General Discussion

News Editor Garrett Fuller caught up with Erik Mogensen and Jon Gillard from Games Workshop to talk about EA Mythic's Warhammer Online as well as the newly announced Warhammer 40K MMORPG.

At GDC this week MMORPG.com was able to spend some time talking with Erik Mogensen and Jon Gillard from Games Workshop. For those who do not know, Games Workshop has been around since the early 1980s. They have developed both RPG and table-top war games over the last twenty five years and remain one of the top companies in gaming. Both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 (40k) have become very popular games on the table top platform and continue to make their way into the video game market. EA Mythic is currently working on the Warhammer Fantasy MMORPG and just last week, THQ had extended their contract with Games Workshop to include a Warhammer 40K MMO as well. With both of these licenses coming to the MMO market, Erik and Jon definitely have a busy schedule ahead of them. As Jon and Erik have pointed out, Games Workshop certainly has the fan expectations in mind as these games are developed.

When talking about the Warhammer 40K MMO that is being developed. Erik said the first thing that GW wants for players is "a really good MMO at the end of the day." THQ has had success with its Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War series and seem to be working very well with the IP. Vigil Games is the development studio with the task of building the game itself. GW plans to work closely with Vigil to oversee all aspects of the game. In the end GW will have full approval rights over Warhammer 40K. Erik said they do have a veto power, but he never looks at it that way. When working on a game he said that it usually never gets to that point. The developers work closely with GW throughout the process to present the Warhammer worlds in the best way for both teams. Erik mentioned that the development process is almost always a very positive atmosphere.

Read the whole article here.

They talk a little about WAR, but most of the emphasis is on the new Warhammer 40K MMO.  Maybe they just put it under WAR since there's no category for the 40K game.

I'm wondering with it will be an FPS, RPG or maybe even a MMO strat game.   I think any one has potential to be a cool game.

Yeah a great developer that has zero experience building a MMO, I can see that working well.  There is a huge difference between RTS games and MMO games as THQ will find out.

Remember they had to boot the prior dev before Mythic because they were in over their heads.

We will have to wait and see how THQ does. 

Originally posted by Ciredric

Yeah a great developer that has zero experience building a MMO, I can see that working well.  There is a huge difference between RTS games and MMO games as THQ will find out.

Remember they had to boot the prior dev before Mythic because they were in over their heads.

We will have to wait and see how THQ does. 

Yeah, but take Blizzard's 1st MMO World of Warcraft. Its the best selling MMO ever!

One problem with 2 Warhammer games will be that they are competeing against each other, each company will lose sales and pretty shortly after one, or both, games may be cancelled. Just my prediction. (and it's probably the worst that can happen)

Originally posted by nickaa

Originally posted by Ciredric

Yeah a great developer that has zero experience building a MMO, I can see that working well.  There is a huge difference between RTS games and MMO games as THQ will find out.

Remember they had to boot the prior dev before Mythic because they were in over their heads.

We will have to wait and see how THQ does. 

Yeah, but take Blizzard's 1st MMO World of Warcraft. Its the best selling MMO ever!

One problem with 2 Warhammer games will be that they are competeing against each other, each company will lose sales and pretty shortly after one, or both, games may be cancelled. Just my prediction. (and it's probably the worst that can happen)

Originally posted by nickaa

Originally posted by Ciredric

Yeah a great developer that has zero experience building a MMO, I can see that working well.  There is a huge difference between RTS games and MMO games as THQ will find out.

Remember they had to boot the prior dev before Mythic because they were in over their heads.

We will have to wait and see how THQ does. 

Yeah, but take Blizzard's 1st MMO World of Warcraft. Its the best selling MMO ever!

One problem with 2 Warhammer games will be that they are competeing against each other, each company will lose sales and pretty shortly after one, or both, games may be cancelled. Just my prediction. (and it's probably the worst that can happen)