Relic are the next studio with eSports ambitions, it seems. Dawn of War 3 might not be out until some time in 2017, but it seems like it’s being built to endure far beyond that.
For the full lowdown, here’s everything we know about Dawn of War 3.
It’s a given that co-op will be something the developers build upon, considering it’s a mode that’s still played in the last Dawn of War to this day, but competitive multiplayer is an unknown quantity thus far.
That’s why we asked about that component when we spoke to campaign lead Brent Disbrow at this year’s E3 conference. “We’re not really talking about multiplayer yet – that’s coming later in the year – but we have some really cool stuff going on there that I think people will be happy with,” Disbrow tells us.
“I would love to see us go towards eSports, but for now we’re focusing on the campaign and a really exciting multiplayer feature-set.”
We’ve seen the inlfuence of the MOBA creep into many genres over recent years, with the FPS more recently using it as a base to build upon with the birth of the modern hero shooter. Relic are also looking to the genre for inspiration.
“We spent a bunch of time looking at MOBAs, just ’cause they’re awesome, but we also use them as a reference point for the clarity of gameplay,” Disbrow explains. “So in a MOBA you control one hero, you have a very clear sense of when your attacks are working, the tells, vulnerabilities and stuff like that. We took a lot of that and used that lens on our game.
“For example, if somebody threw a grenade in earlier Dawn of Wars there was a very small pixel [makes beeping noise], maybe there was a timer on it, a little bit of a trail, it lands – big explosion. Awesome feedback for the attacker. For the guy who’s receiving it? Not so good. Nothing you could react against. So the notion of tells has been a big thing that we’ve taken away from MOBAs.”