company-of-heroes-online posts

As Relic Entertainment gets its players ready for the end of Company of Heroes Online, the developer has also released a new beta patch via Steam for the original retail version of its WWII RTS game. The patch notes for the beta update show a number of community-made maps have been added along with adjustments to other maps and other changes and additions.

Meanwhile Company of Heroes Online is still scheduled to shut down its servers after March 31. The web site already has a farewell message from the Relic team, hinting that the game franchise will continue in some form, saying, " Everyone at Relic appreciates the love that fans clearly have for the game, and hope that you'll be pleased with what we're working on as the next step for the franchise."

If you haven't yet played Company of Heroes Online but thought that you still had some time to download and play the game before it shuts down for good, you are officially too late. The game's official web site has announced that client downloads for Relic's free-to-play WWII RTS game have officially been disabled as of today.

Players who have already downloaded the client and have established an account to play the game still have about two more weeks to fight on the virtual battlefields of Europe. As we reported a few weeks ago Company of Heroes Online will shut down its servers for good on March 31.

Company of Heroes Online continues to give its players more content even as the WWII online RTS game is scheduled to shut down operations in little over a month. This week the team at developer Relic Entertainment have added two additional maps to the game.

One of the maps is titled Carpiquet, a small two player maps that is set on an airfield. The other new map is a big eight player level titled Hedgerow Siege which is actually an update from a previously released map designed for six players. As we reported earlier this month, publisher THQ will shut down the servers on Company of Heroes Online on March 31.

Company of Heroes Online may be shutting down for good on March 31 but the development team at Relic Entertainment are still adding new content to the WWII persistant RTS game before publisher THQ pulls the plug. Late on Friday the team added two new maps to the game.

One of the new maps is titled Road to Montherme, a four player map that was created by a long time Company of Heroes mod maker Mannerheim. The other map is an eight-player battlefield named Hill 331 which is actually a modified and expanded version of a six-player map from Relic. In related news a new beta patch for the retail version of Company of Heroes has been released via Steam for beta participants. You can check out the patch notes right here.

Relic Entertainment's next big RTS game announcement "should come in August". That's the word from THQ exec Danny Bilson in a recent message on his Twitter site. Relic has been THQ's main RTS game developer and has created the Company of Heroes WWII themed series along with adapting the Warhammer 40,000 franchise with the Dawn of War series.

While Relic's next RTS game, the stand alone expansion pack Warhammer 40000 Dawn of War II Retribution, is currently in beta and will be released on March 1, THQ recently announced that it will shut down Company of Heroes Online, its persistant online RTS, on March 31. Some have speculated that Relic might be working on a third game in its acclaimed space-based Homeworld series.

THQ's decision to shut down its persistant online RTS game Company of Heroes Online will cause the publisher to take a $9.9 million charge in its latest financial numbers. As we reported on Tuesday the game from developer Relic Entertainment will shut down on March 31 in both North America and Asia. Another free-to-play game, WWE Online, will also be shut down; it was only available in Asian markets.

THQ's press release was vague on the reasons behind the shutdown of its free-to-play games, saying only that the company had "reevaluated its strategy of adapting certain Western content for free-to-play online games in Asian markets." Overall THQ's revenues for the quarter that ended on December 31, 2010 came in at $314.6 million compared to $356.7 million for the same period a year ago. The company said it had a net loss for the quarter of $14.9 million compared to a net profit of $542,000 for the same period a year ago.

In a major surprise, developer Relic Entertainment and publisher THQ have announced that the online persistent WWII RTS game Company of Heroes Online will shut down on March 31 "to evaluate the next steps for the Company of Heroes series." The game's web site has posted up an FAQ page with more info on the shut down. It states, "After several very successful months we have a wealth of data and feedback that the team at Relic and the wider online team at THQ can digest and use to shape and enhance our future offerings."

Players are no longer able to purchase in-game cash from the site but can use previously purchased cash in the game until March 31. Company of Heroes Online retail cash cards can be redeemed to be used in the game until March 1.

The game started its open beta phase last September and was continuously updated until today's announcement. Indeed the development team added a new map to Company of Heroes Online just last week. Any player who registered to play in the open beta before today will be able to purchase and download Company of Heroes Gold Edition from THQ's online store for just $4.99.

Update: Big Download has gotten off the phone with a THQ PR rep who told us that Company of Heroes Online will be shut down in both North America and Asian territories. The PR rep said that at the moment he was not aware of any layoffs at Relic as a result of the shutdown but such announcements might be reserved for THQ's quarterly financial results which, as it happens, will be announced on Wednesday.

The legacy of Brian Wood, the lead designer of Company of Heroes Online who died tragicaly in a car crash in September, continues to be felt by Wood's employer Relic Entertainment. This week the developer announced plans to establish the Brian Wood Memorial Game Design Internship.

The internship will give one graduate of the Vancouver Film School' Game Design Program a chance to get a four month internship at Relic, working directly with one of the developer's teams. The first internship will be awarded in February and Relic plans to offer paid internships to three graduate students each year.

Another day, another ice storm in the Northeast. Winter has just started and we are already pretty tired of it. We are already thinking about E3 in June ... nice and warm and (hopefully) sunny LA weather.

• Nvidia has released new reference graphics drivers (version 266.58) for its GeForce-based graphics cards.
• Paradox Interactive has released a new video interview with its CEO Fredrik Wester ahead of this week's big press event for the publisher.
• The mother of one of Dead Space 2's team members isn't scared by footage of the game.
• The wife of the late Brian Wood, one of the lead designers of Company of Heroes Online, talked about him again on the Today show and showed off their daughter for the first time.

The free-to-play WWII RTS game Company of Heroes Online may technically be still in open beta but the team at the game's developer Relic Entertainment are certainly treating the game as if it were officially launched. This week the game's players got a chance to check out a new map for the game.

The new two player map is called Beach Assault and as you might guess from its title it's inspired by the D-Day beach landings at Normandy. Players must try to control the beach in order to control the fuel supply as more fuel equals faster access to more powerful units in the game. The new map is now available for Reward Games and Custom Games.