Relic abandons plans for additional Dawn of War 3 content

Developer Relic says it will no longer support Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 3 with additional content. The realtime strategy game launched on PC last April.

Planned expansions and additions to the game have been canceled, due to lower-than-expected sales, according to the company. In a statement given to Eurogamer, a spokesperson said, “While Dawn of War III has a dedicated player base, it didn’t hit the targets we were expecting at launch, and it hasn’t performed the way we had hoped since.”

Published by Sega under license from Games Workshop, Dawn of War 3 was an attempt to reinvigorate the somewhat moribund real-time strategy (RTS) genre, by incorporating elements from multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBAs), which have taken over the top-down, RTS genre. The game made heavy use of hero units which were able to yield massive damage. But its frustrating campaign and an inability to fully refresh the genre affected sales.

In our review, Polygon concluded that the game represented “an admirable attempt to nudge forward a genre that has struggled in recent years to progress,” but that “true evolution seems out of the game’s grasp.”

Relic’s spokesperson said the company is evaluating its next moves. “It’s been tough for us as professionals who want to make great games for our players, and for us as people who care a lot about what we do. When a game under-performs, plans need to change. With Dawn of War 3, we simply don’t have the foundation we need to produce major content. We’re working in close partnership with Sega and Games Workshop to determine the best course of action, while shifting focus to other projects within our portfolio.”