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More Details On New Company Of Heroes Online
Posted by Luke Plunkett at 5:30 PM on August 8, 2008
Well. This one well and truly slipped by us during E3. Seems that while everyone was busy devouring the gaming news coming out of LA, in China the wraps were being taken off Company of Heroes Online, THQ's attempt at pushing the RTS game onto the Asian online markets. While THQ have spoken briefly about the project before (which is being launched in conjunction with Shanda), this is the first time we've seen any real details on the game, which will take the core CoH experience (minus the Opposing Fronts content) and tailor it towards online gaming.
It'll be free to play, with microtransactions paying the game's way, while gameplay changes include persistent online characters that you can level up and carry across battles. Those "hero" units will also have charged "super powers", to go along with a newly revamped commander tree that has 48 separate abilities/powers. THQ have just opened a Chinese office to help launch the game, with a Korean version to follow, and a Western version to follow after that (there's already a playable English-language build, apparently).
Company of Heroes Headed to China as F2P Game - Exclusive ChinaJoy Interview [Ten Ton Hammer]
THQ Adds China Office For Company Of Heroes Online, Local Partnerships [Gamasutra]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
SilentSeraphin
Posted 6:04 PM 8/8/08
@Luke Plunkett: Oh well damn. I totally missed that. Late night reading comprehension, go.
SilentSeraphin
SilentSeraphin
Posted 6:04 PM 8/8/08
@khronos27: I have no real evidence towards yes or no so this would be absolute conjecture, but I'd probably lean more towards 'no'. The MMO-lite genre (as GreyFox put it) is a bit less reliable on the western hemisphere, and the microtransaction thing tends to only play over well for lower budget games like Gunbound and Maple Story overseas.
They've tailor-made a Counter Strike for that market and it's also rather unlikely to come anywhere other than Asia, I'd be willing to wager that it's a likely story for this as well.
SilentSeraphin
Luke Plunkett
Posted 6:03 PM 8/8/08
@khronos27: "THQ have just opened a Chinese office to help launch the game, with a Korean version to follow, and a Western version to follow after that "
Luke Plunkett
khronos27
Posted 5:59 PM 8/8/08
Any word on if anyone else will get these changes? They sound kind of interesting.
khronos27
Thorax
Posted 5:54 PM 8/8/08
@GreyFoxV1: Definitely. Sadly they don't seem to be going away any time soon.
Thorax
SilentSeraphin
Posted 5:52 PM 8/8/08
@GreyFoxV1: Maybe, but as long as there's a substantial market for them (and it seems there is, particularly in East Asia) then they'll keep making more.
On a sidenote, this makes me think of Shattered Galaxy. Ah, I had good times with that game.
SilentSeraphin
GreyFoxV1
Posted 5:45 PM 8/8/08
Does anyone else feel the market becoming saturated with MMO-lite games?
GreyFoxV1
dnzperson
Posted 6:21 PM 8/8/08
It will me interesting to see how they handle the micro transactions in this game - hopefully THQ will find a balance between profit and flat out wallet raping their customers.
If they get it right, CoHO (that the right abbreviation?) might be the first MMO-like game I'll get into, since the original was such pure fun :-)
dnzperson
TeddySlayer
Posted 6:41 PM 8/8/08
I'm still not sure wut the difference between this and the old CoH is. It's still the same RTS but localized for China rite?
TeddySlayer
Ra is on House
Posted 7:18 PM 8/8/08
First ive heard of this. A WW2 hero unit seems kinda arcade-y to me. A little to much for the CoH series.
Ra is on House
Luke Plunkett
Posted 9:01 PM 8/8/08
@Ra is on House: Yeah, without a BIG official announcement its just kinda plodding along under everyone's radar. Kinda why I posted this.
Luke Plunkett
Polterg3ist
Posted 9:31 PM 8/8/08
@Luke Plunkett: As I've heard the game will also be free of charge for the initial download.
I'm actually pretty interested in this.
Polterg3ist
zig83
Posted 10:34 PM 8/8/08
I still play COH 'til today, and I've been playing since beta. They're still doing amazing things with and for the community.
And I'm from Asia. Hopefully they have an english version though. Would definitely give it a try. Dude, it's FREE.
zig83
luminousforce
Posted 5:42 PM 8/8/08
"Heroes"? "Super Powers"?
Waiter! There's some Warcraft in my WWII game!
luminousforce
adragonfang18
Posted 2:24 AM 9/8/08
Its still awesome that we should get them in it too!!!!
adragonfang18
adragonfang18
Posted 2:24 AM 9/8/08
Lets have the Russian and Italian races for a new CoH!!!!
adragonfang18
Strangelove
Posted 6:31 AM 9/8/08
I'll stick to Opposing Fronts and the current online modes, thanks.
@zig83:
I've been playing a lot lately, myself, particularly online (most memorable moment: a four hour match last weekend). CoH seems to have a lot more longevity for me than any game since Age of Empires II.
Strangelove