Gamasutra: Raphael Van Lierop, game director on Relic Entertainment's upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine argued that the category of the "blockbuster game" is still important to the future of the games industry, even amid the emergence of new business models.
GamesIndustry.biz writes: "Relic is best known for the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War games, and recently developed the new Age of Empires for Microsoft. Relic will transition to an independent studio and will no-longer be part of the Sega group of studios.
The majority of the 240 job cuts are across Creative Assembly and Sega Europe, while there will be a ‘small number’ cut from Sega HARDLight. There was no mention of other Sega UK studios, including Two Point Studios and Sports Interactive."
Relic Entertainment announced layoffs affecting 121 employees. The company recently released Company of Heroes 3. It is a subsidiary of Sega.
Damn ... Company of Heroes 1 is one of my favorite, if not my fav, RTS of all time ...
"On the one hand, it makes sense that new series developer Relic has decided to loosely model Age of Empires 4 on the beloved second entry," writes Robert Zak. "On the other hand, reverence to the past can be restricting, and I can’t help but feel that Age of Empires 4 could have been something more."