So Relic is not working on DoW4, sounds great,
now we can hire them to make something good instead.
MS has the Warcraft 4 and Starcraft 3 IP. Relic has the know-how.
Relic is an independent developer, working on their own projects. Currently, those are CoH 3 (post-launch support), Earth vs. Mars (a small-scale project, out at the end of the month) and Dawn of War: Definitive Edition (support currently continuing until around the end of the year).
Plus anything they haven’t announced. Who knows, maybe it could be Warcraft or Starcraft. But I very much doubt it.
Warcraft is a very expensive franchise and Starcraft 2 was not a big hit. I don’t see companies rolling the dice on either of them.
Those projects are either finished or not big.
Warcraft 4 could secure Relics jobs for years, if done right for decade.
No projects are “secured” for a decade. Even if one was, on paper, there can always be found a justification to revoke that decision. We are looking at an industry where the biggest companies are facing “restructurings” on a less than yearly basis at the moment. Layoffs are apparently at an industry-per-the-decade high (starting 2023-2024-ish, and continuing into 2025).
It’s not a safe decision, in my opinion. If that’s what they choose (not that we have any evidence of it), good luck to them.
The main reason for current Layoffs is “Live-Service”.
Looking at Total War, I think it’s possible for a company to stay alive for long, as long they do what the gaming market wants. Creative Assembly is a good example, they make games, they make money, they make “Live-Service”, they lose money. No game makes money, if you make it the way shareholder wants.
So Warcraft 4 has to be a game first, the way customers wants, than it will make money.
Completely incorrect, sorry.
I could keep going, of course.
We do not live in a climate where “ten year projects” make sense. This isn’t intended as a personal swipe, it’s just my appraisal of the industry currently backed by numerous examples (some including high profile IPs).
There are rumours now that a new Starcraft is in Development.
I really hope its an RTS, anything else would simply feel too wrong.
A shooter doesn’t sound like the right thing to do, simply because we have already Helldivers 2.
A shooter is probably easier than trying to follow up on SC2 (and apparently nothing is allowed to jeopardise WoW, so a WC4 is extremely unlikely, ever).
They explored options like this years ago (does anyone remember SC: Ghost?).
StarCraft Ghost was cancelled back in 2006. A lot has changed ever since.
-1- RTS were at their peak, so people didn’t mint if RTS did try to experiment.
-2- A schooter instead of RTS will feel like another don’t you have phones moment.
-3- we had Far Cry. Evolve, helldivers 2, dead space , so expectation for a shooter today is simply higher.
Sure they can do what ever they want with the IP; but the best way would be to have some kind of RTS too. A Starcraft3 with AoE4 gameplay and DoW3 Graphics in 5 years sounds feasible for Relic.
And is the game we all want and need right now.
What? At the time it was as popular as League of Legends, or even more so. And it was the best-selling RTS in history.
Man, WC and SC are Blizzard Entertainment IPs
They keep on milking World of WarCraft, Overwatch, Diablo and Hearthstone