Company of Heroes Online producer Greg Wilson talks about the challenges in adapting a retail RTS into a downloadable free-to-play game based on microtransactions, in a world of instant web gaming gratification.
The free-to-play, microtransactions-based gaming market is dominated by social network games and MMOs -- you don't see too many core-focused free-to-play real-time strategy games.
There's a reason for this: the typical "core" RTS player is happy with paying $50 for the retail version of a game like StarCraft II, Supreme Commander or Company of Heroes. Or at least that's what many traditional RTS developers seem to assume.
A brief examination of the good and the bad following eight hours of Beta play.
GamerZines writes:
As much as we're pumped about the impending release of Company of Heroes 2, there's still a voice in the back of our heads that occasionally perks up and enquires, “Whatever happened to Company of Heroes Online?”
Relic Entertainment's big free-to-play RTS experiment went into open beta in September 2010 to great fanfare from both journalists and gamers alike, but in March 2011 THQ elected to close the service with only a terse statement to players thanking them for their “continued support and feedback.”
So what exactly happened? We recently caught up with Company of Heroes 2's lead designer Jason Lee to ask exactly that.
Lead director Quinn Duffy of Relic's Company of Heroes 2 says they and THQ learnt some "vital" things from their time with Company of Heroes Online. It's too early to talk multiplayer.
Online play is an "important part of the legacy" of Relic, said Duffy, and it's a "vital part" for fans. Company of Heroes Online wasn't a throw away project as lessons have been applied.
