Recent DoW3 news/update;
Another DoW leader abandon ship. This time, it's the DoW3 art director Matt Kuzminski.
Now; "Independent Consultant"
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattkuzminski/
Credits:
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,362584/
DoW3 Credits (not complete):
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/warhammer-40000-dawn-of-war-iii/credits
Fun fact, Axis Animation that made the great DoW3 trailer with NO COMMUNITY FEEDBACK has one Executive Producer involved from start to finish but not the game itself.
Where are the DoW3 Executive Producer, Stephen MacDonald? Or DoW3 brand manager Danielle Robinson?
To quote myself:
Yes, but this does not change the fact that "New Relic" is not in a good shape to compete against anyone important outside of CoH, let alone Blizzard (AoE4 vs SC2).
Contrary to "old Relic" management, "new Relic" did not get to the top of RTS by competing with top RTS studios but by the process of elimination. Can you imagine what would happen if a highly competitive leader like Steve Jobs (RIP) was running Relic?
Steve Jobs (Apple co-founder) still teaching lessons to today's CEOs:
Memo by Apple's late CEO a lesson in vision and competitive thinking.
https://www.thestar.com/business/2014/04/11/steve_jobs_still_teaching_lessons_to_todays_ceos_olive.html
Falling into the trap of complacency is one of the reasons Relic management underperforms/getting sloppy. This was clearly demonstrated by DoW3 and taking crazy risk with this IP for no good reasons. Imagine if Blizzard has released Warcraft 4 in 2017 to compete with DoW3.
Except maybe Iron Harvest, CoH as niche game has no real competion and that is what keeps the game alive with a "core fan base" similar to Total War series. As a consumer, the lack of competion is not a good thing. That's not how you get "good value" for your money.
Relic burned a great deal of "fan goodwill" with CoH2 mistakes, even more so with DoW3.
The studio is by no means dead yet, but the challenges they face are immense.
We should not confuse Relic self-preservation with loyalty to CoH/DoW fans. It's not the same thing. At best CoH3 will be another business for Relic/Sega, that's good enough for me. I'm not the guy looking to "make friends" with Relic, but we should expect them to act as gaming professionals (or else).
Hi, fun fact, relic lost for 8 month 85% of their proffesional veterans. Lelic never was in so bad state even when THQ go bankrupt.
P.S. Nearly all employers that left dow 3 development before complete writed in special thanks without roles in official credits, unlike previous lelic games where roles was always written for 99%. For example in coh 2 they write in special thanks only Jennifer Lewis that was audio director on coh 2 until March, 2011. All other devs that left development was writed in roles or not even included (Ryan Haksi, Ben Sanderson)