Games Workshop cans Warhammer Online

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 June, 2004

Sega confirms that production of Climax-developed MMORPG has been halted following Games Workshop's earlier announcement.

Games Workshop has terminated development of massively multiplayer online RPG Warhammer Online, which had been under construction at Britsoft development Climax.

In an announcement to the City this afternoon, the tabletop specialist said the termination came at the behest of the board "following a full review of the progress, costs to date and future costs of the project".

Warhammer Online has been in development for quite some time. Originally announced in 2000 as a joint Climax/Microsoft project developed with Games Workshop's blessing, Sega Europe picked up the rights to publish it in various regions including Europe and North America in May 2003.

Having initially declined to comment on the situation, a Sega Europe representative has since been in touch with the following official statement confirming the game's cancellation:

"Warhammer Online was due to be published by Sega Europe in early 2005. We regret to confirm that development has now ceased on this project. Sega remains committed to expanding its portfolio by working with the best developers in the marketplace."

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 8 years ago

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

  • Chris Gardiner #1 8 years ago

    Oo-er. This was loking pretty good, for a MMORPG. I wonder what went on?

  • Flabio #2 8 years ago

    I suspect it was more development costs in this case. A lot of studios went into this field expecting to make money a la Everquest, but it takes twice as long to develop one of these as it does a normal game, if you're starting from scratch.

    And who wants to go up against World of Warcraft and Everquest 2?

  • MikeD #3 8 years ago

    hmmm, maybe the purchase of the matrix online has something to do with it.

  • Chris Gardiner #4 8 years ago

    You are mad and wrong. Thhhpt.

  • AOFanboi #5 8 years ago

    This sucks. WHFRP was and still is one of the best pen and paper RPGs ever created. If they were able to transfer that over into the MMOG world, it could really kick some serious ass.

    Maybe the developers refused putting stinking ads for the miniatures into the game or whatnot.

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #6 8 years ago

    David, Snowy and hp, sitting in the same IP, C-O-E-X-I-S-T-I-N-G.

  • ssuellid #7 8 years ago

    lol

  • Grom #8 8 years ago

    Guess that Matt Sansam scandal post on fatbabies had something behind it after all!

    Sad to hear though, good luck to the dev team :(

  • Salvia #9 8 years ago

    Scandal? Pray tell...and don't forget to add allegedly at the end :-)

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #10 8 years ago

    "And why would anyone want to impersonate me?"

    I don't know, but I can vouch for the fact you're not posting from the same IP as "fake toast".

  • Royal Fool #11 8 years ago

    Gosh people, just go register. Takes but a second (Well, slightly longer than that, but still, it's not a hassle)

  • Grom #12 8 years ago

    Here's the alleged URL to the alleged scandal where allegedly Matt Sansam allegedly wrote an epitaph to Warhammer Online while it was still meant to be being made:

    h ttp://www.fatbabies.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2659

    Enough allegedness for you? :)

    I think the conclusion was that it wasn't Matt Sansam but someone else in a similar position on the game. In any case Matt left a while back for whatever reason.

    I feel sorry for Rick Priestley though. He's a pen-and-paper gaming god, and his WFRP work was fantastic.

  • El_MUERkO #13 8 years ago

    AGHHHHH@@@@!!!!

    NOOOOOO :(

    I wanted this bad!!! :(

  • hp_on_toast #14 8 years ago

    "DOWN WITH WATHAMMER ON LINE" - I wonder if this has anything to do with the new guy I just met who sells soap & my flat exploding...

    "Gosh people, just go register. Takes but a second (Well, slightly longer than that, but still, it's not a hassle)" - done, no more imposters!

    "That sounded sort of odd ^Moto GP 3 now being done in Nottingham^ so it ^was^ being made in Brighton (as they made Moto GP and Moto GP 2).
    so the Warhammer being canned must have been on the cards for a while " - saw it on an industry message board in a few places ;)

  • hp_on_toast #15 8 years ago

    "hp_on_toast - you sound paranoid. You work up in Nottingham in that wreched studio don't you, go on admit it!"

    lol, no, ive only ever worked in london dev studios :p

    "Well, maybe with Firewarrior doing so badly, they want to make sure the quality is really high. If you compared this game to Relic's Dawn of War RTS game, it wasnt looking that great. (IMHO) "

    Im still pissed off with Firewarrior - not because of how it ended up but beause THQ got a load of devs to put in pitches for an Xbox / PC space hulk game a few years ago and left the idea alone because Kuju pitched Firewarrior as an fps rather than the RTS they got others to put ideas in for. We came up with a great HUD system with a lockon that mixed Metroid Prime's (before it was released :p) targetting (except with auto zooming :) ) and Riddicks hand to hand combat (whilst locked on, use the looking stick to bash out combos) and now those two have gone and done it . It wouldve been great, smashing a chainsword into a genestealers face before spinning around and getting an orc in the head with a perfect shot from 1/2 a mile away, oh well...

  • Kami #16 8 years ago

    I have an urge to say... oh, here it comes...

    Meh


    Ahhh... so much better. Sucks, but some part of me thinks that it may have been for the best...

  • nick_f Verified Senior Producer, Microsoft #17 8 years ago

    The Sega quote just means that despite being burnt by this one they are still looking to partner with the best that independent UK development has to offer.

    A shame Free Radical Design and Criterion Games have signed with EA, then.

  • jellyhead #18 8 years ago

    Mum?
    Bro?
    Sis?
    Climax you Ba$tard$! :)

  • Binaryhead #19 8 years ago

    Being an ex programmer that once worked for Climax Development i really felt that the company was giving me bad references. No matter how hard i tried to find away out of there i simply could not. In the end i finally managed to find alternative employment and am now working for a software company that genuinely has a passion for making great video game products.


    - One happy programmer :)


  • Cornflake #20 8 years ago

    Christ, I know a guy who went for a job on this game about 5 years ago, no wonder they canned it.

  • Manitou #21 8 years ago

    Obviously GW wern't going to be able to make a 1000% profit margin on WO, as is the norm for thier other products. Nor can they Monopolise the market like they have done with thier tabletop products.

    What really pisses me off is the way there was no mention of the project cancelation on the GW site. the WO site simply ceased to exist. Not even an appology to all those who were waiting with baited breath for this game. The whole WO thing was a digital cock tease.

    Typical arrogent, wankey behaviour from Games Workshop. Fuck the lot of them! No wait, Triple fuck the lot of them!!!

  • Chris Gardiner #22 8 years ago

    Who *are* you people?

  • snowy_the_moose #23 8 years ago

    The real snowy, logged in and all proper with the orange text.

    *Alan_the_Rat wrote: And actually, as you mention it, British Rail were a lot better at getting the trains to run on time than the companies that run them now.*

    You obviously know far more about BR than i care too ;P
    – i was having a laugh :D