War of the Roses post-launch plan: monthly content updates

War of the Roses, FatShark's multiplayer melee combat game set in the middle ages, launches on October 2 on Steam and I was able to get some hands-on time with the game alongside senior producer Gordon Van Dyke. We waged war together and even fought each other a few times.

But as we fought in a server full of the QA team, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen after launch? Would Fatshark and Paradox continue to support War of the Roses? Van Dyke was all too happy to confirm that work on the game would continue well after launch.
The big goal is to provide updates that not only tweak things based on feedback from the community, but also add content – maps, weapons and game modes that will help the game's staying power. "We want to support the hell out of this game after release and for a long time afterward," Van Dyke said. "One way we plan on doing this is by releasing regular content updates, our ambition right now is to do them monthly."

Planned additions include some new maps with weather effects and plenty of new armor pieces, helmets and weapons. The player customization is fairly deep at its current stage, but it's a big driving force of the game, so Van Dyke was adamant about giving players more there. Van Dyke also told me about an objective siege mode the developer is currently thinking about, where you'd have one team storm another team's castle.

"We want to support the hell out of this game after release and for a long time afterward."
- Gordon Van Dyke, senior producer

A beta recently concluded for the game and Gordon seemed pleased with the number of participants, though he wouldn't go into exact figures – it was reported that 100,000 individuals signed up on some sites around the internet. But, for a sequel, how successful would War of the Roses need to be?

Van Dyke thought for a moment when asked, then posited that Paradox would be happy if half a million people signed up for this war. With its great hit detection and collision, dizzying variety of customization options and now this post-launch update plan, we find little reason to argue against War of the Roses meeting or exceeding that goal.