Warhammer Online Producer’s Letter and Interview

With EA’s layoffs suddenly bringing Warhammer Online’s future into question, it comes as no surprise that producers Jeff Hickman and Jeff Skalski have been busy doing some damage control.

First, Mr. Hickman hits us with a new producer’s letter:

With all that is going on within Mythic Entertainment and EA, I would like to take a moment to reinforce the studio’s dedication to both our games and our players. At Mythic, we remain committed to our games and the passionate people who play them we’re going to continue to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing. We want to assure our community that we will maintain the same high level of customer support you’ve come to expect and continue to improve our games with an exciting schedule of patches, live events and new content.

At Mythic, we are the torchbearer of three great gaming franchises that we love and nurture:

-Ultima Online is the granddaddy of MMORPG’s and it’s still going strong after 12 years. Thanks to the release of our 8th expansion, there are now more players exploring Britannia than we’ve seen in quite some time. We have a passionate and committed team working on UO, and they have some really interesting plans for the future. Stay tuned!

-Dark Age of Camelot is over 8 years old and the Realm vs. Realm action keeps getting better. The development team loves what they do and never forget that DAoC was the first true MMO love for many of you (and for many of us!). They are dedicated to providing continued updates and support for this great game so the fighting in the Frontiers will never end.

-Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has had a solid first year despite some issues that we’re working to address every day. We’ve seen a great response to 1.3.2, which introduced tremendous performance improvements. A flood of new players are discovering the game every day thanks to the recently released Endless Trial and New User Journey. Moving forward we remain committed to releasing more great patches, continued performance improvements, and changes based upon your valuable feedback!

And then Mr. Skalski talks with Massively about the state of the game:

Some say that WAR is still trying to find a clear direction. Can you tell us what elements, development-wise, that Mythic is focusing on for WAR?

Right now, our focus is on improving the RvR campaign, career balance, and game performance. These are critical to our long term success. We also continue to fix bugs and work on overall game polish. These are the things we sit down and discuss every patch planning meeting we have.

What do you say to the naysayers who say WAR’s on the decline?

When’s the last time you played the game? If the answer is anything over a month, then do me a favor and give the new endless trial a shot. The team’s made a lot of great improvements in 1.3.2 and we have even more planned for 1.3.3. We’re sure we can change their minds.