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Figured this was worth posting as it's fairly significant news relating the the future of the 40k video game franchises.

Actual news article: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/07/thq-sale-delayed-to-provide-bidders-more-time
Opinion piece of probable destinations: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/07/where-will-thqs-games-and-studios-go

Sounds like EA is likely to scoop up Relic as it is is in a close proximity to its Vancouver location. As many of you probably know, EA has a notorious reputation when it comes to buying out other game companies and diluting their works. Personally, I think Bioware has been fine since being acquired by EA so only time can tell. The most important thing is EA is one of the largest publishers/distributors of videogames, so hopefully they will try and maximize the use of the 40k license.

Edit: Sega has agreed to purchase Relic.

Any news is better than no news. The big rumor I heard in Dec was that when DMO went single player they also changed the name in-house, so it is still being developed but under a different name.

Shareholders and other interested parties are looking to go to court as the bankruptcy and buy up by the stalking horse bidder could have been dodgy and significantly undervalued the IP.

 morgendonner wrote:
Figured this was worth posting as it's fairly significant news relating the the future of the 40k video game franchises.

Actual news article: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/07/thq-sale-delayed-to-provide-bidders-more-time
Opinion piece of probable destinations: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/07/where-will-thqs-games-and-studios-go

Sounds like EA is likely to scoop up Relic as it is is in a close proximity to its Vancouver location. As many of you probably know, EA has a notorious reputation when it comes to buying out other game companies and diluting their works. Personally, I think Bioware has been fine since being acquired by EA so only time can tell. The most important thing is EA is one of the largest publishers/distributors of videogames, so hopefully they will try and maximize the use of the 40k license.

Hopefully. As for Bioware, they are a bit of a different case. In one you have a hugely successful developer being bought out by choice with likely some kind of protection in the contract for an amount of years versus a flea market fire sale/auction due to bankruptcy.

Does anyone remember which developer/publisher was working on the warmachine video game that was previewed years ago? It'd be a bit awkward if both were in the same publishing house.

Ugh, I hope EA doesn't get Relic, they always seem to crush my favorite developers (RIP Westwood) and I don't think I'd be a minority in seeing issues with Bioware since their acquisition (DA2's mess, the gigantic turd ME3 turned out to be, SWOTR collapsing, etc). But, that's life, it'll be what it is. I don't hold out much hope for seeing any Warhammer 40,000 games any time soon.

Yeah... Bioware is like a sinking ship right now. One bad thing after the next.

Relic going to EA would be bad. Going to Actiblizzard might be even worse though.

 Vaktathi wrote:
Ugh, I hope EA doesn't get Relic, they always seem to crush my favorite developers (RIP Westwood) and I don't think I'd be a minority in seeing issues with Bioware since their acquisition (DA2's mess, the gigantic turd ME3 turned out to be, SWOTR collapsing, etc). But, that's life, it'll be what it is. I don't hold out much hope for seeing any Warhammer 40,000 games any time soon.

I overall liked ME3 right up until the original ending just pooped all over the notion of choice and consequences. The multiplayer turned out to be surprisingly addictive.

It would be interesting to know if the Dawn of War licence would transfer even if Relic was bought out,

many IP agreements have 'break' clauses with would preven the transfer of the IP to a new holder (just in case it ends up in the hands of a competitor who will either neglect or spoil it)

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah... Bioware is like a sinking ship right now. One bad thing after the next.

Relic going to EA would be bad. Going to Actiblizzard might be even worse though.

It is, Activision is even worse than EA, just look at their recent releases.

Actiblizzard buys Relic. Suddenly DoW III becomes one game in three parts:

DoWIII: Wings of the Aquila
DoWIII: Heart of the Swarm
DoWIII: Legacy of the Eldar

They also buy whoever was doing DMO. Game-play refocused to a Marine-based FPS – Call of the Emperor – and the game gets yearly releases with an emphasis on competitive multiplayer and a paltry 4 hour single-player campaign slapped on.

Yeah, kill me, that would be the end of it all.

They then release a dungeon crawl top-down isometric action RPG – Inquisitor Wars – where you play as an Inquisitor (choose two classes from 3 different Ordos). You get followers (Henchman) as you go around destroying Orks and getting loot.

Of course you’ll need to always be online to play, but there will be a real money auction house where you can buy all the best weapons!

Yeah yeah yeah, we get it.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Game-play refocused to a Marine-based FPS – Call of the Emperor

You know... that's actually not too bad of a title for a 40k game.

Many of those responsible for Relic's big successes have long since left the company, all that's left is a husk to be auctioned off.

I'd be hard pressed to think of a company that'd do 40k justice in video game format; there's very little to inspire me nowadays in that particular medium. I'd prefer Relic hold on to; while much of the original talent is left, the people there still obviously care about the license and the setting. Say what you will about Space Marine, there was some obvious love put into the address 40k, from audio, animation and so on. The original concept was also closer to an action RPG using a similar progression system as was in Dawn of War 2's SP campaign, but THQ wanted something more "mainstream."

In truth, the best outcome would be for Relic to be independent, so they wouldn't get shat on by bloody foolish publishing houses, but that's very hard to pull off. I mean, what publisher would be a good match for them? ActiBlizzard won't touch them because of the competing license, EA would do horrible things to them, as they have to everyone else they've bought (and things looked so hopeful a few years ago when Dead Space came out, EA looked like they actually cared about producing good products again...and then it went back to normal). Who's left after that?

Paradox? They don't have the money for a GW license, and they don't have the best track record with anything not EU/CK/HOI. Sega might actually not be terrible, since they've now got the Fantasy license through the Creative Assembly, who've produced a lot of great products through the years.

 BrookM wrote:
Yeah yeah yeah, we get it.

And then we'll get an MMO called World of Warha... ok yeah, I think I've covered everything.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 BrookM wrote:
Yeah yeah yeah, we get it.

And then we'll get an MMO called World of Warha... ok yeah, I think I've covered everything.

You mean WAR right?

 MajorStoffer wrote:
Who's left after that?

Bethesda and Ubisoft.

An Eldar Scrolls (see what I did there? ) would be fun, 'cept for all the crippling bugs.
And what have Ubisoft done wrong... hmm... not sure.

What about 2K?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
They got Gearbox.

 warboss wrote:

 Vaktathi wrote:
Ugh, I hope EA doesn't get Relic, they always seem to crush my favorite developers (RIP Westwood) and I don't think I'd be a minority in seeing issues with Bioware since their acquisition (DA2's mess, the gigantic turd ME3 turned out to be, SWOTR collapsing, etc). But, that's life, it'll be what it is. I don't hold out much hope for seeing any Warhammer 40,000 games any time soon.

I overall liked ME3 right up until the original ending just pooped all over the notion of choice and consequences. The multiplayer turned out to be surprisingly addictive.

I won't disagree that ME3 was enjoyable until the end, the end just destroyed the narrative so hard it ruined the entire franchise (Someone on the dev team *REALLY* like the ending to DeusEx apparently...) and their response was very passive aggressive I'm not entirely sure that can be chalked up to EA, but as a whole Bioware has definitely been sinking of late, and I just have trouble seeing any Warhammer IP in an EA studio being handled well.

Heresy Kart.....when Jetbikes, Attack Bikes, and Speeders go head to head in a race to the death!



Actually, I would totally buy that.

Any kind of big company getting 40k would be good. Relic and GW affiliates have dropped the ball at every turn

 d3m01iti0n wrote:
Heresy Kart.....when Jetbikes, Attack Bikes, and Speeders go head to head in a race to the death!



Actually, I would totally buy that.

Sup?

 Harriticus wrote:
Relic and GW affiliates have dropped the ball at every turn

You're going to need to quantify that statement.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Harriticus wrote:
Relic and GW affiliates have dropped the ball at every turn

You're going to need to quantify that statement.

I believe a more proper response would be..

ubisoft = DRM = doo doo

While I would love to see DoW3 get made, I just dread to see who might buy it.

Krootox Khan is that a female Kroot?

Well you never know

GW has shown a lot of Apple Love recently

who wants DoW3 the iPad App ?

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Well you never know

GW has shown a lot of Apple Love recently

who wants DoW3 the iPad App ?

How would GW have any control over what platforms games made by another company end up on?

 BrookM wrote:

 d3m01iti0n wrote:
Heresy Kart.....when Jetbikes, Attack Bikes, and Speeders go head to head in a race to the death!



Actually, I would totally buy that.

Sup?

Why do i have the sudden urge to buy a game that doesnt even exist?