THQ W40K Rights Extended

[Icarus Athrasuriel]

AGOURA HILLS, Calif., March 1, 2007 – THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) today announced that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Games Workshop (LSE: GAW – News) for the Warhammer® 40,000™ franchise through 2013. The agreement serves to both extend and expand upon THQ’s previous agreement with Games Workshop for the Warhammer 40,000 license, which encompassed interactive rights to console and handheld systems, as well as Windows PC. Additional rights under the newly announced agreement include wireless devices and all online rights, including massively multiplayer (MMO) games.

THQ’s critically acclaimed Warhammer®: 40,000™: Dawn of War™ franchise now boasts more than 2 million units in sales worldwide with the release of hybrid expansion Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War™ – Dark Crusade™ last fall. The franchise has received numerous accolades since its 2004 debut, including Game of the Year and Editor’s Choice Awards, in addition to selection as an Official World Cyber Games title in 2005 and 2006.

“Our success in creating Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War as a category leading Real-Time Strategy experience for PC gamers is just the beginning,” said Kelly Flock, executive vice president of worldwide publishing, THQ. “The Warhammer 40,000 universe provides a richness of worlds, characters and stories and level of depth that translates perfectly to interactive experiences across multiple genres and systems. We see a lot of opportunity to build new and different games based on Games Workshop’s premiere property in the coming years.”

“We are eager to extend our very successful partnership with THQ,” said Andy Jones, Head of Group Legal and Licensing, Games Workshop. “The longstanding relationship enables us to share the Warhammer 40,000 IP with a new audience, while giving our existing Hobbyists an exciting new way to interact with the universe which they already love.”


Could we see the dawn of Warhammer 40,000 MMORPG's?

[Perturabo]

Possibly!
Im just hoping for a Dawn of War 2 with a game engine that can handle swarming!!

[BrainDeleted]

Yay!
Finnally a good company picks up 40k, if anyone remembers Fire Warrior for the PS they will know what I mean

[Torquemada Coteaz]

whatever game they make in future for 40k
i hope relic does it
Relic is one of the best RTS companies out there, PLUS they canuks too!

[Ikarus]

I'm pretty sure its the 40k FPS that everyone is talking about.

heh.

[wolfpack]

ok so now I have another game to blow money on...(my GF is gonna be pissed...LMAO)

[calvor]

New 40k FPS can't wait I just hope its better then Fire warrior because that was just plain awful.

[r4wr89]

yea, i hear it was pretty much crap. but cool cutscenes? haha. anyways, i'm not so sure i like the idea of a 40k FPS yet, but i can be convinced :]

i'm definitely looking forward to what THQ puts out though..

and on a sidenote, it's good to see you again, torquemada, haven't seen your posts in a while. or maybe i just happen to miss them ?

-ant

[masterofweirdness]

A while ago, I read that THQ is going to create a MMOFPS game for 40k...

THQ isn't a bad publisher... but, I really don't care who publishes the game... its the developers that count.

And yes, Relic is right up there with Blizzard as one of the best Video Game development studios of all time, that and Firaxis (simply because of Sid Meirers, or however you spell his last name).

[Icarus Athrasuriel]

I agree, I'd prefer relic.

And, I thought I'd add, holy sh*t! It's Torquemada!

[Ion Raptor]

A FPS for W40k sounds about right. In most games you are a single player blasting your way through an entire army by yourself........well that sounds like a fluffy Space Marine to me

[wolfpack]

40K seems to be too structured to me for a FPS MMORPG to work...How would they get that to work for say a space marine...would you have to pick a chapter to start with and then go through the whole trial to become a member or what? What about a Gaurdsman...can't see it as say WoW works where you have a bunch of people just running about trying to get level and complete tasks...there would have to be a strict coherency to the genre to make it work...so I don't see a MMORPG coming from 40K based on the fact that 40K is based on large scale table top wargaming using Armies...unless of course it were based on something along the lines of Inquisitorial or Ecclisiarchal (maybe even Rogue Tradership)characters...where the whole idea of solo play would work...for a while anyways...just my two cents

[BrainDeleted]

I see your point...MMORPGs work easily because the developers use a simple world or simply create one to fit their needs but 40k already exists and its already extremely complex...I could see them making one realitively easily if it just involved the Imperium (although it would disappoint me) because you could be someone who is one of the insignificant persons within the structure of the Imperium and just using the other races as enemies but...this would make for an OK game but I guess they could add all the other races but not Tyranids or Necrons (players can't be C'tan or the hive mind :P ) although thiswould make for an encreadablely complex game...BUT it would be SSSSOOOOO fun they might be able to pull it off but it would be tricky and lots of GW colaberation would ensure fluff correctness but vvvvveeeeeeerrrryyyy tricky I'd buy it if they did it right

[Dan296]

zomg torqy! (thats your name from now on )

40k MMORPG? mmmm...im not very enthused....WoW is the best (BEST) out there and i dont think relic or THQ can compete. in general, i dont really like 40k games. Rome Total War (THQ btw) is an AWSOME RTS, and if they made a 40k game more like that, then i would definatly pick that up.

[BrainDeleted]

the total war series sold their soul to sony as the Creative Assembly (developers of RTW) was bought out by sony

But Relic may be able to make a inter planetary Total war it would rock!

[Templar Mikeel]

A 40K FPS would force me to buy whatever platform it was made for. As long as it was better than Fire Warrior. That game looked like it sucked. I really don't like MMORPG's. Of the ones I have played, I find them boring.WoW will eat your soul.

Torquemada is back!!! Thats a day maker!

[Torquemada Coteaz]

=D thanks everyone, yes i was gone again (long story short: school, parents, parents, school, friends, heart break, and school again) but im back, thanks for the welcome-backs!
I watched some (live) action of Fire Warrior at work...
it was abyssmal

[timjonesiddqd]

MMORPG.... it sucks when you have to pay a fee to play i wont get it.

[Dan296]

luckily i play WoW on my brothers account so i dont pay! mwahaha!
but you dont have a monthly fee for everquest, and i think you wont for the new WFB one.

[Killermoose]

Welcome back Torque! It's good to see you!

Hmm... a single player FPS could work quite well.... but an MMORPG? That would be hard. I'm sure there would be a way of balancing it (perhaps have a ratio limit for people to join each side? So 10 IG: 15 Orks: 2:SM.... so that you wouldn't have too many genetically altered super warriors running about the place, and the population levels work? Though I can see people being annoyed if they had to join another race). I'd love 'em to get it to work (it would be an awesome game if done right!) but I think it may just be a tad too difficult...

[Icarus Athrasuriel]

They could assign races to newcomers using an algorithm, after they chose their race. This would decide their skills, and what faction they are born (or bred) into, especially in the case of humans.

This was done with a very successful starwars MMORPG, with only 1.5% of members being force sensitive. Such a precentage of humans (say, 3%) would be physically and psychologically fit to join the SM.

[Killermoose]

That would work really well! I really think there is a lot of potential of a 40k MMORPG, but it would need to be done right, and could quite easily be screwed up. But if it worked, it would be an amazing game! 40k, has a massive universe, and lots of races and factions that would make a brilliant RPG, just like Star Wars.

[Ion Raptor]

I thought there was already a release about there being a MMORPG for 40k a while back? let me see if I can find it

[Torquemada Coteaz]

The other thing about 40k MMORPG is that 40k (as far as i can see) has a smaller player base among much older generations, whove been playing fantasy for as long as they go back. this, coupled with the fact that fantasy battles is FANTASY makes an MMORPG much more viable (larger starting player base, plus Fantasy is the easy genre for MMORPGs, where non-GW-hobbyists can jump in easily too, as opposed to 40k which is less than "regular")