Our live radio broadcasts are currently on hiatus while we work on improvements to Sanitarium.FM's core services. For further information, visit our Discord.
Developer Relic Entertainment has pulled resources from Dawn of War 3, in order to dedicate them to other projects.
The move effectively freezes the Warhammer 40,000-universe RTS/MOBA hybrid as it is now. In a statement to Eurogamer, Relic Entertainment said: “While Dawn of War 3 has a dedicated player base, it didn’t hit the targets we were expecting at launch, and it hasn’t performed the way we had hoped since. When a game underperforms, plans need to change. With Dawn of War 3, we simply don’t have the foundation we need to produce major content. We’re working in close partnership with Sega and Games Workshop to determine the best course of action, while shifting focus to other projects within our portfolio.”
While that statement stops far short of saying that Relic is abandoning Dawn of War 3, it’s clear that will not be any further races, or indeed content of any sort added to the game. Dawn of War 3 may have been the victim of falling between two stools, with existing Dawn of War fans put off by its MOBA elements, and those MOBA elements failing to appeal to new players.
But the move at least allows Relic Entertainment to dedicate further resources to the new Age of Empires game it is developing for Microsoft.
It is a real shame though, I personally really enjoyed Dawn of War 3 and you can check out my gameplay at release last year below
Alongside claims that the service now attracts 10m users per month, Microsoft has announced a number of familiar-sounding features it plans to introduce to Mixer – its streaming service and rival to Twitch.
In order to allow videogame streamers to monetise their channels, Microsoft has announced plans to add direct tipping, so that viewers can donate to their favourite streamers as they watch directly through Mixer, without the need of external services.
For streamers who are playing games that are available through the Microsoft Store (for Windows 10 or XBox One), viewers will soon also be able to quickly buy a digital download of the game, or any DLC being played, with Microsoft planning to introduce new “Direct purchase” options.
While Microsoft is no doubt playing catch-up with Twitch, the service is quickly gaining popularity – helped, no doubt, by Microsoft baking support for the platform into both Windows 10 and XBox One (where it can be found directly on the console’s Dashboard). Even though the upcoming new additions may strike as copycatting, making it easier for viewers to both start playing games they like and donate to their favourite streamers may prove to be an important move in growing that audience even further.
MMO Rift went free-to-play in 2011, opening its gates to more players but also ushering in loot boxes and a store packed with items you could buy with real money to make the game a lot easier. After a long think (and no doubt influenced by player pushback against microtransactions), developer Trion Worlds is going back to its roots by introducing a paid subscription model for a server free of loot boxes.
The Rift Prime server will launch in Spring. We don’t yet know how much it’ll cost to join, but we do know that the in-game store will be “significantly reduced, with more of the current store-based items obtained through gameplay or removed entirely”. Sounds good to me.
Not all of Rift’s content will be available on the Prime server from the start—instead, players will start afresh and Trion Worlds will drip-feed existing content as players progress, almost like a new MMO, albeit with everything introduced at a much faster pace. The developer promises this progression will come “to an end in spectacular fashion”, too.
Prime servers will progress through content at a more rapid pace than that of the original launch
“dynamically matching characters to their current zone’s level”
“dungeons dropping loot specific to your character’s true level”
profession caps available to a single character
participation awards that are unlocked across your account, even to characters on other servers
PvP will also be undergoing some changes in 2018 after the launch of the Prime server. This will include a new game mode and allowing servers to go “full PvP”.
For PvE, players can look forward to the revamp of a classic raid and the 7th anniversary will feature some new activities for players.
As more info comes out about the new sub services, we’ll be sure to keep you upto date!
For now, check out the latest trailer for the game and follow the link to check it out!
