Warhammer Online Resurrection?

Thanks to TerraNova for the heads up about the possible resurrection of Warhammer Online. The game was cancelled back in June, after several years of work on the project and rumors that it was close to completion. GamesIndustry.biz has the story as well: "Cancelled massively multiplayer title Warhammer Online is back in development, according to comments attributed to Karl Jeffery, CEO of developer Climax, and could be released in around 18 months time."

Comments

due to Dawn of War's sucess?

[Paolomania]

I wonder if this is a reaction to the success that the Warhammer 40K game, Dawn of War, is seeing. If so, I still think a Warhammer Fantasy Battle RTS would be more appropriate than a MMOG.

ASIDE: As much as I love Blizzard's Warcraft and Starcraft, I've always felt that they are highly derivative of the WH tabletop games. The addition of hero character to WC3 only increases this similarity. Although we should all thank Blizzard for beating Games Workshop to the punch in delivering a video game in the spirit of fantasy and sci-fi warfare, and hammering out and perfecting modes of RTS interaction, I hope that the youngin's out there appreciate the origins of the genre. Warhammer* computer games are no johnny-come-latelies - they are the games that should have come out before *craft, but for the lack of vision on the part of GW to expand out of their book & miniatures driven buisness model. Praise to the old Blizzard for having the vision to take the spirit of Warhammer and project it though Westwood's Dune 2.

Re:due to Dawn of War's sucess?

[Chi Hsuan Men]

[i]I wonder if this is a reaction to the success that the Warhammer 40K game, Dawn of War, is seeing. If so, I still think a Warhammer Fantasy Battle RTS would be more appropriate than a MMOG.[/i]

Agreed. The first two things I thought about when I started playing Dawn of War (DoW) was:

1.) When is the expansion coming out that features the Tyranids and Imperial Guard?

2.) When will they take the engine and build an RTS around the Warhammer Fantasy World.

With the success of DoW, I am suprised to see Games Workshop putting funds back into the MMOG, rather than aggressively furthering the RTS franchise that could be extremely successful. Reason being, Warhammer Fantasy is based upon titanic clashes between two armies. The MMOG world, as is, does not lend itself well to such scale. To re-create such battles, it would take an unprecedented amount of coordination between PCs in terms of tactics and unit diversity.

Granted, the MMOG could take the path of other established MMOGs; however, that would not really do justice to the grandiose vision that Warhammer Fantasy Battle creates in its tabletop game.

I think the only feasible way to achieve that vision is through an RTS.

Re:due to Dawn of War's sucess?

[bad_fx]

Perhaps nothing more than a rumour, but I read somewhere that Blizzard originally wanted to make a warhammer game, couldn't get the rights from Games Workshop, and thus was born the whole *craft series.

A quick google reveals almost nothing on this, so no link to back this up - perhaps it was bollocks, but I definitely remember reading it somewhere... *shrug* Perhaps someone else knows more?