Warhammer Online – canceled, sold, altered
Have you been intensely involved with MMOs for some time? Then you know that Mythic Entertainment was not the first studio to attempt to tackle the Warhammer IP. Before Mythic, it was Climax Studios that worked on Warhammer Online for several years before the project failed.
In the year 2000, Climax began working on Warhammer Online. The game was supposed to be dark and convey a gloomy atmosphere like the Warhammer world.
It was supposed to be a completely different MMORPG. The plan was for there to be seamless play without visible loading – no loading screens. Players should be able to walk around in the world of Warhammer Online seamlessly. The NPCs were all supposed to look different. Not one should be the same as another. Like in the board games, there should be a dungeon master per server. A central player who starts events and keeps the fun of the server alive.
After years of work and many resources used, game developer Games Workshop ended the business relationship with Climax Studios and the project in 2004. At that time, Games Workshop estimated that it would cost around 30 million pounds to complete Warhammer Online – that was probably too expensive.
Climax had already invested so much passion and dedication into the game that they continued to work and covered the costs out of their own pockets. However, that was not sustainable. Since they did not find an investor, they had to cancel the project.
The following year, Mythic Entertainment acquired the “Warhammer Online” license and worked with Games Workshop on the game. In 2008, they released Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning with EA. Interestingly, the designer of the game was Paul Barnett from Climax Studios. However, the game was entirely different. Most of the original ideas that Climax Studios had for Warhammer Online were discarded.
For a few years, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning ran well, but in September 2013, Mythic announced that the game would be shut down in December 2013. The reason given was the expiration of the licensing agreement with Games Workshop.
Tragically, many Warhammer Online fans believed until the end that the game could still create a turnaround, implement the grand plans of yesteryear, and secure its place in the MMORPG Olympus.
Were you attached to any of the games presented here, or another one?
