Climax comments on death of Warhammer Online

Following yesterday's shock cancellation of Warhammer Online, Climax has today issued a statement explaining why the decision was made and addressing the future of the company's Nottingham studio, where the game had been in development for more than two years. "It was a deeply sad thing for us to have to do after so much hard work and commitment from the entire team, but the costs involved in bringing the Warhammer massively multiplayer online game to market meant that we were left with little choice," offered Karl Jeffery, CEO at Climax. "With new MMOGs, such as Star Wars Galaxies, costing up to $30 million to launch, this is now a very high-stakes business."

Climax and Games Workshop, who formed a joint venture to develop and launch Warhammer Online back in 2002, have spent the past few months coordinating a comprehensive review of the costs they'd incur to complete and launch the game. The costs, unfortunately, were far higher than either partner had anticipated, and they simply couldn't be justified.

The good news, however, is that the cancellation of Warhammer Online has not impacted Climax's Nottingham studio. A second game is already in development there, and the technology team is continuing to work on its Leviathan suite of MMO tools and technology. Climax and Games Workshop hope that, in the future, an additional partner with MMO experience might be brought in to assist with the launch of Warhammer Online. Watch this space for future information.