Rumour: Studio Marketing Director Alex Price left relic

Suddenly he lost from relic site some time ago as studio leadership
http://www.relic.com/#meet-team
He is no more written here
A snapshot from April 14, he is written here
http://web.archive.org/web/20180414153144/https://www.relic.com/#meet-team
Looks like he left studio, but I write now rumour, because on his linkeidn and facebopok he write he is still work at relic, but same situation was with Stephen Macdonald that update their profile much later after left studio, and he was suddenly lost from relic leadership site too.
Updated: It's offcialy confrimed
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-price-38b1361/

Suddenly he lost from relic site some time ago as studio leadership
http://www.relic.com/#meet-team
He is no more written here
A snapshot from April 14, he is written here
http://web.archive.org/web/20180414153144/https://www.relic.com/#meet-team
Looks like he left studio, but I write now rumour, because on his linkeidn and facebopok he write he is still work at relic, but same situation was with Stephen Macdonald that update their profile much later after left studio, and he was suddenly lost from relic leadership site too.

Pretty much spot on, Relic did the same thing just after Stephen Macdonald abruptly "left" the DoW3 sinking ship. A captain never leaves his ship!.

At first glance, this looks like a layoff/restructuring of Relic.
After Stephen Macdonald left, they had new job listings to replace him but not with Alex Price (yet). The replacement for Stephen is David Littman which most likely will be the new CoH executive producer as Greg Wilson are busy working on AoE4.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-littman-52668b27/

This could mean the CoH/AoE4 brand manager (Alex Delamaire) works more directly with Sega/MS, not with Alex Price. Personally, I see this as positive news as Alex Price was involved with the DoW3 marketing disaster.
Alex Delamaire is former Community Manager from Bethesda Softworks.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdelamaire/?authType=name&authToken=Wzna&trk=prof-sb-browse_map-photo
https://twitter.com/alexdlmr

If not layoff, maybe Alex Delamaire will be promoted to new Brand Director?. We'll see.

To quote myself;

Quotes from former DoW3 Executive Producer (Stephen MacDonald);
https://twitter.com/iamstephenmac/status/859490696109191168

Crazy to see the reviews of Dawn of War 3 with complaints that it's now a Moba. You should play more first. And play more Mobas.

https://twitter.com/iamstephenmac/status/745625775206891521

Look! It's me talking about dow3! That was a fun interview.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamstephenmac/?authType=name&authToken=Al7T&trk=prof-sb-browse_map-photo

Although Relic offered him excellent opportunities, the game Stephen was working on was based on war, and he didn’t feel it was a good fit for him and his family. Instead, he wanted to create high-quality games for kids and parents. “We want to be the Pixar of games,” he says. “Pixar makes movies that everyone can enjoy – they’re targeted at kids, but you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy the film. That’s what Heartsy is all about. It’s going to be targeting that audience, with that kind of appeal.”

“Right now my life is pretty crazy,” he adds. “I’m living out in the woods in Guysborough, prototyping a game that I know will hit millions of people.

FYI, Stephen hired his wife (Carrie MacDonald) as the Community Manager. A former fitness coach with no experience in the gaming industry.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-macdonald-7729bb126/

Dow3 backslash & Abandon ship
The dow3 backslash is a good example where fans feel they were ignored or belittle fan criticism since the first screenshots were released. Obvious the art style was not aligned with what they saw in the Dawn of War III – Announcement Trailer made by Axis Animation which was well received by fans.

http://www.axisanimation.com/

The dow3 executive producer (Stephen MacDonald, as seen in vid) + brand manager (Danielle Robinson, involved since 2014) abandons ship well before launch and are not even in the end credits;

From LinkedIn;

Spear-headed the development of the global strategy and franchise roadmap for Dawn of War, revitalized branding efforts and created overall marketing materials. Responsible for increasing brand awareness, analysing market and consumer trends and defining positioning and messaging to reassert AAA position after 5yr hiatus.

The two game directors involved abandons ship post-launch. Adam Bullied and Philippe Boulle.
From Relic website 2016;
https://web.archive.org/web/20160517010602/http://www.relic.com:80/#meet-team


After abruptly "leaving" Relic, Stephen MacDonald goes to make mobile game studio "Heartsy Studios" which also fail miserably. It took a year to find a replacement so DoW3 launch without the new production leader which are David Littman.
Spotlight on Heartsy Studios
https://www.novascotiabusiness.com/articles/spotlight-heartsy-studios

Although Relic offered him excellent opportunities, the game Stephen was working on was based on war, and he didn’t feel it was a good fit for him and his family. Instead, he wanted to create high-quality games for kids and parents. “We want to be the Pixar of games,” he says. “Pixar makes movies that everyone can enjoy – they’re targeted at kids, but you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy the film. That’s what Heartsy is all about. It’s going to be targeting that audience, with that kind of appeal.”

Linkedin;

The founder and CEO for Heartsy Studios. Heartsy was started to make the best kids games in the world with a focus on quality, fun (obviously) and heart! No murder simulators for us!

4.409 views on youtube.

FYI in the above video "making the announcement trailer", Alex Price can be seen at 0:57.

Another one bites the dust.

And another one does,

and another one does.

Another one bites the dust.

Confirmed;
CoH/AoE4 Brand Manager, Alex Delamaire has left Relic for Hinterland Studio Inc.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/hinterland-studio-inc-/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdelamaire/

Is Sega buying Hinterland Studio to help build a new FPS team for PC/Console?
If true, will Raphael van Lierop become involved with CoH?

With the financial success of Fortnite + CoD WW2, Sega Europe seems interested to get more involved with FPS.

Sega use market data from superdataresearch

Hinterland Studio is run by the former Relic Game Director, Raphael van Lierop that created Spacemarine (Relic PC/Console FPS) and Producer from CoH1.
http://www.spacemarine.com/
https://hinterlandgames.com/

Credit; Raphael van Lierop
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,152837/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rvanlierop/

Game Director // Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
Company NameRelic Entertainment
Dates EmployedDec 2009 – Aug 2011 Employment Duration1 yr 9 mos
LocationVancouver, Canada Area
Relic's first Game Director.

I held the Game Director role on Relic's first multi-platform 3rd-person action game -- the action-blockbuster Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (Xbox 360, PS3, PC).

Provided overall creative direction for the project and a team of 120+ developers. I directed a team of discipline leads in art, design, animation, and audio -- and their teams -- to deliver the richest, most compelling adrenaline-fueled action blockbuster experience possible.

In my role, I paid particular attention to core gameplay, the realization of the world and characters, direction of the narrative and campaign, the relationship with Games Workshop, and relationship with both the studio and publisher executive team.
*SNIP*
Producer // Company of Heroes, Dawn of War
Company NameRelic Entertainment
Dates EmployedNov 2003 – Jan 2007 Employment Duration3 yrs 3 mos
LocationVancouver, Canada Area
Held production management roles (AP to Producer) on:

* Company of Heroes (94% metacritic; highest rated RTS of all time)
* Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (86% metacritic; multiple million units sold)
* Dawn of War: Winter Assault (85% metacritic; Expansion Pack of the Year 2005)

At the peak of my career at Relic, I was directly responsible for leading a team of over 75 developers in the creation of triple-A RTS games. At Relic, I learned a ton about game production, team leadership, and creating high quality entertainment.

Seems like the top dog at DoW3 had no idea what he was doing

hopefully whoever gets the nod for CoH3 has some interest in WW2 history. god forbid we get another trainwreck that ignores the core elements of the franchise

Making fun of a guy for wanting to make a family game or having his studio not work out is kind of an asshole move. It happens in the game industry. The real mistake was accomplished by ALL of the relic heads which put a guy who didn't really have any connection with DOW 3 or what made DOW 2 fun.

Looks like there has been a lot of churn at Relic and they've lost a lot of their best developers to other studios. I remember reading that the COH1 team basically all went on to do different things and COH1 was amazing.

I hope Relic gets some stability once AOE4 comes out and does well and is able to maintain talent. COH2 was massively harmed by THQ shennanigans. If they ever do COH3, let's hope they get it right and rehire some people from COH1 that understand what made the game fun and great

Making fun of a guy for wanting to make a family game or having his studio not work out is kind of an asshole move.

DoW3 fans just need to read between the lines of Stephen MacDonald mocking gamers for wanting to play violent games or what political activists refer to as "murder simulators". I quote;

The founder and CEO for Heartsy Studios. Heartsy was started to make the best kids games in the world with a focus on quality, fun (obviously) and heart! No murder simulators for us!

Spotlight on Heartsy Studios
https://www.novascotiabusiness.com/articles/spotlight-heartsy-studios

Although Relic offered him excellent opportunities, the game Stephen was working on was based on war, and he didn’t feel it was a good fit for him and his family.

Trying to scapegoat gamers for violence in society is kinda of an asshole move.
It's also highly irresponsible and misleading for a DoW3 production leader to make these sentiments. There is no such evidence and this has been debunked many times over. From mid-90s to 2014, it was OK to be a gamer. But now the scapegoating of gamers is back with a vengeance.
Stephen is part of those "political activist" that want to censor games in the name of "social justice".

I'm sorry, for making fun of the people that kill beloved video games for no good reasons.
I'm also sorry, I'll do this again. What can I say, I'm a sinner. I like making fun of incompetent leaders.
Relic would NEVER, make fun of what they perceive as incompetent leaders? right?.

If Relic want more censorship in games, at very least they should try to stay impartial. Anything less, would be non-professional and could potential start another consumer revolt against the studio.

From mid-90s to 2014, it was OK to be a gamer.

Wat. You dont remember the likes of Jack Thompson and such?

Wat. You dont remember the likes of Jack Thompson and such?

Or Columbine being blamed on Doom.

Or Columbine being blamed on Doom.

I thought it was CS

What's GTA ?

It's just a generational thing. Give it 10/20 years for people to move the scapegoat into something else.
Movies make people violent. TV makes people violent. People are just violent.

-

Keep this relevant to the topic, this isn't a political messageboard about censorship etc.

Please read your latest PM asap.