Warhammer 40k MMO playable next year

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 16 June, 2011

Launch between April 2012 and March 2013.

Promising massively multiplayer game Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium Online will be playable at next year's E3 trade show, THQ has confirmed.

"Next year, I promise you, next E3," was THQ core games boss Danny Bilson's response when Eurogamer asked him when we'll get to play the MMO.

"I've already got plans for what the booth is like. The centrepiece of the booth will be that MMO."

Developed by Darksiders creator Vigil Games, Dark Millennium Online is set in the 41st Millennium and players will get to choose from multiple races.

Little is known about the game, but Bilson said work is progressing well.

"We have the new build," he said. "I was playing because the Games Workshop guys are in town. We took them through a little tour through a zone and some of the instances.

"It looks fabulous. I like it. I can't speak to it now, or people will kill me. But, I'll tell you what, it plays differently. A little bit.

"I'm a big MMO guy. I've played EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, WOW, City of Heroes... I've sampled a lot of them. I love MMOs. This thing is gonna be special."

Bilson said when DMO does come out it will compare favourably to MMO behemoth World of Warcraft and BioWare MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.

"We're going to come out when we come out in a big way. I feel like we're fully competitive with the other guys," he said.

"It'll be seven years in the making when it comes out. We're competing with the best games in the world. You can't mess around with this thing.

"We're competing with two of the biggest brands in the world: World of Warcraft and Star Wars. We have to be really good to get people to want to play it. We will be really good."

Bilson confirmed Dark Millennium will launch at some point during THQ's next financial year – between April 2012 and March 2013.

Last year Bilson let slip some tentative details on the game in an interview with Eurogamer.

"If you've played WOW you'll be able to pick up and play this instantly, and you'll find all these things that feel like upgrades, in a way," he said.

"How soon you get vehicles, how many vehicles there are in the universe. If you know 40K, you know the things in the universe. You know the races. You know things like ranged combat is going to be important for the bolters. You know the chainsword matters, and having both.

"You know being an ork is a completely different experience than being a Space Marine, and being a Space Marine alone is a very different experience than being a scout or an Imperial Guard or any of the other Imperium of Man that you're going to see in this trailer.

"What does being an Inquisitor mean? That's down the road somewhere. I always say too much in these things, but I get excited.

"It has a lot of the same qualities of WOW in terms of ease of use and how the interface is. I want to say that if you play WOW, you'll be able to jump into Dark Millennium Online really easy.

"But you won't be able to be a Space Marine right away, because that's a very unique class, if you know the universe. The road there is a great road, and they are in the game."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Gambit1977 #1 8 months ago

    Hmmm, do they still have those cool Eldar fellas in 40k?

  • BuddyChrist #2 8 months ago

    Being a big ole Ork Nob adds a whole new fun approach to the gameplay in more ways that one....

  • Inmediasress #3 8 months ago

    I hate MMOs why can't they just make a good single player RPG W40k has a lot of lore for that.
    MMOs jsut suck the life out of franchises. I want to play an epic story not as a space marine but something more subtle something that has value.
    Not going to raid the lord of decay or something for a new chainsaw sword that I have to roll against 40 players. You just can't feel your part fo the story when you have to share it with a bunch of others.

  • taurus82 #4 8 months ago

    Can anyone remind me of a Games Workshop series that had a Mad Max-style theme?

  • telboy007 #5 8 months ago

    @taurus82

    Crikey thats going back a bit, there was a car combat game they had which was VERY mad max. No idea what the name of it was now though. :)

    Edit: Wikipedia you are my hero... http://en.wi kipedia.org/wiki/Battlecars, the article links to Dark Future as well which could be the one you're thinking of?
    Edited by 1 at 16/06/11 @ 11:01

  • Murton #6 8 months ago

    "It has a lot of the same qualities of WOW in terms of ease of use and how the interface is. I want to say that if you play WOW, you'll be able to jump into Dark Millennium Online really easy."

    Another EQ based MMO, yawn. When first announced I thought this might have been the game to convince me to come back to the MMORPG genre, then we find out it's just another reskin and my interest immediately waned a little. Here's hoping they have enough stuff in there to give it some real flavour or it'll go the same way as every other MMO of the last five years.

    @ Taurus - it was Necromunda and it was awesome, there was also Gorka Morka which was basically the same but with Ork Mobs fighting it out.

  • SClaw #7 8 months ago

    @taurus82

    Gorkamorka

  • tankboi #8 8 months ago

    @taurus82

    Gorka Morka I think it was called. It was cool, shame it died.

  • Barkotron #9 8 months ago

    @taurus82: Dark Future was very Mad Max-y, post-apocalyptic desert driving game etc. Surely that's it?

  • Freki #10 8 months ago

    I am going to buy and play this game. No point trying to convince myself otherwise. How long for, who knows? But it is 40K and by some accounts the Warhound in the trailer is player driven. It may well be rubbish, it will probably be deeply flawed even if good, but they will get at least a month out of me. :D

  • Lemming81 #11 8 months ago

    Well it's got fuck all to do with EA's origin donwloader so count me in. 40k=/=Star Wars for me, tbh.

  • gribb #12 8 months ago

    THQ talks up own game shocker!

  • gribb #13 8 months ago

    THQ talks up own game shocker!

  • elephant_stone #14 8 months ago

    @taurus82

    Gorkamorka was the most Mad Max like Gamesworkshop game.. it had cool clans of Orks fighting in vehicles and stuff.

    Necromunda came out before Gorkamorka and was like Blade Runner meets Fallout - lots of different factions/gangs fighting it out in one massive "hive" city....multi leveled verticle gaming which was really fun!

    I still have both games still, somewhere in the shed - they were my favourite Gamesworkshop games as they both came with buildings! w00t.

    oh and lets not forget Warhammer Quest!!!!

  • oldmanwisdom #15 8 months ago

    Damn Warhammer Quest was good, I'll never forget my level 10 barbarian, Barney Argash.

  • Ryboy #16 8 months ago

    Yes! Exact WoW clones of 40k AND Star Wars. I may as well just divorce the missus now. I'm never gonna see her or daylight again! Muhahahahahaa!

  • elephant_stone #17 8 months ago

    @oldmanwisdom

    Yes! My Chaos Warrior was amazing too! Massive axe!

    I'm nearly 27 and suddenly feel compelled to go and hang out at my local Gamesworkshop...people will pick on me though...*sob*

  • Stickman #18 8 months ago

    I am...

    /rolls dice

    ...excited!

  • ircaddicts #19 8 months ago

    just what we need YET ANOTHER WOW CLONE SIGH. Help me Guild Wars 2 your my ONLY hope

  • Zaiz #20 8 months ago

    Oh hi Relic art. >.>

    So either they are calling it a WoW clone to get MMO players onboard and it is more like that-one-MMO-shooter-thing(Planetfall?) or it is WoW with big vehicles.

    First question - why wouldn't you play as the goddamn space marines over the imperial guard?

    Second question - we better be able to play as the IG.

    edit: not much of a second question there. >.>
    Edited by 1 at 16/06/11 @ 15:32

  • SAMagic #21 8 months ago

    Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment...


    THQ, just give me Battlefield crossed with Dawn of War 2 and we'll be good. I don't want to be collecting 50 Ork heads before returning to Captain Tycho.

  • jimr9999us #22 8 months ago

    This is the one i'm waiting for.

  • Gastrian #23 8 months ago

    @Saiz

    Reasons not to choose a Space Marine over an IG

    1. Space Marines don't get Titans, and while technically not part of the infantry they go to war to under IG command..
    2. You want to play lasertag.
    3. The Baneblade
    4. You like playing horror games where you go in only armed with a flashlight.
    5. Your penis works (its nerdy but a Space Marine's bits don't work)
    6. You can be a Commissar and shoot your friends dead when they don't run to their deaths.

  • Nephirion #24 8 months ago

    Exciting news:

    2012 launch, massive preorders described as wow killer
    2013 Half the subscribers are gone, lack of content, novelty factor worn of lack of continous content
    2014 Free 2 play, low pop servers hosted in the states, next!!!!!

  • Valland #25 8 months ago

    Say what? Imperial Guard?
    I'm in!

  • jetsetdemo #26 8 months ago

    I am 39 and the 1st GW car game was Battlecars not to be confused with GDW Car Wars, Sigh i remember many a sunday round the table mad max style.

  • Zaiz #27 8 months ago

    @Gastrian

    I know that much about the 40k fluff. Those are the precise reasons I think it'd be fun to play as an IG person in this game because everyone else is going to be tromping around with steel plates bolted to them.

  • irrational-gaz #28 8 months ago

    "But you won't be able to be a Space Marine right away, because that's a very unique class, if you know the universe. The road there is a great road, and they are in the game."

    I'm not sure I want to be a space marine if it means I actually have to go through the endless recitation of battle litanies not to mention the fact I'd have to start my character pre-puberty so that the genetic implants had a greater chance of success and the endless drills and training and prayers and training and prayers......on the bright side though I would end up with a character seven feet tall, built like a brick shit house, almost completely impervious to pain who has two hearts three lungs, can regurgitate concentrated acid, survive hard vacuum by entering a deep meditative state and go without sleep for months at a time...decisions, decisions.

  • berelain #29 8 months ago

    EG reader's knowledge of the Warhammer 40k lore pleases me greatly.

    Meanwhile, I'll be playing as an Ork, wiv shiny red armour, 'coz everywun knows red wunz go fasta.