Joystiq

EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has been delayed to 2008. The game was originally expected this fall, the statement was made in a newsletter stating the delay was caused by Mythic's acquisition by EA and they've been "afforded many wonderful development opportunities" which they plan to take advantage of, which "includes taking several additional months to make the best MMORPG possible."

Warhammer Online is EA's ticket into the MMO market and they aren't releasing this game until it's perfect. Mythic is best known for creating the successful (by pre-WoW standards) Dark Age of Camelot and EA purchased Mythic in an attempt to have a successful MMO in their portfolio following the colossal epic ginormous mythic failure of Earth and Beyond and The Sims Online. When we saw a very early version of Warhammer at last year's E3 it looked perfectly fine and was moving along with some interesting innovations to the genre. We're sure to get a better idea of the final game and what to expect by E3, followed by months of tweaking by the developer. If the Warhammer Online team follows the lead of the Lord of the Rings Online then they know that an MMO can't enter the market without being well-done. MMO's can't feel like they're just starting, they need to feel like there's been two years of extra content built into them -- it's one nasty genre to get involved in at the moment.