In his April "State of the Game" letter EA Mythic's General Manager, Mark Jacobs, indicates that the company has decided to move the ship date for Warhammer Onlines US and UK release to first quarter 2008. Jacobs explains the move as an opportunity to "make the best [MMOG] possible." Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning was originally slated for a late 2007 release.
Source: Warhammer Online: Newsletter [ more info ]

With Warhammer Online, we've grown pretty used to hearing there's another delay. But, given the amount of work that was left to be done the last time I visited Mythic, I couldn't see how they were going to hit a 2007 lauch date in the first place. Now, we're not talking Duke Nukem Forever here, the game will be released sometime soon. I'd just be a little bit less than honest if I said I believed Q1 was going to be the final "live" date. Don't take that the wrong way, I have all faith in the folks at Mythic, they rock. My doubts lay more with Gamesworkshop and their inability to loosen their grip on the Warhammer IP even a little.

We're not the only one's waiting though. The Greenskins (and Dwarves), have seemingly been ready for a long time now. But everytime we got new screenshots from the game it was more greenskins and more dwarves. Granted the first group is always going to be the most difficult. They allow for other testing, such as RVR balance. Now, we did start seeing some images from the Empire/Chaos pair in February. But there's still nothing representing the High Elves/Dark Elves. With a late 2007 release date, even the new 2008 release date, that's a bit worrisome.

And, yes, the parallel with last week's LOTR comic is intentional.

Hopefully WO will be worth the wait. I have high hopes that it will prove to be a decent alternative to my WoW addiction.

Am part of a group trying to get in on the guild beta. Hope it turns out as good as it is looking.

I'm loking forward to this game. But a push back doesn't really bother me, it gives me more time to play lotro!

Maybe the Elves will be like WoW's Hero classes, they're coming soon trust us!

EA pushing a game back?! To make it better they say?! I call shenanigans!

Yeh, I would expect another pushback to 2Q '08 from them. If they want to sap WoW, they have to be the best they can be on release.

Brousing over Chaos, it looks very promising.

The pushback of the release is in direct corelation for releases slated for the tabletop game.

In a typical GW fashion, they've requested the game be delayed till January to coincide with the Fall 07 release of the Chaos Codicies and the Winter 2008 release of Codex: Orks. The thought process behind this is the game will sell more Codicies, the Codicies will sell more games, and both will ultimately sell more minis.


If I knew what the hell I was talking about, the tabletop and MMO had more to do with each other, and the Codicies I mentioned weren't for an entirely different genre... This- might make the tiniest sliver of sense.


To a very dimwitted child...

I'd rather wait longer for a solid game than have them release an unfinished product early. I played DAoC since launch and have a lot of faith in Mythic and their ability to make a good MMO. I was actually a bit worried that being part of EA would compromise that but it looks like EA is letting them do their thing, very wise of EA I think.

As for GamesWorkshop keeping a tight grip on their IP, I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. I'm a fan of the Warhammer universe and I can't see the downside in GW's level of involvement, other than some possible delays. The only other game I've played based on an existing IP was SWG, and we all know how that turned out. But, I don't think that any parallels can be drawn between SOE+LA and EA Mythic+GW, they're a different class of company IMO.

An MMOG is not a table top game. Some leway needs to be offered to the developer so that they can produce a game that will appeal to MMOG players. When the IP holder nitpicks the tinyest details, because they themselves have never taken the time to define those details it slows the development process. I'd point at my own issues with GW over the WAR comic I was producing for Mythic... but they required it be taken down and the project discontinued over something ridiculously trivial (and their own lack of resource info for me to work from).