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Many orcs are putting on their sad faces today as Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning suffers another delay. Eurogamer reports that the game's producer, Jeff Hickman, stated the title is being pushed from Q2 until the fall. WAR's last delay, which shifted it from 2007 to this year, was blamed on EA's takeover of Mythic, though it did affordthe company more time to polish the title.

The only thing that raises a red flag about WAR releasing this fall is a little game called World of Warcraft and its expansion that many believe will hit later this year. We're just saying, if we were releasing a fantasy-themed MMO, we'd leave as much breathing room as possible between our game and any WoW release.

[Via Massively]

When EA Mythic announced plans to delay its upcoming MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning until 2008, we'd be lying if we said the news was met with anything but a sigh of relief. After all, retail shelves are already home to more than enough half-baked massively multiplayer escapades for our liking, and anything to keep from being tempted to fork over hard earned rupees for the honor of being glorified beta testers is just fine by us. We'd much rather that pleasure fall to real beta testers, which according EA now number more than 500,000 strong in both North America and Europe, an impressive jump from the some 200,000 announced just six months ago.

Warhammer Online, which promises "revolutionary" realm vs. realm combat and just might be console bound, is currently poised to launch for real sometime during 2008's second quarter, though those players itching for an early taste of what the tabletop-inspired MMO will offer can still sign up for the beta on EA Mythic's website. As for the rest of us, we'll continue to play the ever-popular waiting game, which may or may not be just as fun. For those of you who are in the beta, feel free to let us know.

EA Mythic is starting beta registration today for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The game, which was recently delayed until 2008, will begin an invite-only beta in the relative future. To sign up you just click here or there is more information on the Warhammer site.

We've got the nagging suspicion that Warhammer Online is going to follow the same route as Lord of the Rings Online in terms of polish. EA Mythic is holding on to the title for longer than necessary to tweak and get that game to shine when it goes gold. Remember, entering the fantasy MMO market, games can't go in fresh, they have to feel like they've got two years of battle under their belt to compete against World of Warcraft. Where's Tabula Rasa already for those done with fantasy and need an MMO sci-fi fix?

[Via Press Release]

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.

Here at Joystiq we don't always pay proper attention to PC gaming. Luckily FiringSquad has picked up the slack. The site has issued its 'Most Anticipated' games of the year list, featuring twenty upcoming titles. Here's a look at the top five:

• Supreme Commander (Gas Powered Games/THQ) - spiritual successor to Total Annihilation; sci-fi RTS with dual-monitor support
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Splash Damage/id Software/Activision) - prequel to Quake 2; two playable sides (Human and Strogg) are said to offer vastly different gameplay experiences
  
• World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade (Blizzard) - the expansion to end all expansions ('cha-ching')
  
• Spore (Maxis/EA) - from single-celled to universe conqueror; the video game to end all video games
• Crysis (Crytek/EA) - it has the looks, can it live up to the hype?

Which games are you planning to upgrade your rig for?

Over at EA Mythic, there's a job opening. Not just any job, mind you, but a slot for a producer. The producer's job is to move Warhammer Online to consoles, or so we assume. Other job advertisements seem to further the idea that Warhammer is turning towards consoles -- Microtransaction Engineer? AI Engineer (for next-gen consoles)? It seems likely, but perhaps there's simply another game in the works.

Then again, why wouldn't more MMO's hop onto the now-gen consoles? Heh, we said "now-gen" since technically the next-gen is now... what with all consoles released. Anyway, we've (read: I've) never played the Warhammer Online, so if any of you have, feel free to leave a loving memory of the game and give us your thoughts on if it would survive the transition to consoles.

A recent EA Mythic job listing has renewed speculation that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is being co-developed for consoles, likely Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The listing calls for a 'Warhammer Console' producer who will lead the production and design of a "title being developed across next generation console platforms for the online MMORPG market." While WAR is not explicitly named, it's certainly implied.

With this revelation, comes a mess of questions: what effect, if any, would console versions have on WAR for PC? Would the projects be wholly separated? Or would bits and pieces from each version be sacrificed to simplify cross-platform development and keep the overall budget down?

[Thanks, Ves]

Games Workshop's Warhammer franchise has provided the setting for multiple PC strategy titles over the past ten years including Shadow of the Horned Rat, Dark Omen, and the recently released Mark of Chaos. Next year, Electronic Arts plans to bring the popular fantasy realm into the MMO market with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

Speaking with GameSpot earlier this month, lead designer Steve Marvin said Reckoning will be the "best-looking massively multiplayer RPG out there". See if you agree with him by checking out developer Mythic Entertainment's (Dark Age of Camelot) massive gallery, which was just updated with over a dozen new screen shots.

Electronic Arts has announced they will acquire Virginia-based developer Mythic Entertainment, which should be finalized by Q2 of next year. Mythic is best known for MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot, and is currently working on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

According to Mythic co-founder and CEO Mark Jacobs, "EA's commitment to the online market as well as its focus on creating games of unsurpassed quality, scope and scale gives us opportunities and resources we could only dream about in the past."

This move strengthens EA's role-playing lineup, with Project Gray Company expected to arrive on next-gen consoles in early 2007.

Massively multiplayer online games, known by a series of acronyms beginning with MMO, are a rising trend among developers. With monthly fees meaning regular income, and a player base too addicted to stop, developers trip over themselves to enter this lucrative market.

We can guarantee we'll be seeing a lot of MMOs at E3, so that's why we're bringing you this comprehensive overview of every MMO we currently know to be in development -- excluding expansions of existing MMOs. Here's a quick summary of the trends that we see emerging from this list:

• East meets West.  Ten out of the thirty-five games listed are Korean MMOs hoping to make it in America and Europe, with several companies banking on the success of such a translation.
  
• Elves and Orcs. Despite a number of fantasy-themed MMOs, there are several under development that have no sign of the fantastic about them -- instead, we see themes from sci-fi to pirates.
• Microtransactions. Pay for currency, don't pay for the game -- this increasingly common strategy allows gamers to try games for free. Those who become heavy players end up pouring in more cash than they would have paid for an all-you-can-play monthly subscription.
  
• Casual MMOs. Three of the titles listed below are trying to break into the casual space, with appealing cutesy graphics and Flash-based play. Most casual titles aren't persistent, though games like Runescape have done well out of the browser-based market so far.
• New developers.  Fifteen of the studios below are working on their first MMO, or their first game altogether. This could mean increased innovation, or more problems -- MMOs are risky business.