warhammer-40000-dawn-of-war-ii-retribution posts

The switch from Games For Windows Live to Steam may have helded Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Retribution's overall sales, according to reps from the sci-fi RTS game's developer Relic and its publisher THQ. In a new interview over at The A List Daily, THQ's Director of Global Brand Management Georgina Verdon said, "Going exclusive through Steam helped drive awareness with their millions of users by way of banners and message support so by the time we opened the beta up to all Steam customers, we had a huge number of people playing."

Those effots, along with some others like streaming beta matches with top Starcraft players, ended up being very successful for the game, with Verdon saying, "This hype and activity helped us exceed our digital pre-order forecast by 129 percent."

The game's Last Stand multiplayer gameplay mode is now available to purchase and download via Steam, under the title The Last Standalone, for a mere $10.

Earlier this week we reported that developer Relic would be releasing a free content update for its latest RTS game Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Retribution that would add new wargear items via 12 new Steam achievements in the game's Last Stand mode. Now the game's official community web site has posted up exactly what wargear items will be available.

Each of the game's heroes will be able to get two new wargear items as a result of the update but the site states, " ... expect some steep challenges to unlock the corresponding wargear." As an example the Imperial Guard Lord General hero will be able to unlock the Black Plate armor that improves melee resistance. It will also get access to unlock the Duelist Honors that will greatly increase its melee attack. The free update will be made available on April 6.

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.