s at
IgroMir 2008|alt=|left Development began under the company
Climax Online, but the project was canceled in June 2004 when
Games Workshop determined that the roll-out costs would be too high. However, work on the game never actually stopped. Climax Online continued the project using their own funds until the company reported in late 2004 that the
Warhammer Online project was shut down due to difficulty in securing a publishing agreement. With the license available again, Games Workshop was approached by Mythic Entertainment, who were interested in acquiring the license and starting a new project from scratch. A long-standing relationship between several Games Workshop managers and the CEO of Mythic
Mark Jacobs ensured that a deal was quickly reached. The
Warhammer Online license was acquired by Mythic on May 18, 2005. Mythic soon cancelled its original follow-up project
Imperator Online after gaining the
Warhammer license.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is not a direct adaptation of either
Warhammer Fantasy Battles or
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or any other source alone, but rather from the
Warhammer Fantasy universe as a whole. It was developed by Mythic Entertainment, but Games Workshop was also involved in the ongoing development of the project. Their role was not only to ensure that the project remains true to the
Warhammer Fantasy franchise but also to work with Mythic to allow for the appropriate development and extension of the setting as necessary for the
MMO. Mythic had previously created MMOs, including
Dark Age of Camelot. During the development of
Warhammer Online, Mythic featured a
video blog of creative director
Paul Barnett. These videos gave the viewer an insight into the work that went on behind the scenes of
WAR, often showcasing development screens and concept art for the game. Mythic also released "Development Diaries" from time to time, meant to give readers a deeper look into the ongoing development of
WAR. The Windows version was simultaneously released in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand on 18 September 2008. On 30 July 2009, Mythic Entertainment announced that
Warhammer Online was being ported to the
Mac OS X platform in 2009, with a beta version becoming available immediately. The full version was released on 28 October 2009. Like other
Electronic Arts Mac games,
Warhammer Online for Mac uses the Cider portability engine by
TransGaming Technologies. As of 31 December 2008, the number of active
WAR subscribers had decreased to over 300,000 paying subscribers in North America and Europe. As of the end of March 2009, the company reported a loss of $1.08 billion in the financial year for 2009. Consequently, the number of servers was drastically reduced in order to consolidate the remaining population. The total number of servers was reduced to thirteen and the number of
role-playing servers was reduced to only one. Several servers were stopped, particularly in Europe, and there remained only nine servers: four in the United States and five in Europe (including two in Germany and one in France). From 9 February 2011, two other U.S. servers and one German server were removed, leaving a total of six servers worldwide (two in the US, four in Europe). From 14 December 2011, the game was down to three servers, one for the US, one for Germany, and one for the rest of Europe. On 18 December 2013,
Warhammer Online was shut down, due to the license agreement with Games Workshop coming to an end. Mythic was working on a
free-to-play version of the game, as well as another game titled
Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes. ==Reception==