Last week THQ pulled the rug from underneath players currently in the open beta for Company of Heroes On-line by abruptly saying that the testing period will end in March because it “evaluates the next steps for the Company of Heroes series”. Developer Relic then confirmed that each one player data could be wiped following the conclusion of the OB, leaving players scratching their heads (to say the least) over what precisely is occurring with the MMO. At the moment that got cleared up.
As of March 31, Company of Heroes Online will cease to be. As such, Relic’s instructed players to spend all their CoHO Cash as soon as potential, in order to keep away from flushing their cash down this big, failure-encrusted crapper that’s now history.
Wiping out player data between the open beta and precise game launch by no means actually inspires any confidence, and right this moment THQ confirms its reasons: there’ll by no means be an actual launch for Firm of Heroes Online now. In their monetary report for the third quarter of their 2011 fiscal 12 months, the writer slips in a little bit mention that the MMO has been cancelled. That is not the only MMO undertaking it has pulled the plug from: WWE On-line has been cancelled as well.
In the fiscal third quarter, the corporate reevaluated its strategy of adapting certain Western content material for free-to-play online games in Asian markets. Because of this, the company’s fiscal third quarter non-GAAP results exclude a cost of $9.9 million associated to the cancellation of Firm of Heroes Online and WWE Online.
On the upside, beta participants will obtain a code that’ll nab them the Company of Heroes Gold Version for only $4.99. Additionally, the Company of Heroes franchise is not down for the depend just yet, with Relic explaining that “we’re still working on our plans for the Firm of Heroes franchise and aren’t ready to discuss particulars yet.
That is to not say that the publisher is hurting financially (it notes it enjoyed a really strong holiday quarter thanks in no small part to demand for its uDraw GameTablet Wii peripheral), but THQ has seen fit to align its interests toward the manufacturing of latest IP (like inSANE), in addition to its informal/social and family gaming business.
In an investor telephone call, THQ CEO Brian Farrell defined the choice, claiming that THQ’s focus is on “growing great content, most of it IP owned by THQ. And the concept of changing some of these ideas for a market — though Korea’s still an ideal market — it simply wasn’t the top of our checklist for focus.” He famous that THQ’s “small” Korean office has additionally been closed.
