Warhammer 40K MMO Will Cost At Least $50 Million

[vansau]

Warhammer 40K MMO Will Cost At Least $50 Million

THQ's next big Warhammer 40,000 game will have a budget bigger than most movies.

The Warhammer 40,000 games have generally been pretty big winners for THQ. As a result, it's not exactly surprising to hear that the publisher is willing to spend some serious cash on the next game in the franchise: apparently it's planning to shell out $50 million on the development for Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online.

THQ's vice president and CFO Paul Pucino recently spoke at the Wedbush morgan conference, where he explained how the next two fiscal years are expected to yield significant growth" for the company. Part of this plan involved some heavy investment in the aforementioned MMO:

"The production budget is high-end of a core game. Somewhere in the area of $50 million or so to get these games to market, certainly in that range for Dark Millennium. What you want is a game like this to be successful and the development budget gets higher."

On top of this colossal development budget, Pucino also revealed some information about other THQ projects. The publisher plans to release first-party software every three-to-four months so it can "re-promote" the U-Draw tablet that it developed. Also, <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Homefront-Xbox-360/dp/B003Q53VZC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299172003&sr=8-1>Homefront will need to sell two million copies in order to break even; based on the fact that the shooter is the <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108189-Strong-Homefront-Sales-May-Save-Kaos-Studio>most pre-ordered game in THQ's history, that doesn't seem like an unreasonable expectation.

Source: <a href=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-03-10-thq-spending-at-least-USD50m-on-space-marine-mmo>GamesIndustry.biz

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[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Worth. It.

This is the only MMO I am seriously considering paying subscription fees for, as long as it's good of course!

Edited a more appropriate quote for an Eldar fan :3

Spoiler: Behold, the fiery destroyer of worlds!

 

[wrecker77]

I'm sorry... i'm just really detracted by how awesome that image is to have an opinion.

Dayum.

 

[Nouw]

Well I hope it pays off, I've tried WAR and saw it fail, hopefully this one lives for a bit longer even with the beast.

Obligatory:
Spreading the Emperor's name has no price.

 

[Bobic]

This will be an acceptable price tag if I get to play as a tyrannid.

 

[Bretty]

I am a 40k freak but am not confidant that this will work as a MMO, at least from the tiny things I have heard (mostly rumors).

Sure someone could turn this into an award winning MMO, but THQ?

 

[Agiel7]

Hey, as long as I get to show those Mon-keigh Space Marines what's what as a Harlequin or hunt down Lictors as a Catachan, that's 15 bones a month well spent.

 

[johnman]

Seeing as the 40k Universe is far far far more interesting than that of Star Wars I hope it succeeds.

 

[gibboss28]

so long as its an FPS rather than an RPG...I'm behind this 100%

 

[Agiel7]

Well I hope it pays off, I've tried WAR and saw it fail, hopefully this one lives for a bit longer even with the beast.

Obligatory:
Spreading the Emperor's name has no price.

Well I'm cautiously optimistic about this one being at least marginally more successful than WAR. 40K has a lot more pull on people than Fantasy Battle, and honestly, going with the Fantasy license was trying to fight WoW on its own terms, nevermind that Warhammer was around way longer than Warcraft.

 

[Darth IB]

Aaaaah the universe is conspiring to make me start playing MMOs!
I resisted WoW etc without effort. WAR had me addicted for a summer, but I managed to stop in time for uni.
Now, however... I probably won't ever forgive myself if I don't try ToR, but even the Star Wars & Bioware combination pales in comparison to this.
I just know I won't be able to resist.

For the Emperor!

 

[Nick Holmgren]

as long as we don't have the ultra smurf's as the only playable marines it is fine.

 

[illas]

By Morkai's fangs there had better be Space Wolves in it!
If not, I'm off to get drunk on ale. It's what Russ would want.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I am a 40k freak but am not confidant that this will work as a MMO, at least from the tiny things I have heard (mostly rumors).

Sure someone could turn this into an award winning MMO, but THQ?

Currently the most successful venture into 40k is Dawn of War, and that is published by THQ. Of course the credit doesnt go to THQ for making it, but to the developers... Relic made the Dawn of War series great (using THQs funding).

So its down to the developer in the end and how they spend that money (although pressure for deadlines and possible corporate influence- generally bad -could impact it somewhat).

That said, the developers are relatively new (as a studio) having only made Darksiders (which is a bit meh really), so only time will tell.

 

[JordanXlord]

if i can't play as chaos...sorry guys i may loved darksiders (pls make darlsiders 2) but i must be chaos...

 

[teebeeohh]

my only problem is that the only solution if you want to have factions(and everyone wants factions since they worked so well in wow) is to limit players to the Imperium and maybe make a chaos/orc alliance as the enemy. And that would suck, i will not play this game if can not be an eldar.

I would also settle for piloting a battlesuit

 

[Bretty]

I am a 40k freak but am not confidant that this will work as a MMO, at least from the tiny things I have heard (mostly rumors).

Sure someone could turn this into an award winning MMO, but THQ?

Currently the most successful venture into 40k is Dawn of War, and that is published by THQ. Of course the credit doesnt go to THQ for making it, but to the developers... Relic made the Dawn of War series great (using THQs funding).

So its down to the developer in the end and how they spend that money (although pressure for deadlines and possible corporate influence- generally bad -could impact it somewhat).

That said, the developers are relatively new (as a studio) having only made Darksiders (which is a bit meh really), so only time will tell.

My point is that there is no way THQ has the resources to fuel an MMO using the 40k IP. $50 mill on a modern MMO? Chump change really. Also, you mentioned their dev. I didnt, because they were just a horrible choice.

Really sad.

 

[sleeky01]

I am a 40k freak but am not confidant that this will work as a MMO, at least from the tiny things I have heard (mostly rumors).

Sure someone could turn this into an award winning MMO, but THQ?

I've heard nothing but good things (tho admittedly not whole lot of info at all). What tiny things have you heard that gives you some concern?

 

[thiosk]

Oh god. I love 40k but a mega failure would be bad for the subject material. I just don't see them doing a 40k MMO correctly.

 

[rsvp42]

I'm looking forward to this, but after seeing how people get during TOR's development, I can only imagine how they'll critique this game pre-release. It occurred to me that, as awesome as 40k is, there's some lore reasons it might struggle with a wider audience. One is how gender-specific everything is. Female Space Marines are impossible and I've never seen a female Ork. Eldar might have the closest to gender equality, but I'm not super-familiar with them. In a genre where even the slightest limitation for "lore reasons" is met with hostility, some aspects of character creation might not go over well with players unfamiliar with 40k's galaxy. This is one IP where you simply can't make compromises on certain things (like female Marines).

I'd still play the pants off it, but I don't know how others would see it.

By Morkai's fangs there had better be Space Wolves in it!
If not, I'm off to get drunk on ale. It's what Russ would want.

Agreed! I'm actually building up a Space Wolves force right now. Though admittedly, it's just a personal hobby and a chance to hone my painting skills, as I don't know many folks that play it.