Expo where Warhammer 40k Online will be fully revealed in all of its splendor and glory. Until then, more on Warhammer 40k Online as it appears.
MMO Fallout 