THQ creating Warhammer 40,000 MMO

EA’s Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is no longer be the only Games Workshop inspired MMO in development. It’s been revealed that THQ has extended its licensing agreement with Games Workshop and is working on a Warhammer 40,000 massively multiplayer online game.

GameSpot chatted with THQ executive vice president of worldwide publishing Kelly Flock and Andy Jones, Games Workshop’s head of group legal and licensing about the upcoming MMO.

“We are very excited to be working with Games Workshop on the first-ever MMO game based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe,” said Flock. “Our agreement calls for worldwide rights, so we definitely plan to launch the game across North America, Europe, and Asia.“

Flock goes on to add: “… we plan to build a game that both Warhammer 40,000 fans and MMO gamers will be excited to play – one that is true to the rich universe Games Workshop has built – with scalable depth of characters and worlds that MMO fans have come to expect.“

The game is in development at THQ’s Austin-based Vigil Games studio, lead by David Adams, formerly of NCsoft.

Andy Jones of Games Workshop notes: “The Warhammer 40,000 universe is a big place, with many exciting stories to unfold. It remains to be seen which themes are explored in the MMO (or indeed in any other up-and-coming games from THQ), but rest assured, they will be big ones!“

Jones is also in no doubt that two Games Workshop MMOs can co-exist and not tread on each other’s toes.

“Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 have coexisted as very separate and successful properties for decades. And our plans certainly see that well-established trend continuing forever. At the very basic level, Warhammer is our high-fantasy IP, while Warhammer 40,000 is science fiction – and our customers certainly cope very well with that concept,” said Jones.

You can read the entire interview over on GameSpot.