Company of Heros 2 has been released; read our Company of Heroes 2 review to find out our verdict.
After a long day of publisher money crossing sweaty palms – and a glimpse of the sorry end that could have been in the disassembly of Darksiders devs Vigil – we were relieved to hear that lovely, talented Relic would be frozen in carbonite and shipped off whole to new hutt masters Sega. Now Company of Heroes 2 director Quinn Duffy has been thawed out and, while he’s suffering from a hibernation sickness-induced temporary blindness, he can begin to tell us at least some of what the hell is going on.
Though Relic have “some gaps on our team in the short term” – notably former CoH community manager Bobby Miller – development will continue apace.
“The team is raring to go, we’re as happy as we can be about our situation, and COH2 is looking and feeling better every day,” wrote Duffy in a post duplicated on a variety of fan sites. “Our joy at being able to continue on the game we love is tempered with concern for our colleagues at THQ and other studios but as clichéd as it may sound, the show must go on.”
What comes after Company of Heroes, nobody knows but Sega.
“I can only personally speculate that Relic has unique value for Sega; that they liked what we were doing, and that they will want us to continue what we are doing,” mused Duffy. “I know they’re excited.
“Apart from that, we don’t have a lot we can talk about yet – if you can use Google, you likely have the same information we do. We promise we’ll try to tackle the transition as efficiently as possible so that we can get back to Company of Heroes 2 as quickly as we can.”
Elsewhere Duffy mourned THQ, which he described as anything but a “faceless corporation”.
“THQ was Tony, Simon, Jon, George, Suzanne, Danny, and Bobby. It was Jason, and Ron, and Brian. I want to thank them all,” he wrote. “These were people we spent time with and laughed with, we traveled together over great distances, we shared stories of our families, we faced challenges.
“THQ was people we spoke with every day, people who exhibited great passion about our games and the industry. We’ll see their contributions again soon, I’m sure.”
There’s plenty of worry about that Sega have left the rights to the much-loved Homeworld IP in the wreckage of THQ; so much so that an indie studio is asking fans to pitch in and snap it up for the greater good of the series. Here’s what we think, though: Relic and the Homeworld IP must be reunited.
Where would you like to see Relic’s efforts pointed next?