Games Workshop dumps Warhammer Online

British tabletop gaming firm Games Workshop has cancelled work on Warhammer Online, the massively multiplayer game which was being developed by Climax based on its best-known role-playing property.

In a terse statement issued to the financial markets today, Games Workshop said that "this decision was taken following a full review of the progress, costs to date and future costs of the project."

The game was being created as a co-development between Games Workshop and Climax, and both firms have apparently agreed to the termination of the project. It was due to be published worldwide by Sega.

It's not clear what factors caused the development of the title - which was significantly advanced - to be halted, although competition in the massively multiplayer market is certainly tougher now than it was two years ago when the project was started.

Several other Warhammer licensed projects have been given the go-ahead by Games Workshop over the past few years - including online FPS title Fire Warrior, which was developed by Kuju and released last Christmas, and a strategy title, Dawn of War, which is being created by Relic for release later this year.