14 DAY TRIAL // All real time strategy lovers should keep an eye out for two games currently in development, SEGA and Creative Assembly's Empire: Total War and Relic's Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2. Both games will arrive early in 2009; they are set to create experiences that will change how you look at strategy gaming. In an interesting twist, the two games will only be available on the PC, even as other developers, like Ensemble, are focusing on the Xbox 360 as the platform on which RTS games will flourish. Creative Assembly itself is in the first stages of development with Stormrise, a RTS designed with console control schemes in mind.
Mark Noseworthy, who is the main producer on Dawn of War 2, has talked to Computer and Videogames about how RTS games are "not a good fit" for gaming consoles. Relic is one of the best companies when it comes to innovative strategy games, with titles like Homeworld, one of the earliest space based games, Company of Heroes and Dawn of War under its belt.
Noseworthy said that "We don't see porting a traditional PC RTS to console as a very good strategy because the controls, by definition, are incompatible with the game design. To do RTS on console right, you have to develop from the ground up and rethink what it means to have real-time-strategy gameplay". All of this might seem as being bad news for console gamers who are hoping to see Dawn of War 2 on the Xbox 360 or on the PlayStation 3, but the man from Relic also said that he thinks his newest game "isn't a traditional RTS and I think it would make a much better candidate for porting to console than any of our previous games".
Is this a glimmer of hope for the console fans or a sign that, in five years’ time, we'll all be getting out strategy fix on consoles?