A word from the COH2 Team

Hey All,

First off, I’ll be posting this on a number of different community sites – sorry up front for the form-letter nature.

So, big news over the last few days, some bad, some good.

First off the bad news. I’m sure most of you will know this; some very good people have lost their jobs, and a company with a long legacy and a great relationship with Relic is no more. I’d like to express on behalf of the COH2 team and – I hope – the community at large our sincere thanks and admiration for what THQ has done for Relic and for our games over the years. They brought you Company of Heroes, and they worked hard to keep us going through the years. We shared stresses and triumphs and got more done with limited resources than I dared think possible because we worked with smart, resourceful people doing their best every day.

Publishers are much maligned, big game companies are often seen as evil yet the fact is they facilitate our hobbies as consumers, they help us enjoy the love of gaming and they bring enjoyment to millions. Do they do it as a business? Yes, of course, but their role is critical yet often disparaged. Truth is, a company like Relic could not deliver a game like Company of Heroes on its own. We could not ensure millions of players enjoy Dawn of War or Space Marine. We could not fund or develop raise awareness of Company of Heroes 2 on our own – it takes a real partnership.

It has always boggled my mind when we start putting credits together at the end of the game and you see just how many people it takes to get a big game finished. For a developer like me, a publisher isn’t a faceless corporation; THQ was Tony, Simon, Jon, George, Suzanne, Danny, and Bobby. It was Jason, and Ron, and Brian. I want to thank them all. These were people we spent time with and laughed with, we traveled together over great distances, we shared stories of our families, we faced challenges. THQ was people we spoke with every day, people who exhibited great passion about our games and the industry. We’ll see their contributions again soon, I’m sure.

The good news is that Relic and Company of Heroes 2 are intact. Relic will continue moving forward with Company of Heroes 2, but we have some gaps on our team in the short term. As you know we’re without our community manager, Bobby. Special thanks to him for his tireless efforts and the great rapport he built in the COH community.

What’s next? I can only personally speculate that Relic has unique value for Sega; that they liked what we were doing, and that they will want us to continue what we are doing. I know they’re excited. Apart from that, we don’t have a lot we can talk about yet – if you can use Google, you likely have the same information we do. We promise we’ll try to tackle the transition as efficiently as possible so that we can get back to Company of Heroes 2 as quickly as we can.

The team is raring to go, we’re as happy as we can be about our situation, and COH2 is looking and feeling better every day. Our joy at being able to continue on the game we love is tempered with concern for our colleagues at THQ and other studios but as clichéd as it may sound, the show must go on.

Stay tuned.

Quinn Duffy
Game Director, COH2

Thank you for this post with some good news in it!

Thanks Qduffy for the update, im behind you 100%, and thanks THQ for the effort. Looking forward to what SEGA will bring to the table.

thanks for the info, just dont drop the ball on coh2 despite this chaos.. its a gem in the making.

Good to hear that things are still moving forward and development for CoH2 will continue. I want to re-emphasise what Quinn said about the fact that Sega like what Relic are doing, they obviously saw a great opportunity to snap up Relic and I believe they will put in the commitment necessary to make sure that Relic are able to continue developing great games.

Keep up the good work, and best of luck to you all.

The team is raring to go, we’re as happy as we can be about our situation, and COH2 is looking and feeling better every day.

Rock and roll. Liking the sound of this, and can't wait to see it!

Good to hear. This SEGA blog is also quite promising. Hopefully it's true and SEGA acquired Relic to bolster their PC development rather than simply to get hold of Relic's IP.

Thanks for the update, I look forward to Relic continuing to put out quality content under the sega umbrella!

Thanks for the info. I hope you guys can make the transition easily and go to new great lengths under SEGA. Good luck!

Thank you for posting Mr Duffy. I hope that if Sega sees fit to give you guys your own inhouse CM that we will see Bobby again

The news of job loss can never be good , Especially when it is , of jobs of your colleagues - Hope in the near short term all find a decent and stable placement .

We adore all the good people behind the scenes working on getting a job done - Nice to hear "COH2 is looking and feeling better every day."

Thanks for the post .

Thanks Qduff, looking forward to the real thing!

Thanks for the update quinn. Good luck!

Thx for the update! glad to hear sega is taking part in this

tnx for the news and for all the effort!
peace

Thanks for the news, hope we'll see Lynx again...

Thanks Quinn for all you and your crew has done for gaming... You, your guys, and your gals have touched all of our lives very deeply.. And when I had nothing, I always had COH... Im excited about the new possibilities for Relic and COH2.. I, as well as everyone are anxiously awaiting all the glorious things to come!!

Thanks Quinn, these are good news indeed. I have good faith in SEGA to keep the CoH franchise alive and kicking well!

Best of luck in your new family! Lets see what comes from it!