Warhammer Online offline 'til '08

Back when George W. Bush was just a presidential candidate, Climax and Microsoft announced a massively multiplayer role-playing game based on the Warhammer tabletop game. When Bush was up for reelection, the project was briefly canceled, with Climax then developing the game solo for a few months before independent developer Mythic picked up the license in 2005.

Mythic didn't stay independent for long. Last June, after watching rival Vivendi Games bathe itself in World of Warcraft revenue for nearly two years, Electronic Arts decided it wanted its own piece of the MMORPG pie. It bought Virginia-based Mythic, now known as EA Mythic, and began ramping up development of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning for a late-2007 ship.

Now, though, Warhammer Online has been delayed yet again. In a newsletter sent out this week, EA Mythic general manager Mark Jacobs revealed that the game now won't be released until just months before Bush's successor is elected.

"We have made the decision to move our ship date for the US and Europe to the first quarter of 2008," said Jacobs. (The Asian release date remains TBD.) "Since our acquisition by EA, we have been afforded many wonderful development opportunities and we plan to take full advantage of everything that is available. This includes taking several additional months to make the best MMORPG possible."