As part of its financial results yesterday, THQ quietly revealed why it really shut down its Company of Heroes Online beta: because it was cancelled. The company announced that it had cancelled Relic's online adaption of the popular RTS-action series set in World War II, and its online wrestling game, WWE Online.
The company also said that it has reevaluated its licensing strategies when it comes to children's movies. From the financial report:
"The company reevaluated the sales potential of games based on its kids movie-based licenses during the preparation of its fiscal third quarter financial statements. Consistent with recent industry trends, the company lowered expectations for this category, which resulted in an impairment of $30.3 million of kid’s movie-based licenses for games that are expected to be released in fiscal 2012 and beyond. This impairment was excluded from the company's fiscal 2011 third quarter non-GAAP results.
In the fiscal third quarter, the company reevaluated its strategy of adapting certain Western content for free-to-play online games in Asian markets. As a result, the company's fiscal third quarter non-GAAP results exclude a charge of $9.9 million related to the cancellation of Company of Heroes Online and WWE Online."
Those hoping that THQ was simply hitting the pause button on the development of COHO can now grieve. More than likely, Relic will now turn its attention to developing a full-fledged Company of Heroes title.
Source: ShackNews
