14 DAY TRIAL // Strategy titles have had a bad reputation lately, as they cater to a niche audience, as opposed to first-person shooters, which are targeted to a broader segment of the public. This is a very sad thing, but, thanks to the newer titles, its seems that Real Time Strategy (RTS) games are beginning to become as popular as they were a few years ago.
The latest example is Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, a title developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. We've been running an extensive coverage of the title, which, it seems, has become very popular, as we reported on the weekly PC sales charts. But now THQ has done some number crunching of its own and has proudly announced that its RTS title is currently dominating almost all charts in terms of PC sales, including NPD, ELSPA/GfK Chart-Track and GfK ones.
“We have built ‘Dawn of War’ into a premier PC gaming franchise based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe,” said Brian Farrell, THQ president and CEO. “We are pleased with consumers’ strong response to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II across many of our key markets and believe the game’s success clearly demonstrates our primary objective of delivering high quality games with strong global appeal. Warhammer 40,000 is a rich and growing universe and we look forward to expanding our offerings based on this brand in the future.”
The good sales were nothing short of a breath of fresh air for struggling THQ, which has recently announced some pretty big layoffs across all of its studios, including Volition, which developed the very popular Saints Row franchise.
Hopefully, this popularity of THQ-published titles will continue and the company will get back on track and avoid resorting to any more layoffs or other cost-cutting measures.