Internet Apocalypse

THQ have done a sterling job with taking my favourite IP in science fiction and translating it to the gaming medium. The Dawn of War series and its subsequent expansions still stand the test of time today as a fantastic set of games with beautifully modelled units. It's features like the model painter, included in both games, that captured the spirit of what Warhammer was all about and really proved to me that these games were created by people who had done their homework or, more likely, had played the table-top games themselves. THQ extended their rights on Warhammer 40k until 2013 - that was back in March 2007 and since then they have made good on their promises to really bring the characters to life.


A Warhammer 40k MMO had been hinted at a while back. I read an article on Massively which had the MMO down for a 2012 release. I'll be honest with you, I was a bit gutted that it had been planned for release so far into the distant future. The Warhammer MMO is slated for release AFTER Darksiders 2. At the time of writing this, Darksiders 1 hasn't even been released yet. (8th of Jan 2010) However, that was the beginning of the year and this is now. A lot has happened since then, notably the Halo MMO being canned, for whatever reason, and a small recession that I'm sure you're all very much aware of! I mentioned the Halo MMO being cancelled because it is significant alongside all the failed MMOs that are drawing their last rattling breaths, emaciated and defeated and the feet of mighty Warcraft. Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa, Hellgate London & The Matrix Online, to name the biggest names. The Warhammer Online classic MMO is still going, although it confused me as to why anyone would want to move from Warcraft to a new game with a very similar IP. All this depressing MMOWTFFail news was gradually chipping away at my faith in the Warhammer 40k MMO ever being released at all.


Today, Kotaku published some images, released from a "Friendly Source" inside THQ Studio - Vigil Games. They aren't exactly screenshots, but they ARE proof that work on the MMO hasn't been shoved on the back burner to be forgotten about. The presence of the massive Warhound titans give a small hint towards the scale that this game could possibly working towards. The rest of the models do look tantalising, the Space Marine model especially, but I'll hold off drawing any more wild conclusions until we have some more information. But keep going Vigil, I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!