Relic abandons Dawn of War 3 as a result of poor sales

Dawn of War 3 developer Relic is ending support for the game less than a year after its release.

Dawn of War 3, which released in April last year, will not be getting any more content patches or expansions. The game's developer, Relic, has confirmed that it's abandoning plans for future content.

The reason being, as you may have guessed, is that Dawn of War 3 just didn't sell well enough to support any expansions. Relic and publisher Sega confirmed this to Eurogamer in a statement.

"While Dawn of War 3 has a dedicated player base, it didn't hit the targets we were expecting at launch, and it hasn't performed the way we had hoped since," the developer said.

Stat tracker Steam Spy puts Dawn of War 3 at just above 575,000 owners on Steam, and the actual figure is likely lower thanks to a free weekend the game had in October. This is not a big number, and it's easy to see why Relic made this decision.

"When a game underperforms, plans need to change. With Dawn of War 3, we simply don't have the foundation we need to produce major content," the statement reads.

This makes Dawn of War 3 the only game in the series not to receive any expansions post-launch, something fans have come to expect. But it's also not completely surprising. The game was a met with a tepid response from many players. The lack of a skirmish mode at launch in favour of a MOBA-inspired multiplayer mode alienated series fans and couldn't attract new ones.

Dawn of War 3 also didn't have Last Stand mode, a co-op horde mode-style affair well liked in Dawn of War 2.

The news puts the future of the series in question, as it's going to be hard to justify investing a in a sequel if the studio wasn't able to invest in an expansion. Relic said that it's "in close partnership with Sega and Games Workshop to determine the best course of action."

"It's been tough for us as professionals who want to make great games for our players, and for us as people who care a lot about what we do."

Relic is currently working on Age of Empires 4.