Profile of SturmtigerCobra

coh3 will never happen coz relic will shut down after the failure of age of empires

Do a bit more research and I think you'll find it more complicated than that

As I said before;
Blackbird Interactive is Relic 2.0 and independent game studio. As Quinn Duffy points out in previous Relic anniversary streams without Homeworld there would have been no CoH.

Vision for BBI/Relic games?
https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/aoe4-director-quinn-duffy-offering-some-insight-and-also-talking-a-bit-about-aoe/30661

*snip*
Do you think the old rock-paper-scissors is better then the current APM based system in strategy games?
Quinn: I think that is the challenge on executing a strategy has become, it is such a focus on micro control. Im definitely from the school of more delibirate strategy where you have time to take a bit of approach to the surrounding land. I like that […] I’m not an APM guy because I’m not an APM player who can find success in that, I go for understanding the tactics and the game.
When you watch people playing some of the APM strategy games, if they make 1 or 2 minor failures, within a few seconds… thats it, they lose.
*snip*

About complexity and competitivity
Quinn: We want players to get to that strategy in a way that isn’t limited by physical skill (reflexes/APM)

I fully agree with this vision for future Relic/BBI tactical RTS games somewhat similar to Ground Control/World In Conflict. Before that great Real-time tactics included Myth: The Fallen Lords and WW2 Close Combat series.

Top competitive AoE player, TheViper confirms AoE2 is flawed (empower Quinn Duffy's vision);
https://www.coh2.org/topic/62922/relic-working-on-age-of-empires-4/page/8#post_id791456
https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/daxxam/age_of_empires_4_i_want_to_see_a_worthy_successor/

We have Age 2 DE, Age 4 and Warcraft 3 Reforged coming up after such a long time without competitive RTS on the mainstream. Do you think that RTS could make a comeback and attract new players?

TheViper: I think RTS is too complicated and demanding in terms of effort and skill set, that it can't compete with the less complicated, yet competitive games anymore. Those games simply appeal to more people as it's easier to play, yet competitive with a high skill ceiling. Maybe sometime in the future this will change again, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

BBI studio leadership is run by Relic vets/founders including the CEO, COO (chief operating officer) and CCO (chief creative officer).
Source:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-cunningham-9a726711/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-torin-7a050b1/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-aaron-kambeitz-216b6466/

Interview BBI CEO, Rob Cunningham and former Relic creative director:


BBI Studio Leadership:
https://blackbirdinteractive.com/studio/

BBI is making Homeworld 3 (IP owned by Gearbox/CEO Randy Pitchford) and another unannounced strategy game.
If Relic (which exists in name only) fails with CoH3 development, BBI is a strong candidate to make future CoH games.
https://blackbirdinteractive.com/projects/

CoH IP is owned by Sega, not Relic. They can outsource the IP as they see fit.
Sega Europe leadership also has Alex Peters which is a former Relic studio head from 2011-2013 when making CoH2.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexpeters99/

Sega America has Rich Williams, former top THQ executive (12 years), Relic's former publisher:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-williams-86a53948/

The current Relic studio head is former MS with BigPark studio (former focus on MS Kinect).
https://www.linkedin.com/in/justindowdeswell/

Relic Entertainment appoints BigPark studio director as GM (Justin Dowdeswell)
https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/publishing/relic-entertainment-appoints-bigpark-studio-director-as-gm/

As well as working at Kinect Sports: Season Two and Joy Ride Turbo developer BigPark as studio director, Justin Dowdeswell has previously held roles as development director at EA and as a producer and studio GM at Next Level Games.

Microsoft to acquire BigPark (Friday 8th May 2009):
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/microsoft-to-acquire-bigpark

BigPark was founded in 2007 by former employees of Distinctive Software and EA Canada, including Wil Mozell, Erik Kiss, Hanno Lemke and Don Mattrick, who later transitioned to a role at Microsoft prior to the acquisition.

BigPark co-founders is EA Don Mattrick which used to have a close business relationship with Relic founder Alex Garden. Mattrick almost destroyed the Xbox brand and likely also played a role in Alex Garden's retirement from the game industry in 2015;



Xbox Creator Says Don Mattrick Had Little Faith In The Console (March 6, 2019): https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-creator-says-don-mattrick-had-little-faith-in/1100-6465344/

Blackley@SeamusBlackley
I’ve never talked about this before, but the irony of Don Mattrick as Xbox Chief was huge for me: when I first came to EA Canada to present the idea of a Microsoft console, he nearly blocked me from addressing the company because he didn’t believe it was possible. It was tense.

How many CoH fans can put their money where their mouth is?
Are you willing to invest life savings into Relic's CoH3?
If not, why?
I'm not a Quinn Duffy fan but I do support his vision as I highlighted above.

Honestly, Sega should sell Relic to Microsoft/Xbox brand (without CoH IP). Whatever Sega is doing with Relic it doesn't seem to be working that well.

If we only had a CoH2 CM...

CoH/DoW fans waiting for Relic CM support:

Not just CoH2, no CM for any Relic IP, it's all AoE4. This has never happened before since Relic got their first CM (buggo/Allie Henze) with vCoH launch in 2006.

GameReplays Interview with Buggo (Relic's first CM):
https://www.gamereplays.org/companyofheroes/portals.php?show=news&news_id=123486

GameReplays.org:
How do you feel about Company of Heroes? Do you feel it will be a success, especially in regards to online play?
Buggo:
I have loved playing Company of Heroes so far. It's an awesome game and it is a lot of fun. Judging from what I've heard from the community so far, and my own personal impressions, I think it will be a huge success. It is very unique as a WWII RTS with a completely destructible environment and (in my opinion) a beautiful art style. As for online, I've played several games on multiplayer so far and they've been a blast. There's a lot of strategy and facets of the game to consider, but yet it is easy to pick up and play. I guess we will see when the game comes out, but so far my experience has been positive. Even my little brother who is a huge WC3 fan (he's 16) has been converted.

Fast forward to today. How many hours do new Relic devs have playing Relic IPs? 10? 100? 1000?


Current requirements to become a Sega CoH/TW QA Senior Tester:
https://gamejobs.co/Functionality-QA-Senior-Tester-at-Sega-Europe-8489

Required:
Knowledge and playtime (100h+) of the Total War franchise (preferably from Warhammer 1 and forward) and/or equivalent knowledge and playtime for Company of Heroes series.

Even DoW2 had a CM (Kellie Goggins) almost two years before DoW3 launch. At that time DoW2 was 6 years old with fewer players than CoH2.

How do Relic which exist in name only want to be remembered? This studio once had 3 great IPs, now they have one left.


Maybe AoE4 will be great but it's not a Relic IP, it's Ensemble Studios legacy which lives on in Halo Wars 2 and AoE definitive editions.
With the current AoE2 tournament (AOElympics) the community have more viewers than SC2:


AoE2 eSport likely can't compete with other game genres as top player TheViper points out in interview;
Age of Empires 4: “I want to see a worthy successor of AOE2”, says the best of the world:
(Original version in Brazilian portuguese: https://www.voxel.com.br/noticias/age-of-empires-4-quero-sucessor-digno-aoe-2-diz-melhor-mundo_845893.htm)
https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/daxxam/age_of_empires_4_i_want_to_see_a_worthy_successor/

*snip*
The competitive scene didn't stand long on Age 3 like Age 2. What do you think Age 4 should have to attract pro players?

TheViper: First of all it needs to be fun to play and feel competetive. Secondly, it must be fun for an audience to watch if it's going to become a proper e-sport. Thirdly, it needs investment in terms of
tournaments and competitions, from Microsoft or other parties, or both!

https://www.twitch.tv/theviper
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheViperAOC

Using TheViper's own logic, CoH2 seems less flawed vs AoE. With this in mind, Relic management has strange priorities.
As a CoH fan or passionate Relic dev that loves RTS eSport, you are better off trying to convince Sega/Microsoft to invest in CoH because Relic management won't do much.

i never said that Ih has bigger playerbase i just said the olayerbase is big enouph to find games and have good games ofc coh2 has the bigger playerbase

Currently, Iron Harvest has more twitch viewers than CoH2 (RTS category):


Far more impressive is this marketing success;
Iron Harvest - Cinematic Trailer has 13M views:


My advice to Iron Harvest devs:
Focus on Co-Op/PvE first, then PvP.
Competitive ladder players is a niche and not your core audience. Keep in mind fan forums is kinda biased and perhabs not the best to get good feedback from PvE'er.

For confirmation and inspiration look at the popularity of Starcraft Co-Op and DoW2: Last Stand (Co-Op survival game mode).
CoH2 have Theatre of War Co-Ops which was poorly implemented.

https://www.coh2.org/topic/62130/relic-wanted-feedback-for-coh1-vs-coh2/page/4

If they want to make a COH3, I would like it that they make co-op modes like in StarCraft 2. Gives non-comp players something to do and helps maintain the playerbase(co-op players are more than competitive ladder players combined)

3-Teamgames modes has to be enjoyable first, balanced second, cause you can't really balance it. Seeing that Blizzard really hit it with it's CoOP mode, i would say they should aim for this if they want to catter to the masses.

https://www.coh2.org/topic/102584/new-features-in-coh3-request-discussion

12- Double down in Theater of War. Try to replicate the success achieved by SC2 with Coop mode.

Funny enough, CoH released with Theater of War which was basically a coop experience.

SC2 commanders basically "saved" the franchise of been another diablo 3 with skeleton crew game.

I think Starcraft 2 Co-op mode is the big RTS Revolution to target the casual players.
For Relic/Sega Co-op is a good way to make money from paid-commanders (not pay-to-win but pay-to-help).

StarCraft II Co-op In-Depth Review - A Real-time Strategy Revolution, 2018


https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Co-op_Missions

Relic was working on a stand-alone game to DoW2: Last Stand. Codename "Atlas". The studio talked about the project in this DoW documentary;



I really enjoyed playing DoW2: Last Stand. With the way Iron Harvest heroes and reserves works, I think something similar could work.

CoH2 Steam beta update from Andy;
http://www.companyofheroes.com/blog/2020/09/17/64-bit-beta-and-update

For Steam players, Company of Heroes 2 is now available as a 64 Bit application as a beta! In the coming weeks, we intend to upgrade the live version of Company of Heroes 2 to full 64 Bit once beta testing is complete and we’re satisfied with overall quality.

We're extremely excited to bring this update to Steam users for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it should mean better stability and overall performance by resolving memory issues. It will also allow crossplay with users playing on the new Game Pass version!

Xbox players reporting the new version is more stable and doesn't crash:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/231430/discussions/0/2949251578277520058/

Piddypids
This is COH2, I have it on Xbox game pass for PC so no need for controller. But It is a newer version and doesn't crash like this one does. The XB game pass version is 4.0.0.65535. But the Steam version is 4.0.023468. The XB Game pass version seems a lot lot more stable, But is unmodable

IMO, Relic/Sega games will expand with new subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass/project xCloud streaming (console/pc/mobile), Apple Arcade (mobile) and/or Google Stadia streaming.

Accurately predicted over 1 year ago;

Coming Soon

Company of Heroes 2 (PC) – September 17
The follow-up to the highest rated RTS of all time, Company of Heroes 2 is an acclaimed blend of strategy and tactics will test players’ knowledge of real-world combat. Now with five armies included to play with in multiplayer and two single-player campaigns. Cover, line of sight, armor, and fully destructible environments all must be considered to lead your troops to victory
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/14/coming-soon-xbox-game-pass-wave-2-september-2020/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/company-of-heroes-2-complete-collection/9nx9wh5f0rzd

Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/comments/is1s9w/company_of_heroes_2_complete_addition_coming_to/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CompanyOfHeroes/comments/isyhrw/looks_like_we_got_a_bunch_of_new_players_coming/

CoH console when?