14 DAY TRIAL // The press conference that publisher Electronic Arts held in Cologne at the Gamescom 2011 trade show sought to promote upcoming launches like Need for Speed: The Run and Battlefield 3 more than announce important new games.
But the company also talked about some new properties and one of the more interesting ones is the Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes MMO, which is set to be launched on the PC at some point during the fall of the year.
The game was announced by Ray Muzyka, who is one of the co-founders of BioWare and now leads the role playing games and MMO development division at Electronic Arts, and the executive says that the new game is part of a wider effort to make as many big properties available to players for as little money as possible.
BioWare Mythic is working on Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes in conjunction with Games Workshop, the owners of the fantasy license, and the early word is that the focus will be on entertaining six versus six player battles.
Each player will be able to choose a class and a race and customize his avatar and will then become part of a bigger group, where teamwork and joint ability use becomes crucial for success.
Muzyka did not directly address the business model that Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes will use but the game is part of the Play4Free initiative, joining games like Battlefield Play4Free, Need for Speed World and the Facebook based Dragon Age: Legends.
Presumably players will be able to play for free but will need to pay in order to get access to some gear, some of the character classes and, possibly, some of the maps included in the MMO.
Mythic was once independent and some analysts believed that its MMO Warhammer Online would be able to challenge the supremacy of World of Warcraft.
The game did well on launch but faltered soon after and Electronic Arts integrated Mythic into BioWare.
Here's the Wrath of Heroes launch trailer: