By Jim Rossignol on October 12th, 2011 at 9:38 pm.
UPDATE: The info has been removed now, so we must assumed it was posted in error. Whether that means it’s wrong, I don’t know.
We won’t be grinding nobz any time soon… THQ’s Warhamer 40k MMO, Dark Millennium Online has been dated for the distant future of March 13, 2013. This official website bore the news, with a bit of text about the “Sargos Sector” which will play host to the action.
Gosh that’s a long run up. Original announcement trailer from June last year is below.
12/10/2011 at 21:49 Kaira- says:
I will probably try this out a month or two after it launches. Such is my WH40K fanboy-ery.
13/10/2011 at 09:43 mejoff says:
My fanboiery is what will keep me away from this.
I don’t want to play 40k with MMO players.
I would link to a perfect SOTI strip about this, but they’ve been hacked and all the comics are down.
12/10/2011 at 21:50 Unaco says:
That’s quite encouraging, I guess. Perhaps means there’s going to be loads of content, lots of features, balancing and testing. That they’re going to do a proper job with it, rather than trying to rush it out.
12/10/2011 at 23:07 pupsikaso says:
Wow took 5 or 6 years to get developed, and even then it was a bit shit when it launched. It took another 2 years for it to become what everyone is trying to copy now. So yeah, three years to develop an MMO isn’t really “taking the time to do a good job”. It’s more like them thinking “there’s no way we’ll have anything even resembling a game sooner than this date”.
13/10/2011 at 06:52 mpk says:
To be fair, 5-6 years of Blizzard development time equates to 2-3 years of anyone else’s (apart from Valve).
13/10/2011 at 14:03 Syra says:
DMO has been in development for about 3 years already btw, so this is a 5 year cycle. It was being made by vigil before they started on darksiders even…
12/10/2011 at 21:55 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
So it’s coming out 37,987 years ahead of schedule?
13/10/2011 at 02:14 evilhippo says:
Thread winner :-)
13/10/2011 at 04:18 pupsikaso says:
What? You can “win” threads?
13/10/2011 at 04:28 Kronus says:
Only if there’s a prize at the end… And evilhippo? God damn it, if you are who I think you are I expect you to reply to my message on Cryptic. Otherwise I’ll tell your girlfriend to start feeding you shitty take outs instead of those fine meals you kept bragging about. If it isn’t you, well, too bad, but I agree with the comment.
13/10/2011 at 10:18 Optimaximal says:
Ahh, but what did the ghost say when he won the prize?!
13/10/2011 at 10:35 Burning Man says:
I believe Kronus just executed a come-from-behind home run.
12/10/2011 at 21:58 BloatedGuppy says:
By the look of the textures, I think this was meant to say “2003″.
12/10/2011 at 22:05 El_MUERkO says:
I’ll take those textures if it’s planetside-esque and there’s a tonne of gore and body parts everywhere :D*
*there wont be :(
12/10/2011 at 22:46 Askeladd says:
I don’t like the truth people hide from me behind asterisks.
13/10/2011 at 00:37 Danarchist says:
Textures smextures, I just want an mmo that doesn’t require me to spend half my playtime running to and fro and the other half hitting the same 10 keys in the same damn order.
I mean Rift has awesome textures and pixels and widgets. It is just so freaking boring it could be played by one of those drinking bird things that bob their heads.
13/10/2011 at 05:44 BeamSplashX says:
A drinking bird defeated me in single combat once.
I don’t like to talk about it, but awareness of their dangerous potential has to spread somehow.
13/10/2011 at 09:06 MaXimillion says:
@Danarchist: Have you tried DDO? It’s got a more action-based combat, especially if you play a non-caster class, and it’s free to play as well.
12/10/2011 at 22:00 nofing says:
The trailer still looks nice and if they manage to make a combat system with some impact (I don’t want to just stand there and shoot the same enemy for a couple of minutes, without moving), loose the grindy part and have a reasonable pricing scheme, than this game could be the first one to make me brake my “don’t play MMO’s” rule.
12/10/2011 at 22:49 Askeladd says:
Thats what I fear after watching that trailer with 1000 cuts of 1 second of actual combat put together.
12/10/2011 at 22:34 Evil Mani Mani says:
all I want is to run at my enemies, screaming WAAAAAAAGH, firing solid metal slugs out of my giant hand cannon, and then bury an axe the size of a torso in their skulls. Is that too much to ask?
I do not care for orks on the tabletop, except thematically, so the only context I want to play them in is one where I can do what I just described.
12/10/2011 at 22:47 Askeladd says:
Balancing will make it ‘not WH40k’.
12/10/2011 at 22:57 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Waaa my Imperial Guard footsoldier is not as good as the elite genetically-modified fanatical warrior monk! Nerf Primarchs!
12/10/2011 at 23:08 iniudan says:
Actually there is way to make it balanced without the avatar strength been actually balanced, it just that almost no MMO has done that do this day. By that I meant insane amount of “pet” (especially for those that play guardsmen, orks and tyranid (if play a synapse creature) =p)
13/10/2011 at 00:39 Danarchist says:
Didn’t they already say there would be two “factions” in the game?
I just can’t wrap my head around Space Marines chumming around with Warp Spiders and Harlequins.
Xenos filth.
13/10/2011 at 06:07 bill says:
Back in the olden days, marines would team up with eldar mercs, etc.. and harlequins would show up in battles against chaos. The original Rogue Trader rulebook (before all the grimdark) allowed some pretty mixed groups of races.
12/10/2011 at 22:57 nrvsNRG says:
eeeeek!!
this will be the first MMO ive subbed to for over 10 years.
BTW,
its says Available March 31, 2013 not the 13th.
12/10/2011 at 23:00 lowprices says:
“Grinding nobz”. Heh.
12/10/2011 at 23:18 pakoito says:
Relic is not involved? I’m out!
13/10/2011 at 02:21 Styles says:
Relic lost my fandom after Dawn of War 2 …..it was resoundingly “Meh”, and Space Marine was just as “Meh”, so for me I’m happy Relic aren’t involved. Vigil did a fantastic job on Darksiders, which increased my confidence in them by a heap. It’s a great game…check it out for some evidence that they could indeed do an awesome job.
13/10/2011 at 10:20 Optimaximal says:
Relic != the only company capable of developing a 40K game…
Heck, i’d rather it get passed around so they can do something new. Homeworld 3 hopefully!
12/10/2011 at 23:50 Walsh says:
Why so long for another shitty WoW clone? It will be just like SWTOR where they make all these promises on how it will be different but then you load it up and it’s some generic WoW gameplay mechanics.
13/10/2011 at 00:07 utharda says:
You shut your filthy mouth and respect the emperor of man!
This 40k were talking about here, this is serious.
(Please don’t take offense at the shut your filthy mouth thing. Its just…. its 40k.)
13/10/2011 at 00:31 Zepp says:
BURN THE HERETIC!!!
13/10/2011 at 01:54 caddyB says:
I have fun in WOW.
I love 40k.
I can only imagine the epic orgasms I could have with a 40k MMORPG, even if it’s a WoW clone.
13/10/2011 at 07:22 Valvarexart says:
CLEANSE THE UNCLEAN!!
13/10/2011 at 10:04 mejoff says:
“This 40k were talking about here, this is serious”
Which is precisely why a 2 faction WoW clone with perfectly fair avatar balance and a bunch of MMO goons cludging it up is a bad thing.
13/10/2011 at 14:06 Syra says:
Firstly it doesn’t look like it will be two faction, they said there would be eldar and orks and chaos and imperium, potentially they are all seperate.
Secondly the combat is being lifted from SPEHSS MEHREEN so it shouldn’t be very wow cloney.
Third FOR THE EMPRAH!
13/10/2011 at 00:30 Dana says:
Nope, I cant find this date anywhere on the site.
13/10/2011 at 00:36 Zepp says:
40k is cool and stuff but it’s fantasy battle that inspired this masterpiece of a trailer http://youtu.be/5enBMSH5ghc nothing will ever beat it, I almost cry everytime I watch it ;)
13/10/2011 at 07:36 Davie says:
I see your foolishly heroic warrior priest and raise you my foolishly heroic Blood Ravens sergeant.
13/10/2011 at 00:55 buzzmong says:
Ah, yeah, just as I feared. Single character avatar game which looks quite like Tabula Rasa with elements of WoW thrown in.
I’ve a theory that a 40k MMO game could be rather interesting if you controlled a small customisable squad rather than an individual, but still kept it in general MMO style. The core widget being that the characters in the squad are upgradeable/replaceable. Would allow for interesting squad make up and be intriguing in terms of the amount of actions going on.
I also wish a game would come out that’s closer to 40k lore on the violence front. Bolters fire small rocket propelled cannon shells which remove a normal man’s unarmoured torso with a single round, or having Power weapons cleaving through armour and flesh as if they were paper. Space Marine was at least edging towards that direction. Although whether or not the 40k ultraviolence as per the lore would be fun or not in a game context is up for debate…
13/10/2011 at 06:17 bill says:
I always imagines a 40k MMO being more like Epic, with you controlling a small group of 5 units that you could customise and upgrade to produce different squads. Surely that’d be a unique selling point?
Even so, i’m not sure that 40k will work as an RPG – because all the units are geared for battlefield and war, they aren’t really characters with motivations and backstories and story arcs. Hard to imagine marines chatting qith quest givers or crafting or trading goods. They aren’t individuals – and even making them squads might not fix that problem.
But it’d be more interesting.
14/10/2011 at 03:21 GeneralSalad says:
So, like Star Trek Online then?
13/10/2011 at 01:18 etho says:
Don’t they know that by 2013 there will be no MMOs, only war?
13/10/2011 at 01:54 ziusudra says:
I still dont get it why people like 40k so much, Battletech and normal D&D seem so much more fun. But anyway i hope its a good game.
13/10/2011 at 02:18 evilhippo says:
40K rocks *because* it is not like Battletech or D&D (D&D fer Christ’s sake???).
Actually I think 40K is one of those things “if you don’t get it, no one can explain it to you”… if Friedrich Nietzsche had designed a game, it would probably have looked something like 40K :-D
13/10/2011 at 02:26 Styles says:
Well for a start it’s a lot more dark and evil than D&D or Battletech (although they are great franchises themselves ….still waiting for another Mechwarrior game). In the 40k universe, even the good guys (mankind and one or two others) are still pretty evil in a lot of ways. It also has a lot more of a horror element than D&D.
13/10/2011 at 03:26 ziusudra says:
I know I know. I read some codexes, and the races are interesting ( lot of inspiration from Dune, and other sci fi classics like judge dread ), but its all over the top for me. I am not saying its bad in any way, just too much. I enjoyed Dawn of War, and took an interest to the Eldar and Imperial Guard, but then the Orks, the Chaos guys appear and it all becomes silly really. Just my opinion.
13/10/2011 at 03:31 TillEulenspiegel says:
Warhammer Fantasy is nifty. I really like WFRP1 and WFRP2. Superb games, strong setting.
40K bores me to tears, though. It’s so not what I want from a science fictiony game, ever. Any kind of game I like would fit better in another setting.
On second thought, something like Star Legions could work reasonably well. But that’s about it. And I’ve never seen another game like Star Legions.
13/10/2011 at 06:10 bill says:
I don’t care about the dumb “grimdark”, and basically all sci-fi is grim now.
But 40k is an EPIC combination of basically all cool sci-fi elements ever, plus 80s metal and everything takes place on such a gigantic scale.
If you don’t take it seriously, it’s a seriously awesome setting.
13/10/2011 at 07:15 tnankie says:
40K … the only race I can really identify with are the Tau…perhaps I realise the inevitability of ranged weaponry, perhaps I just like the idea of saving the universe from its self (perhaps I just like flying battle suits with missile matrox :). (I also identify with the eldar only a bit less so their religious bent disturbs me a bit). The human factions however, fuck ‘em. Stupid idiots get what they deserve.
13/10/2011 at 10:03 Wulf says:
Meh, I wouldn’t get too hung up on the Tau, especially since it seems like they’re more than a bit into brainwashing and sterilisation, for their “greater good.”
The Tau are really just as evil as the rest, except they’re much, much more insidious about it. The Tau are basically very much like the human Empire in a lot of ways, except the Tau have a better PR department.
13/10/2011 at 10:09 mejoff says:
“Chaos guys appear and it all becomes silly really.”
Chaos is pretty badly misrepresented in the computer games, sadly, it’s much more interesting when it’s treated as the 4 subfactions it was originally intended to be, and even more interesting in more narrative media, like the novels and the RPGs. For a wargame faction, they don’t half suffer thematically from the way wargames seem to treat them!
13/10/2011 at 03:30 Irishjohn says:
Yeah, I mean… 40K. I’m down with some 40K, always. But will we even be PLAYING MMOs at that point? Won’t all games be Kinect variants? Or perhaps webcam/Facebook/twitter based?
13/10/2011 at 05:48 BeamSplashX says:
In a surprise turn, all games will copy Ninja Gaiden.
The 2D one.
13/10/2011 at 10:03 Scoops says:
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
13/10/2011 at 10:55 GallonOfAlan says:
I tire of this burlier-men-than-thou gaming arms race.
13/10/2011 at 12:47 adonf says:
Re new video player, I know that you guys are loaded now, being the #1 PC gaming web site in the known universe and all, and that you can afford loads of bandwidth, but please do not stop using Youtube for videos unless you have good reasons to. Youtube might not be perfect (ads before ads for instance) but it works on most mobile phones while other players usually don’t.
13/10/2011 at 14:04 Warruz says:
This just needs to be treated more as planetside then say a traditional MMO, or perhaps Tabula Rasa but a shit ton better but that kind of concept game.