The Relic logo from Dawn of War II: Retribution
Relic Entertainment is a video game development studio founded in 1997 and based in Vancouver, Canada. Their first games were published by Sierra Entertainment and Microsoft, followed by THQ acquiring the studio for approximately $10 million in May 2004. The current owner of Relic Entertainment is SEGA, which acquired the studio in January 2013 for $26.6 million after THQ filed for bankruptcy.
Relic specializes in 3D real-time strategy (RTS) games. The studio known for creative, visually appealing, and combat-intense games that have received very positive review scores (especially Company of Heroes, which remains the highest-rated strategy game of all time with aggregate scores of 93.93% at GameRankings and 93 out of 100 at Metacritic).
Warhammer 40,000[]
Relic's 40K lineup started under THQ in 2004 with Dawn of War, which was followed by two expansions – Dawn of War: Winter Assault in 2005 and Dawn of War: Dark Crusade in 2006. A third expansion, Dawn of War: Soulstorm, was developed by Iron Lore Entertainment in 2008. The series was successful, and reportedly sold over 4 million copies despite being slightly a niche product and released only for the PC.
The full sequel, Dawn of War II, was released in 2009, followed by another two expansions; Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising in 2010 and Dawn of War II: Retribution in 2011. The series was received well and sold well – detailed figures are not known, but the entire franchise (Dawn of War included) has sold over 7 million units, which would leave around 3 million for Dawn of War II titles.
Relic's other Warhammer 40,000 franchise is Space Marine, a third-person action game released in 2011, this time for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well as PC. Reception was generally positive and sales seem to have been decent (1.2 million units during a single quarter was cited in 2011).
With eight 40K titles out of the oven, Relic remains the definitive Warhammer 40,000 video game developer.
List of video games[]
| Title | Year | Publisher | GameRankings | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homeworld | 1999 | Sierra | 88.81% | 93/100 |
| Impossible Creatures | 2002 | Microsoft | 77.78% | 72/100 |
| Homeworld 2 | 2003 | Sierra | 84.99% | 83/100 |
| Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War | 2004 | THQ | 86.77% | 86/100 |
| Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Winter Assault | 2005 | THQ | 85.67% | 85/100 |
| The Outfit | 2006 | THQ | 70.20% | 70/100 |
| Company of Heroes | 2006 | THQ | 93.93% | 93/100 |
| Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade | 2006 | THQ | 86.88% | 87/100 |
| Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts | 2007 | THQ | 87.15% | 87/100 |
| Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II | 2009 | THQ | 85.14% | 85/100 |
| Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor | 2009 | THQ | 71.59% | 70/100 |
| Company of Heroes Online | 2010 | THQ | n/a | n/a |
| Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Chaos Rising | 2010 | THQ | 85.51% | 85/100 |
| Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution | 2011 | THQ | 82.16% | 80/100 |
| Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine | 2011 | THQ | 78.15% | 76/100 |
| Company of Heroes 2 | 2013 | SEGA | 80.52% | 80/100 |
External links[]
- Relic Entertainment (Wikipedia)
- Relic Entertainment (official website)