If you’re going to say goodbye to THQ before it dies, not might be the time to sign your farewell cards. THQ held its quarterly earnings call with investors and the news is not good. Earnings guidance has been suspended, games have been delayed, and the developer refused to take questions from investors, citing efforts to evaluate “strategic and financing alternatives intended to improve THQ’s overall liquidity.” For THQ, once a massive publisher and contender in the industry, the tidal wave of bad news has overshadowed the tiny light in the dark, that THQ had beat initial forecasts. Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light have been delayed by a couple of months, and it appears that they are putting a lot of stock in South Park: The Stick of Truth.
South Park: The Stick of Truth has been delayed until the first fiscal quarter of 2014, from the original March 2013 release. THQ’s Warhammer 40k MMO was cancelled earlier this year and downgraded to a standard multiplayer title.
Warhammer Online’s fourth birthday has come and gone, and Massively.com has quite an interesting interview with Producer James Casey about the life of Warhammer, past, present, and future. Casey also talks about Warhammer’s MOBA brother, Wrath of Heroes, and how the development teams for both games have been kept complimentary, but separate. Finally, Casey answers the question many of us have been asking for a good while: Why hasn’t Warhammer Online gone free? My guess has always come down to cost, and from Casey’s reply, I wasn’t wrong:
We’ve investigated this option in the past, but the costs and changes needed to make it happen in a satisfactorily way haven’t synced up yet.
Transitioning a game to free to play is incredibly expensive and, in the case of games like Earthrise and Gods & Heroes (and now Warhammer), is simply out of the question.
Warhammer Online’s fourth birthday has come and gone, and Massively.com has quite an interesting interview with Producer James Casey about the life of Warhammer, past, present, and future. Casey also talks about Warhammer’s MOBA brother, Wrath of Heroes, and how the development teams for both games have been kept complimentary, but separate. Finally, Casey answers the question many of us have been asking for a good while: Why hasn’t Warhammer Online gone free? My guess has always come down to cost, and from Casey’s reply, I wasn’t wrong:
We’ve investigated this option in the past, but the costs and changes needed to make it happen in a satisfactorily way haven’t synced up yet.
Transitioning a game to free to play is incredibly expensive and, in the case of games like Earthrise and Gods & Heroes (and now Warhammer), is simply out of the question.
Mythic Entertainment today announced Warhammer: Wrath of Heroes, a lobby-based arena PvP game. As part of the Electronic Arts Play4Free program (you may recognize this from Battlefield Play4Free), Wrath of Heroes will be free to play with a notable cash shop. Judging by the trailer, the game appears to control similar to Warhammer Online, with the exception of trading in a persistent character for an array of heroes. The game will run on 6v6v6 (that’s right, three faction matches) battles centered around destruction and territory control.
Warhammer Online fans may be a little miffed at this announcement, and Mythic rather quickly dropped a new Herald letter on the main website today to calm fears. Kai Schober wants you to know that this is not a death strike for Warhammer, but rather a positive notch. In addition to new armors, Schober also talks the return of fortresses and perks for Warhammer Online subscribers that will cross over to Wrath of Heroes.
We brought in people to develop the new title and actually increased our pool of resources. This means that we can leverage things done for one game into the other. A small example is that the new Mourkain Temple layout was a result of some work done for Wrath of Heroes. There are others and a few we want to share with you as soon as possible. New looks perchance?
It will be interesting to see if these two brothers can coexist, or if Wrath of Heroes being free to play will have any detriment on Warhammer Online’s population.
With all the hussle and bussle of MMO Fallout, it’s easy for announcements of announcements to be buried under the tussle and forgotten forever. Luckily for me, I couldn’t forget about the Warhammer Online announcement announced by a blogger very early this month, offering no details other than, “it isn’t what you think,” leading myself to assume that the announcement is probably not free to play, nor is it Warhammer shutting down, and certainly not the reintroduction of Taco Tuesday at the Mythic offices.
It is substantial news. However, it is probably not what you’re thinking it is. I was quite surprised when they told us about it. Is that cryptic enough? Don’t worry about it too much though, as we may see an official announcement in a few weeks.
Take it how you will, the War On The Road article was released last week, and contains one cryptic clue:
The end of August will also see an announcement about our future plans for Warhammer Online.
This trailer is from the Climax version of Warhammer Online, in development before Games Workshop pulled funding over disagreements over art and design.
I don’t make myself out to be an expert in the business side of MMOs, although I do try my best when writing articles here at MMO Fallout, even I recognize that the prospect of Warhammer Online going free to play is a tough one. On one side you have monetization, the need to populated the cash shop with items people would want to buy without feeling they need to buy. On the other side, Warhammer is primarily a player vs player title, so placing armor, weapons, or buff potions on the cash shop is a minefield Mythic would have to tiptoe quite carefully over. With a cash shop, Warhammer takes the risk of bringing in new (albeit less loyal) players at the risk of alienating their current base.
But this article doesn’t have much to do with free to play, at least not presumably. Earlier this week, Mythic took in a few WAR bloggers to see some interesting material regarding some upcoming patches. Thanks to the j0y of a magical document we call a non-disclosure agreement, we won’t hear about what that information is until some point in the near future.
From what we do know so far, it appears there will be a focus on fortresses, incentives to defend, and new zones. Other than that, as blogger Werit posted:
It is substantial news. However, it is probably not what you’re thinking it is. I was quite surprised when they told us about it. Is that cryptic enough? Don’t worry about it too much though, as we may see an official announcement in a few weeks.
When I’m not fielding calls from the president of MMO Land asking me how to save the world from the evils of free to play scams, I’m generally fielding calls from frantic fanboys foaming at the mouth over the latest MMO to come out based on their favorite IP, and how it will revolutionize the genre (in the sliver of time that remains, I’m fielding calls from my pharmacist over my many medications). Warhammer 40k may not be coming out for somewhere around three years, but the developers want you to know that this won’t be your mama’s MMO.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Creative Director Mike Maza wants to remove your fears that you’ll be spending much of your time hunting down adorably savage wolves for still-standing NPCs who need their pelts, or something along those lines. You’re a fighter, damnit, and you should be crushing the heads of those who dare lower your status by giving you such a petty quest. On that note, Warhammer 40k Online should without a doubt have a beginner quest where you crush the head of an NPC for offering you such a quest. If anyone from Vigil is listening, you might want to write that down.
“We just couldn’t wrap our heads around a Space Marine killing ten wolves for their pelts. It’s just not 40K. We don’t want to give those kinds of quests to the players, we think it takes you out of the fiction. The objectives of our quests are far more epic than that.”
In the interview, Maza also notes that, although they could have made the game like World of Warcraft, they decided being chainsawed to death by angry fans was not worth any income such a decision might have brought in.
“We’re designing a cinematic, action-oriented MMO, balanced in terms of player-on-player and player-versus-environment battles. There’s a lot of ranged combat, but also a healthy dose of melee. You’re not gonna have a bunch of static spawns, you’re not gonna have a bunch of random patrols.”
So Warhammer will rely a bit more on mouse movement, but your success will still be held somewhat to your gear. One piece Maza talked about, and I know this will entertain 40k fans, that the game is serious. This means no funny vanity hats for your tech priest.
You can read the whole interview at the above link. More on Warhammer 40k Online as it appears.
One important point I need to get out of the way first:
-Games Workshop is the creator of the Warhammer world used in the Warhammer tabletop games, pen-and-paper games, and video games.
-EA/Mythic are the creators of Warhammer Online, the MMO.
-Curse/Warhammer Alliance is not a fansite. Mere fansites do not make 3 million in revenue in a year, have a board of directors, or have investors.
In a perfect world, Mythic would be going under scrutiny for their own actions, and the lawsuits brought forth by Games Workshop would not have much of an impact on them, if any at all. Sadly, we do not live in a perfect world, and the end result is Mythic is being barraged for a lawsuit brought by Games Workshop against Warhammer Alliance. Games Workshop is currently suing Curse over Warhammer Alliance’s alleged infringement of GW’s trademark on “Warhammer Alliance.” Alongside trademark infringement, Games Workshop is also suing for cybersquatting, dilution, and unfair competition.
I didn’t make this an “In Plain English” article, because this doesn’t, and shouldn’t, include Warhammer Online. More importantly, this lawsuit does not involve Warhammer Online or Mythic Entertainment. Currently there are far too many reactionary posts by people blaming Mythic for this lawsuit, calling it an act of desperation among other things.
“Failing game seeks money anyway it can get it. Anyone can sue anyone for anything nowadays. It’s really sad.”
Projectkmo @ Massively
“I actually subscribe occasionally to Warhammer Online just to show my support. This will end that…”
Duulin @ Massively
So just to get this straightened out once and for all: Mythic has NOTHING to do with the lawsuit.
MMO Fallout 