This morning, the news is that yet another MMO company has started in Austin, and it will be working on the Warhammer 40K license. Vigil Studios was founded by the guy who developed Exarch for NCSoft – a game that never shipped but provided the codebase for another NCSoft property. The game is being published by THQ – a company that just last year poo-poohed the idea that anyone could compete with WoW. Since then, they hired Kelly Flock, formerly of Sony. Interviews with Kelly are here and here.

“We realized this is one of those few properties that has a high level of interest from the hardcore gaming community, which could be a great launching point to turning it into a great mainstream mass-market MMO.”

It takes a great deal of finesse to pull it off, but I actually love the idea of 40K in space. I think that most futuristic MMOs have a real problem finding resonance with their fanbase, and while everyone scoffs at elves and orcs, leveraging them is one shortcut that helps you get there.