Well this is one game I never expected. And given the fact
there are already three different Blood Bowl games on the market; it’s probably
a game no one was asking for either, which just makes me even more curious to
see what it is.
The only details leaked so far are a logo, six months of
development time already completed and a release date scheduled for next year.
Not even a hint of a reason to get excited by it. You can already buy a
complete version of Blood Bowl right now. So there’s nothing to add to the game
beyond new stadiums or improved AI, which could easily be added as DLC.
It’s left me wondering what the purpose of this sequel is. I
can only guess that Games Workshop is involved in a ground up redesign, given
that Blood Bowl is actually a fairly old game. The current version of Blood
Bowl is completely bloated by special rules and mechanics that are heavily
driven by die rolls. So there’s plenty to streamline. And they have previously
redesigned several of their other games.
But it surprises me that Blood Bowl was selected for a
sequel over making a game from another of Games Workshop’s intellectual properties.
Currently both Space Hulk and Warhammer Fantasy are in development, which shows
Games Workshop is willing to branch out. So it would surely make more sense to
adapt a game like Battlefleet Gothic or Necromunda; neither has been adapted for
a computer game yet and both could make excellent strategy titles.
It’s likely that the sequel will just be a highly polished
version of the Chaos Edition, and have a multi-platform release. This will be a
bit disappointing, but makes the most business sense as it will be very
difficult to tempt Blood Bowl owners on the PC into anther purchase.
