THQ Not Chucked Out of Games Workshop

This is a bit "some men have paid some money to some other men", but given the general tendency towards 40K gonkery around these parts it's worth a nod. THQ have just announced that they've arranged to hang onto the rights to Warhammer 40,000 for a few more years yet. This means we'll see more Only War-based games from THQ (including social and mobile ones; let's hope the former doesn't mean TyranidVille) after the upcoming Space Marine and the MMO Dark Millennium have been and gone. Licences for the licence god!

Is this is a good thing? I should say so. Relic's Dawn of War series may have had a few wobbles, but for the most part they've done excellent things with the licence. The proof of the grim future pudding will be in Space Marine and Dark Millennium, I guess - it's yet to be truly established how well the IP sits with different genres. Unless you're a Fire Warrior fan. I'll just leave that there.

Of course, this deal may mean other THQ (or even contracted third parties) studios get to play with our beloved 41st millennium, as was the slightly unfortunate case with Iron Lore and the final Dawn of War 1 expansion Soulstorm, but hopefully quality control is intact across the board.

Here are some quotes on the subject from important people, which were doubtless edited, tweaked and approved by a series of less important men before being made public. That's business!

THQ's emperor Brian Farrell:

“The complex, futuristic war-torn universe created by Games Workshop equipped THQ’s award-winning development teams with the material to create one of the most loved PC franchises – Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. Our envisioning of the Warhammer 40,000 universe will continue to grow with top quality games across all platforms, including the upcoming launches of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online.”

Games Workshop's god-king Mark Wells:

“The impressive translation of the Warhammer 40,000 universe from the tabletop to the video game space by THQ certainly highlights the potential of our most successful intellectual property in the right hands. We know that the depth of the storylines, characters and imagery of the Warhammer 40,000 universe positions the IP to excel across many media platforms - and extending our agreement with THQ will help ensure that Warhammer 40,000 maintains a strong and growing presence in the video game space.”

I'd love to go to video game space. It's like real space, but with more colours.