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In light of THQ’s losses last year, they’re looking at expanding revenue streams, and finding new ways to prevent piracy.

Here’s another Gamasutra article covering the news.

The first of these was to prepare a more competitive slate of titles, as outlined in its financial results. The second was to bring in new management talent to product development, along with a four stage greenlight process that would not let games through until they met key competitive technological and gameplay feature benchmarks.

Finally, new CFO Colin Slade explained that THQ would be realigning its cost structure along four key elements, notably a company wide plan to reduce infrastructure.

In addition, Slade promised the company would be realigning its resources toward more strategic franchises, instituting a new company-wide operating budget, and making sure its product development and marketing dollars were focused more efficiently on its most competitive titles.

also

Finally, Farrell was optimistic about its first foray into new revenue streams with the upcoming Asian launch of Company Of Heroes Online (pictured), a co-production of its Relic studio and China’s Shanda, which will be free to play but feature paid microtransaction downloads. Farrell wouldn’t say whether the game would be launched in the West any time soon, but said that THQ did “have those rights” and was investigating potential markets, and added that the company was looking into future products of that nature as well.

Fascinating things ahead for Relic! I hope they bring CoHO to North America!

So, three big changes for THQ - 1) a more competitive slate of titles 2) bring in new management talent to product development along with a four stage greenlight process that would not let games through until they met key competitive technological and gameplay feature benchmarks and 3) realigning its cost structure along four key elements, notably a company wide plan to reduce infrastructure.

I suspect Relic, being mentioned in this, has been feeling some of the changes already.

Looks like THQ’s tightening their belt.

With THQ announcing a $35.3 million dollar loss this past fiscal year, it’s time for some people to get the ax. Not executives, mind you, but the little people. Gamasutra reports that CEO Brian Farrell stated 200 people will lose their jobs, but that most of them are employees working on “last gen” platforms like the PS2. On the bright side, the company plans to add about 300 new employees this fiscal year to “key studios” working on “key products.”

This is pretty normal stuff for the industry. I’d expect to see unnanounced projects being put aside, and redundant staff being let go. Hopefully if anyone at Relic’s affected, they’ll find their feet at another one of the many shops in Vancouver working on games.

Are you Canadian? Want to work as a game balancer? Check out this thread.

Relic Entertainment has one spot available for the position of Game Balancer.

What is a game balancer?

A Game Balancer is responsible for making sure that the game is fair. He does this by playing the game at the highest level and by working closely with the Multiplayer design team to single out and correct all design flaws.

What are the requisites to the position?

• Must be able to play RTS games at a high level, and must be able to demonstrate such understanding through a skill test.
• Must be able to work and excel in a team environment
• Strong communication skills. You’ll have to explain your views to other balancers as well as peers who don’t have the time to know the game as well as yourself.
• Canadian residents only

Location and Hours

• This position is a full-time position at Relic Entertainment in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
• The hours are a standard 40hours/week. Core work hours are 10am-5pm, Monday-Friday.
• You cannot work remotely
  

There’s more info in that thread, so check it out!

Latest CoH Patch has been released!

Sign into Relic Online to get it.

Note that some german owners of Opposing Fronts are reporting that it won’t validate against their OF DVDs with the new patch installed, so beware.

Looks like it’s a bit of a sad day (and several days after the fact). Relic’s first community manager, Allie “Buggo” Henze is no longer at Relic. Allie was Relic’s first “version” of a community manager. I think I can speak for all the fans when I say that we appreciate everything Allie did for the community and for us fans.

To the members of the Relic community, we have to tell you that Buggo is currently pursuing other opportunities. This has led to some speculation that Relic will no longer be supporting our loyal fans - nothing could be further from the truth. Soon we will be introducing you to new members of Relic who will carry forth the commitment we have to our fans. We are expanding our community support greatly over the coming months; better support for our modders, frequent updates about what’s going on in the studio, expanding our numbers, contests, content, and more.

And for those wondering, we are still hosting our upcoming community open house - you don’t want to miss it because you’ll be treated to some sneak previews of our work.

Thank you for your continued support!

Relic Entertainment

Official post here.

Buggo does still have an account on the forums, and hopefully will be able to pop in and say hi (I’d not expect her to be able to comment on Relic and all the cool stuff she worked on). The forum staff helped Relic out by modifying her account to be named “Relic” and then created a new account for Buggo. Any posts on the “Relic” account before April 24th were made by Allie, and anything after were from another Relic rep. I expect to hear more soon from Relic about their intentions, but it’s been made very clear to me that they’re not going to go without a community manager type position again. Also, as far as I know, the Relic Open House is still on, and judging on the biggest fan contest starts today at noon pacific.

Allie, you set the bar pretty high for any future community folks at Relic. I hope whoever gets the position next can meet the community’s expectations. Good luck in the future and we’ll see you around!

Relic released the CoH modding tools back on the 26th of March. However, it looks like they’ve found some issues with them, so have temporarily taken them out of service.

You can read JD’s post here.

For easy reference, here’s a quote.

Hello to all modders and fans of Company of Heroes,

On March 26th, updated versions of our development tools were made available to the community. Unfortunately these were released prematurely and we have taken them down.

We are working to make them more stable as well as generating documentation in order to give you the level of support you deserve. Our time frame for this is as soon as possible.

We apologize to our loyal fans that have waited a long time for these and promise to make it up by giving you the tools you deserve.

Thanks!

Soon they should be back!

Relic’s biggest fan contest 2008 is accepting submissions until Friday.

Last year, Goldo_0 won with this entry (100 MB download). Not only did he get a free trip to Vancouver, he got a job at Relic!

Get your submissions in, and good luck to whoever wins!

There’s a tourney set for April 26 and 27 at Gamereplays.

Click the link for more info.

The Dawn of War 2 website is live.

Included is a teaser video showing a Blood Ravens Force Commander laying the smackdown on an Ork Warboss, and 3 high resolution screenshots. There’s also various concept art scattered about the site.

Can not wait for Spring 2009!

As many of you know, Blizzard’s Starcraft was inspired by Warhammer 40,000. People unaware of this often comment that Dawn of War’s too similar to Starcraft and that Dawn of War “copies” Starcraft (imagine if the Tyranids had been in Dawn of War). People also make the same comparisons between Blizzard’s Warcraft and World of Warcraft and Games Workshop inspired properties like Warhammer Mark of Chaos and Warhammer:Online.

Penny-Arcade pokes fun at the notion that some people think Games Workshop inspired games are copies of Blizzard’s in this cartoon. That cartoon produced dark and light versions of a hoodie sporting the awesome text from the comic.

I just wish there was a T-shirt version.