Warhammer Online Will Not Challenge World of Warcraft

John Riccitiello, the head of Electronic Arts, has talked about the upcoming Warhammer Online aka WAR, at an investor meeting. He sought to limit the expectations of those present at the William Blair & Company by saying that the Mythic created MMO is not going to directly challenge World of Warcraft for domination on the market.

Riccitiello declared that the game would be "a strong entry in the MMORPG space" but also added, "I don't think it's going to rival WOW, but no one would ever predict that. But it is a strong game that will... Get our returns for us. We're proud of it".

Warhammer Online aims to bring the fantasy world of Warhammer to the MMO space, by allowing players to take the side of either Good or Evil in a universe where warfare never stops. All the normal fantasy trappings are present in the game, but the general atmosphere of WAR is darker and edgier than that displayed by World of Warcraft. Even the good guys have a strong attachment to questionable morality and excessive use of violence and the experience of the player will be altered to reflect this.

Warhammer is mainly aiming to completely re-do the whole player vs. player mechanics of MMOs by creating a world where factions are fighting against each other and the war directly influences the game world while its result is decided by the player's actions. The cities are fully conquerable by the different factions and the final PvP experience will be to assault the capital of one of them.

The game is set to become available, after several delays, sometime during fall. Blizzard is also preparing to launch the second expansion to World of Warcraft, called Wrath of the Lich King, at around the same time. So, the Electronic Arts leadership is right in not hyping up the potential success of WAR as even moderate sales in such a situation would be welcome.