What's next for the Warhammer 40K games now that THQ is over and SEGA owns Relic?

[Stampede]

...for in the grim darkness of the far future there is only SEGA.

In light of what's been happened to THQ for quite some time now and the recent news of their demise (farewell THQ, you will be missed) I wanted to pose some questions regarding Warhammer 40K specifically. Nobody can deny that videogame-wise the franchise needed some new content yesteryear with Space Marine being the last WH40K dedicated game to come out these past few years (along with Kill Team, i... guess) as evident by fan-made mods for Retribution like The Elite Mod (which is so well done it might as well be considered an expansion...) and Codex Mod, mods for Soulstorm that keep popping up now and again etc... There was a glimmer of hope with projects like Dark Millennium and DoW3 but as of right now there is no actual information on the status of either of them (non that there was any even while THQ was still operational).

So right off the top of my mind -

What will happen to Dark Millennium and DoW3?
Will there ever be a SM sequel and how would that translate through SEGA?
How about the possibility of a Warhammer 40K - Total War game? (as far as I can tell, that is up to GamesWorkshop... but I am not certain)
How much, exactly, do you trust SEGA with a franchise like WH40K? As in, SEGA's focus is primarily towards the console market while the WH40K games are mostly RTS.

So come all ye loyalists and heretics, orki boyz and space elves of all shapes, sizes and views. Hell, even Tau fans are welcome (just leave the railguns at the door, pls... thx). I'd like to hear everything from speculations to facts that have come to light on the subject.

sidenote: First thread... Too bad it's dedicated to such sad news...
capt.: cold shoulder ...the Gods frown upon this thread, I guess ^^

 

[BloatedGuppy]

The first thought into my head was Total War: 40K, as I'm sure it was for a lot of people when SEGA bought Relic, but in all honesty I don't think it's likely. I suspect they'll acquire the license and just have Relic carry on with Dawn of War 3, and it will look and feel very much like Dawn of War 2 did.

I tell you I am HYPED for this Total War: Warhammer Fantasy game we're getting though. So frickin' hyped.

 

[Rawne1980]

What's next for the Warhammer 40K games now that THQ is over and SEGA owns Relic?

Nothing.

Games Workshop own Warhammer not THQ.

They only had the license for the games, that doesn't go to SEGA.

If SEGA want to make the games they will have to beg and plead for Games Workshop to let them but as far as i'm aware GW haven't decided on the future of it's video games license yet.

Chances are we'll see some more but things will probably plod along as they are with a DoW every so often and maybe a Warhammer fantasy game.

Edit- I'm more interested to know what's going on with Dark Millenium. I'm not even sure if it's still going to be finished now.

 

[Windcaler]

Well what I hope happens is nothing. Relic keeps expanding on Dow2 till they have all the races in it and then considers Dow3. Although I wouldnt mind them making a "Space Marine" game for the other races. Orks could be a hilarious yet still serious title thats frankly needed. I dont feel like Dow2 or Space marine really touched on what ork society is really like

I would also like to see a Space Marine 2 but with less linearity (I dont think the game was that bad but I think it could be served by giving multiple paths and a little more room to explore the interesting set pieces). Im also interested to see what would happen to Captain Titus after the inquisition got ahold of him

None of that is probably going to happen because Sega is crazy. Its a publisher that has actually committed several criminal actions lately and I really dont want to support them in anyway. Yet I'll have to if I want to buy 40k games in the future (pretty much my same thoughts on EA and Bioware games). I wish I could just bypass the publisher and give everything to relic but thats not how the industry works, sadly. Anyway, Im very concerned with how future 40k titles are going to go because I really like them. They got me into the rich and interesting 40k lore when I only had a passing interest before

 

[Slaanesh]

As mentioned earlier, we have to wait and see who GW sells the license to. And I'm thinking its going to EA(just expecting the worst here people).

Although I wouldnt mind them making a "Space Marine" game for the other races. Orks could be a hilarious yet still serious title thats frankly needed. I dont feel like Dow2 or Space marine really touched on what ork society is really like

Sweet Jesus tap dancing Christ on a pogo stick under Buddha's tree, YES.
A Dark Eldar game would be incredibly awesome/disturbing as well.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

The first thought into my head was Total War: 40K, as I'm sure it was for a lot of people when SEGA bought Relic, but in all honesty I don't think it's likely. I suspect they'll acquire the license and just have Relic carry on with Dawn of War 3, and it will look and feel very much like Dawn of War 2 did.

I tell you I am HYPED for this Total War: Warhammer Fantasy game we're getting though. So frickin' hyped.

We had something like, fundamentally, VERY similar but it was only the combat part. Imagine if you will an "on rails" total war. You fight set battles and spend your own money however you want on your army. You both defend and siege. It was amazingly good and i loved every second:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer:_Mark_of_Chaos

Really check it out.

If it had the PLAY style of total war id literally shit a brick. Id play for a quadrillion years.

The game i linked though is literally, button for button, the exact same as total war combat. It just lacked depth.

 

[Stampede]

Well what I hope happens is nothing. Relic keeps expanding on Dow2 till they have all the races in it and then considers Dow3. Although I wouldnt mind them making a "Space Marine" game for the other races. Orks could be a hilarious yet still serious title thats frankly needed. I dont feel like Dow2 or Space marine really touched on what ork society is really like

I would also like to see a Space Marine 2 but with less linearity (I dont think the game was that bad but I think it could be served by giving multiple paths and a little more room to explore the interesting set pieces). Im also interested to see what would happen to Captain Titus after the inquisition got ahold of him

I hate to be a stick in the mud here, but Relic stopped working on DoW2 several months before it fired/relocated the team that was working on Space Marine. Right now the only people working on Retribution are fans and the only added "race" are the Grey Knights. Check out their work here http://www.dow2elite.com/ if you want more info. Relic should give these guys a job for the quality of the mod alone.

And speaking of the GK, there was talk about a new Space Marine game not long ago with some of the rumors combining Titus' resistance to the Warp, The Inquisition and Matt Ward's warp dust addiction and calling it WH40K Grey Knight... Seeing as how The Ultramarines were the poster child for GW Marketing Dept. before the GK and SM was a giant Ultramarine commercial, it made a lot of sense.

As mentioned earlier, we have to wait and see who GW sells the license to. And I'm thinking its going to EA(just expecting the worst here people).

Although I wouldnt mind them making a "Space Marine" game for the other races. Orks could be a hilarious yet still serious title thats frankly needed. I dont feel like Dow2 or Space marine really touched on what ork society is really like

Sweet Jesus tap dancing Christ on a pogo stick under Buddha's tree, YES.
A Dark Eldar game would be incredibly awesome/disturbing as well.

In the beginning a lot of people (me included) thought that Dark Millennium was going to be exactly that - a game where the whole universe of WH40K was brought to bare and one would have a variety of race, class and spec choices... That project got downsized somewhere around Autumn 2012 and was deemed "Single player with Online MP Components" before going dark for months, right up until THQ imploded.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

We had something like, fundamentally, VERY similar but it was only the combat part. Imagine if you will an "on rails" total war. You fight set battles and spend your own money however you want on your army. You both defend and siege. It was amazingly good and i loved every second:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer:_Mark_of_Chaos

Really check it out.

If it had the PLAY style of total war id literally shit a brick. Id play for a quadrillion years.

The game i linked though is literally, button for button, the exact same as total war combat. It just lacked depth.

Yeah I remember Mark of Chaos. It was a good game, but painfully limited. As much as I enjoy the RTS battles in Total War, on their own they'd get thin really quickly. Without the context and story-telling given to them by the strategic layer, they tend to lose their luster and become pointless skirmishes.

I'm really hoping CA can put some good world building and RPG elements into the strategic layer to give the RTS bits more pathos and impact. Aside from ASoIaF, Warhammer Fantasy is the IP I think Creative Assembly is best equipped to bring to life. So I have high hopes. I just hope they don't Shogun it up and turn it into a streamlined, bland experience with copycat factions and more style than substance.

 

[II2]

Actually, I'm glad they landed in SEGA's lap. I expect they'll just have a functional publisher relationship as they do with Creative Assembly. My true fear was them ending up in EA/Ubisoft/Blizzactivision's pocket.

 

[nykirnsu]

Well what I hope happens is nothing. Relic keeps expanding on Dow2 till they have all the races in it and then considers Dow3. Although I wouldnt mind them making a "Space Marine" game for the other races. Orks could be a hilarious yet still serious title thats frankly needed. I dont feel like Dow2 or Space marine really touched on what ork society is really like

I would also like to see a Space Marine 2 but with less linearity (I dont think the game was that bad but I think it could be served by giving multiple paths and a little more room to explore the interesting set pieces). Im also interested to see what would happen to Captain Titus after the inquisition got ahold of him

If they have to do another space marine-based shooter I'd rather it be based around another chapter, with maybe Titus as an important side character. Considering how generic Ultramarines usually are I'd rather Space Marine's great gameplay be applied to a more interesting part of the universe. An Ork shooter sounds like a great idea though, taking the functionality of Space Marine and applying to one of the more light-hearted race. I'd like to see the same treatment given to some other less popular races (someone mentioned dark eldar, make it happen).

 

[Windcaler]

Well what I hope happens is nothing. Relic keeps expanding on Dow2 till they have all the races in it and then considers Dow3. Although I wouldnt mind them making a "Space Marine" game for the other races. Orks could be a hilarious yet still serious title thats frankly needed. I dont feel like Dow2 or Space marine really touched on what ork society is really like

I would also like to see a Space Marine 2 but with less linearity (I dont think the game was that bad but I think it could be served by giving multiple paths and a little more room to explore the interesting set pieces). Im also interested to see what would happen to Captain Titus after the inquisition got ahold of him

If they have to do another space marine-based shooter I'd rather it be based around another chapter, with maybe Titus as an important side character. Considering how generic Ultramarines usually are I'd rather Space Marine's great gameplay be applied to a more interesting part of the universe. An Ork shooter sounds like a great idea though, taking the functionality of Space Marine and applying to one of the more light-hearted race. I'd like to see the same treatment given to some other less popular races (someone mentioned dark eldar, make it happen).

To be fair the developers chose the ultramarines because theyre the generic ones. They wanted to make an experience that was "space mariney" without all the individual chapter stuff with it. So they chose the most genetic of the chapters to get that across. Space marine was a game made to say "This is what a space marine is. This is how they live. This is how they fight. This is what they believe."

IMO relic did a pretty good job inventing the blood ravens in Dow2 but they're also pretty generic (I also liked that the blood ravens had a little cameo in space marine). So yeah I can certainly see the desire for another chapter, if I had my choice I would pick the Praetors of Orpheus. Their technological experience makes me think they have highly adaptive tactics and weaponry. Then again after the events of the first game its really become a game about Titus' story rather then what it is to be a space marine.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

An Ork shooter sounds like a great idea though, taking the functionality of Space Marine and applying to one of the more light-hearted race.

A semi-open world shooter with RPG elements... play one of Da Boyz and work your way up to Nob then Boss and ultimately become a Warboss leading his own Waaugh!

Gretchin injuring mini games, earn Teef to buy MOAR DAKKA, compete in Kult of Speed races, complete character customisation via paint, squigs and bolted on bits of metal.

It could be like Saints Row 3... but GREENER and SHOOTIER

'ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Don't have any idea what will happen.

But what I'd like is a horror game involving either DE, Necrons or Nids :3

 

[Rawne1980]

Ahhh Grey Knights I see mentioned.

I'd love a Grey Knights game. As long as they make them less stupidly overpowered as they are in the tabletop and books or it would be a very easy game.

Hopefully Games Workshop will stick with SEGA and Relic then at least we'll get something going.

I'm shitting myself incase GW do pull away from SEGA and license it to EA.

I don't actually hate EA but I don't want a bland FPS or a half arsed BioWare game with absolutely nonsense romance thrown in.

But all this talk has now made me crave a game based on Gaunts Ghosts. We need a 40k stealth em up.

 

[saintdane05]

As mentioned earlier, we have to wait and see who GW sells the license to. And I'm thinking its going to EA(just expecting the worst here people).

Although I wouldnt mind them making a "Space Marine" game for the other races. Orks could be a hilarious yet still serious title thats frankly needed. I dont feel like Dow2 or Space marine really touched on what ork society is really like

Sweet Jesus tap dancing Christ on a pogo stick under Buddha's tree, YES.
A Dark Eldar game would be incredibly awesome/disturbing as well.

There would be a rape button. Literately. A rape button. This is the Dark Eldar, after all.

 

[Bifford]

I'd be interested in a Mass Effect-style game where you play an Inquisitor.

 

[Tiger Sora]

Don't lie to yourselves everyone. We all know Matt Ward will ruin everything once again. Thus again we shall cling to our holdings in fear or denial. Than we'll go on rants denying him drawing pictures of us sacrificing him to 2 of the 4 chaos gods. (No Tez, things are bad enough. Nurgle would just love him).

Now we need a mech game where you pilot the various factions titans of the universe on swaths of destruction.
A Space Battle game. Command a ship (Maybe do it like Silent Hunter series, but in space). Or something in space anyways.
As someone mentioned an Ork game. It would be a Waaaaagggggggg of a good time.

A sandbox Imperial Guard game. It would be extremely hard to do, but, yeh. Well maybe not.

The Inquisition!!! Ohh the things we could do with that!

Galaxy wide strategy/resource control game of the Imperium. Mayhaps multiplayer due to the size or online (Probably be like EVE anyways) Still it would be cool.
Actually have the choice of the different big factions. Could turn out very cool as an MMO pitting all these forces against one another.

So many more ideas.

 

[Bernzz]

An Ork shooter sounds like a great idea though, taking the functionality of Space Marine and applying to one of the more light-hearted race.

A semi-open world shooter with RPG elements... play one of Da Boyz and work your way up to Nob then Boss and ultimately become a Warboss leading his own Waaugh!

Gretchin injuring mini games, earn Teef to buy MOAR DAKKA, compete in Kult of Speed races, complete character customisation via paint, squigs and bolted on bits of metal.

It could be like Saints Row 3... but GREENER and SHOOTIER

'ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go

Please stop talking. Much more of this conjecture and no game will ever live up to the standards set by this.

I can't live with much more of this torture

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

What will happen to Dark Millennium and DoW3?
Will there ever be a SM sequel and how would that translate through SEGA?
How about the possibility of a Warhammer 40K - Total War game? (as far as I can tell, that is up to GamesWorkshop... but I am not certain)
How much, exactly, do you trust SEGA with a franchise like WH40K? As in, SEGA's focus is primarily towards the console market while the WH40K games are mostly RTS.

Dark Millennium was Vigil's title, and no-one's picked up Vigil as of yet.

Space Marine Sequel? No idea, hopefully not, I'd rather see them do something with another race. It would probably turn out the same, SEGA's not developing it, and they're probably sensible enough to not alter anything the way EA would.

It's very possible in my eyes that they'd use the engine from TW for Warhammer games, especially the way Rome II is looking, but I highly doubt it would be a carbon copy of the gameplay. That would be very lazy, modders can do better.
Rumour is they have the license for Warhammer Fantasy anyway, but the TW gameplay isn't designed for dragons, daemons and steam tanks, to name just a few of the big units. Getting the scale of TW into Warhammer is something they should definitely do however.

I trust SEGA just fine, aside from their immoral and downright illegal tricks regarding youtube coverage of their games, they're at least a sensible publisher most of the time. Total War isn't a console series, they can keep PC gamers happy enough. If there's anything on console it'll probably be another Space Marine style fling.

That does of course rely on them getting the 40K license from Games Workshop if they don't have it. But if there's one thing I've learned; it's that Games Workshop loves money.

For the record, regarding improbable but still awesome 40K games, I'd like to weigh in; The Inquisition would be a sandbox game, perhaps with Adventure game style sequences and sidequests, set amongst what passes for the 'countryside' on most Imperial worlds. Rub elbows with the governer and aristocracy, perhaps what we would consider a sprawling city in most games representing the main hub in the form of a small Imperial town that the mystery is centred around.

The Imperial Guard would be represented through a coarse, gritty FPS, you play the fresh faced replacement, assigned to a squad that's already in a war of attrition in a world that's so bombed to hell its hard to imagine anyone living there again.

The first few missions, you get to know your team, they seem like genuine human beings, less of the screaming zealousness of the Sisters of Battle and Space Marines, people who've enlisted to get away from something, or out of a sense of duty, or perhaps they were taken in by the propaganda.

They do the usual fps tropes of pulling you out of bad situations,and it looks like the Imperium's on the verge of victory, that's when the Xenos menace makes one big push back, then you're holding strong points just to retreat when the heavy guns roll through, and your squad, who you've grown to genuinely like, they start getting killed off. And it's not pleasant.

Imagine Spec Ops: The Line at that point, except you're the civilians, and they've got worse than white phosphorous.

You'd probably die at the end. I'm unsure as to how, but Exterminatus would be a hell of a way to do it. "No time to get the remainders of the troops off, a few more losses won't make any difference anyway."

A mechanic I had in mind was something like a dynamic uniform, or at least a character model that would change over time, like Arkham or Spec Ops. You get in fresh from being equipped, everything's shiny and new, by the end it's torn, the colour has changed from your sweat, in some places dried gore has sunk in, and it's coated with mud.

tl;dr SEGA are pretty okay most of the time, being an Imperial Guard would be horrible.