Waaagh! Dawn Of War 3 Rumblings/Hopings
In the grim dark present, there are only whispers
At the very least, Relic are updating their Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War games to add Steam trading cards. That wouldn't be too exciting. It'd be nice that they - and new publisher Sega, who picked the series up after THQ sank - still care about the series enough to do that, but it's probably leading up to something, right? DoW 2 and all its gubbins are all on sale right now too.
Watchful eyes also noticed recently that Sega updated the long-held domain Dawnofwar3.com back in March. That isn't at all conclusive, and I wouldn't post either of these Dawn of War titbits by themselves, but together? Let's dare to dream.
We know that Relic were definitely working on Dawn of War III years ago, and in June 2011 they were muttering about war galore and having "your own personal, custom army." In the months that followed, though, Relic's then-owner THQ shut several studios and killed several series as it tried desperately to stay afloat. The fate of Relic, let alone Dawn of War III, became uncertain. After THQ sank, Sega picked up Relic.
Relic have focused on Company of Heroes 2 in recent years, following up on its 2013 launch with a handful of multiplayer standalone expansions. Maybe they've been working secretly on Dawn of War III too.
The domain update means little by itself, mind. It'd only be sensible for Sega to sit on that, even if Relic aren't working on Dawn of War III - they'd want to keep out domain squatters just in case. It'd seem strange if they abandoned Dawn of War, though, as it's pretty great.
And they clearly aren't abandoning Dawn of War. Last year, Relic stripped Games for Windows - Live out of Dawn of War II to replace it with Steamworks. Last week they added Steam trading cards to the first Dawn of War, then yesterday added them to Dawn of War II with steam chat emoticons, and profile backgrounds, and whatnot.
Couple that with the current Steam sale on DoW 2 - all 75% off, with a bundle of DoW 2, its expansion, and its expandalone for £9.99, or those plus The Last Standalone and reams of DLC for £13.49 - and one might think Sega are trying to stir a little excitement about the series. They could simply be trying to wring extra cash out of it, but it seems unlikely. I hope not, anyway. I do wonder what happened to Relic's 40k license in all the mess but lawks, Games Workshop are hardly conservative with letting folks use it.
Gamescom in Germany in August is always a good place to announce a new strategy game. Just a suggestion, Sega.