14 DAY TRIAL // It's always a dark day when a developer closes its doors. It's worse when the developer was working with some of the best publishers and bringing high quality games. So, with a heavy heart, we have to bid farewell to Iron Lore Entertainment, a studio that developed the Titan Quest series and the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Soulstorm standalone.
Brian Sullivan, co-creator of Age of Empires, was the founder of Iron Lore, and it only made sense for the new studio to do something set in a familiar universe. Titan Quests and its expansion, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, were epic RPG experiences set in the Ancient World, mainly Greece and Egypt. Players could create flexible characters, journey to the Pyramids, Babylon and the Parthenon, while doing battle with epic monsters, fighting alongside heroes like Agamemnon and Achilles. The original game has a Metacritic of 77, while the expansion got a 80 score.
The next game, and apparently the last, in Iron Lore's portfolio is an entirely different project. Soulstorm is the third expansion for the popular Warhamer 40,000 franchise, originally developed by Relic Studios. With Relic rumored to work on Warhammer 40,000 2, on the same engine that powered Company of Heroes, development work went to Iron Lore. From what we know, the game is a fitting addition to the universe. Two new factions, the Dark Eldar and Sisters of Battle, will be playable, air units make an appearance for the first time in the series and the campaign now covers a whole solar system, with 3 planets and 4 moons. The game will be out early in March and will mark the last time Iron Lore developers will make an appearance as a group. There are no reports on whether Iron Lore will develop patches for Soulstorm.
Iron Lore professionals are currently up for grabs by other studios, as are some proprietary technologies they developed. We're very sad to see Iron Lore go, but we hope that their gaming legacy will endure.