Publisher THQ today announced the results of the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2009, revealing a net loss of $431.1 million. Described by THQ CEO Brian Farrell as "a challenging fiscal 2009," the year saw higher losses and lower sales than FY2008.

Net sales dipped to $830 million in FY2009, down from $1.03 billion in FY2008, with FY2008's net loss coming at a relatively less severe $35.3 million. Despite the slide, Farrell expressed confidence for the next year, citing THQ's recently completed cost-cutting measures and its increased focus on quality, brands and profitability.

The company also touted its recent sales highlights, pointing out that Saints Row 2 has now shipped over 2.8 million units and noting that Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II "debuted as the best selling PC game across major video game markets worldwide."

In a separate announcement, THQ added that it has "signed a commitment letter for a $35 million senior secured credit facility with Bank of America, NA," with THQ CFO Paul Pucino explaining that "we are pursuing this credit facility as a prudent backup to our $141 million cash and short-term investment balance at March 31, 2009."

Developer Relic has lifted the fog of war to reveal Ruins of Argos and Medean Cliff Mines, the two 2v2 maps available for the mode which arrives in the upcoming patch.

In a developer update, Relic explains that the maps are created for different styles of play--Cliff Mines is open and difficult to control, while Ruins fosters intense action.

Relic promises more details over the coming week for the patch due "early May."

A two-on-two multiplayer mode is coming to Dawn of War 2 in an upcoming patch, developer Relic divulged in a community update today.

The mode will be accompanied by two 4-player maps in the new 1.3 patch, which is expected to be released early this month.

Other features slated for the update include "more challenging" skirmish AI, push-to-talk voice chat, a PC performance test, and new squad decorators and UI improvements.

Relic promises more information on the patch in the coming days.

Relic today generously released the full soundtrack to its latest strategy title, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2, as a free download.

The 20 tracks are the result of work by composer Doyle W. Donehoo and audio lead Jason Ross, along with contributions by artist Noah Stacey and everyone's favorite designer, Noobie Noobinson.

You can grab the 20-track, 188mb soundtrack now from FileShack.

Thanks spaceyme.

A single-player demo for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is now on FileShack.

The 333MB download allows players to sample the campaign mode of Relic's PC strategy sequel. While many got a sneak peak at the game in the public multiplayer beta held prior to its February 19 release, campaign gameplay was not offered.

In celebration of the demo, Steam--required to run the game--is offering a 25% off discount, bringing the game's cost down to $37.49. The sale ends Monday, April 20.

For more on Dawn of War II, check out our glowing review and the latest patch notes.

Developer Relic has pulled the wraps off the next Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II patch, which will bring a new map and more balance tweaks to the PC strategy game.

The new arena, Tiber Outpost, supports up to six players in the Team Battle mode. A few screenshots, visible above, were released on the Dawn of War II Community Site.

The patch, version 1.2.1, is set to be released on Monday, April 13, at noon PST. As with past updates, it will be automatically downloaded and applied after restarting Steam. Read on for the complete patch notes, details on the various balance... Read more

Relic today issued another patch for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2, this one meant to address a bug that saw players lose units due to population cap problems.

The update is the first in a two-part fix for the issue, with the studio noting that there are a few rare cases where the bug may still pop up, but they require "intended exploitation."

Owners of the PC action-RTS will automatically receive the patch after rebooting Steam. For more on what the update fixes, check out the full patch notes below:

• Addressed a Population Cap issue where during reinforcement, the final unit reinforced charged twice the population cap to the player... Read more

NPD's list of the ten best-selling PC games at United States retailers didn't change all that much during the week of February 22-28. Like the last week, Dawn of War II is still on top, Lich King is still in second, and The Sims take up the two spots below that.

Apart from some reshuffled positions later down the list, the only noteworthy changes are the disappearances of F.E.A.R. 2 and Crysis Warhead. They were replaced by the incredibly cheap Sims Carnival: SnapCity and the first World of Warcraft expansion.

1. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II / Relic / $48
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $38
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / EA Maxis / $20
4. The Sims 2 Deluxe / EA Maxis / $2
5. World Of Warcraft / Blizzard / $16
6. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest / Blizzard / $35
7. Spore / EA Maxis / $44
8. The Sims Carnival: SnapCity / Electronic Arts / $2
9. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack / EA Maxis / $19
10. World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade / Blizzard / $25

The latest software sales figures from sales-tracking group NPD are in, showing the top ten PC games at United States retailers during the week of February 15-21, 2009.

That week saw the debut of Dawn of War II, along with the surprise return of Crysis Warhead. Meanwhile, Fallout 3 and Call of Duty: World at War both dropped off, but F.E.A.R. 2 managed to hang on, just not in the #2 slot it hit last week.

By the way, Dawn of War 2 marks the first new game to top Wrath of the Lich King since the juggernaut appeared way back in November. Since then, Lich King and The Sims 2 have battled for supremacy, but no new game has charted above the King until now.

1. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II / Relic / $49
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $35
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / EA Maxis / $19
4. The Sims 2 Deluxe / EA Maxis / $3
5. Spore / EA Maxis / $41
6. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest / Blizzard / $34
7. World Of Warcraft / Blizzard / $16
8. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin / Monolith / $49
9. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack / EA Maxis / $19
10. Crysis Warhead / Crytek / $19

Update: We'll still be giving away the majority of the keys on the general Shacknews Twitter feed, but now we'll be handing out two of the keys in a truly randomized drawing. To qualify, follow the same instructions as below. The final keys will be sent to the winners via Twitter direct messaging on Sunday and Monday.

Original story: So we liked Relic's Dawn of War II a whole bunch. We think you'll probably like it too. But how to justify the expense in these trying times?

Shacknews is here to help. Over the next five days--Thursday through Monday--we'll be giving away one free Steam copy of Dawn of War II per day. The twist? We'll be posting the codes on the official Shacknews Twitter feed.

Oh, I know. Twitter is that silly thing your daughter uses to whine about how her boyfriend sucks at Team Fortress. Well, it's also a great way to share gaming information. And now it wins you games.

The steps:

• Sign up for a Twitter account on Twitter.com.
• Subscribe to the lovely Shacknews Twitter feed.
• Watch your feed over the next few days and snap up a code.

Good luck to everyone.

Those afflicted by a Dawn of War II bug that prevents them from accepting any new campaign missions should find relief later today, according to developer Relic.

The studio is currently testing an update that will resolve the issue, and expects to release the fix later today. The problem crops up when save game data is corrupted because of a crash, leaving "a small percentage of players" without any missions.

"The fix should bring those corrupted save games back to life and shouldn't interfere with unaffected save games in any way," wrote Relic on the Dawn of War II community site. The anticipated PC strategy game launched earlier this week.

However, the update will not address the root of those crashes, an out-of-memory error, as Relic has not yet been able to fix that issue. The studio noted that such crashes are "more likely to happen on 32-Bit Vista machines running on High and Ultra settings," and suggests that those experiencing problems use Medium settings for now.

"Relic apologizes for this inconvenience," the company added. "We are working hard to solve the problem and deploy a fix responsibly."

I still don't know what to call Dawn of War II.

There are elements of Syndicate, and of Warcraft III. There are gobs of Company of Heroes, and hints of Homeworld. There's a bunch of Diablo, and even a little Final Fantasy.

Of course, three days and 22 hours of gameplay later, I didn't much care what the ingredients were, or what I was supposed to call it. No matter the influences or subgenre specifics, I was convinced: Dawn of War II is an incredibly good game.

As many have found with the multiplayer beta, the longer you play Dawn of War II, the more enjoyable it becomes. Unlike traditional RTS titles, the... Read more

With Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II officially releasing on Thursday, developer Relic Entertainment has revealed that the multiplayer beta test will end in a few hours.

The beta will shut down at 12:01am GMT on February 18, which translates to 7:01pm EST / 6:01pm CST / 4:01pm PST on February 17, better known as today.

"We would like to thank everyone for participating in Relic's most successful Beta ever," the developer wrote on the game's community site. "We've identified and fixed a tremendous number of bugs and balance tweaks that will make the game considerably better when it ships to stores this week. We literally couldn't have done it without you."

A number of statistics from the nearly month-long beta of the action-RTS were provided, such as the most popular heroes and most successful races, viewable here.

With Dawn of War II finally out next week, developer Relic has detailed the numerous changes contained in the day-zero 1.1.0 patch for the PC RTS, including several multiplayer tweaks that stem from community feedback to the multiplayer beta.

The patch also packs the promised addition of two new multiplayer maps.

PvP Gameplay
• Added two new maps to PvP automatch rotation.
• Fixed a bug where ability effects were permanent on burrowed units.
• Fixed several population capacity bugs.
• Fixed problem with retreating to allied HQ... Read more

The crazy guys at the UK branch of Dawn of War II publisher THQ--along with Dawn of War creators Games Workshop and the aptly-named engineers at Tanks-A-Lot--built a full-scale version of a Rhino, the Space Marine APC unit.

Then they turned it loose on a family car, Top Gear-style.

The result:

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Relic's RTS sequel Dawn of War II is finally coming to stores next week. Below is one of the last trailers to be released for the title, showing off the bloodthirsty Tyranid race. They don't like humans very much.

Dawn of War II hits retailers on February 19. Check out our recent preview for more on the game.

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There's nothing worse than taking a perfectly good strategy game and wrapping it up in bad cutscenes and silly scenarios.

What if chess had been conceived as an RTS? Each match would begin with a briefing from a pre-rendered military commander, most likely voiced by Keith David. Players would then be forced to complete a tutorial mission using only pawns, slowly unlocking new "tech" stage by stage, rooks to bishops. Occasionally you'd be given control over hero pieces that look exactly like pawns, but could fly and shoot fireballs.

At the end of the game, you would defeat the evil King. Of course, he'd return in the stand-alone expansion.

Yeah, I can think of only a handful of strategy titles that managed to provide a truly memorable single-player campaign--a mix of unique gameplay and addictive mechanics that amounts to more than single-player window dressing.

Fortunately, Dawn of War II seems to be one of those games. ... Read more

Following speculation that retailer GameStop had de-listed Relic's Dawn of War II due to the game's requirement of Valve's digital distribution service Steam, the title is once again available for preorder on the GameStop website.

Rumors of retaliatory blacklisting began when a supposed inside source told Kotaku that GameStop would not be selling the PC real-time strategy game due to its close ties to competitor Steam.

Dawn of War II publisher THQ recently confirmed that the game would require Steam to run due to its implementation of Steamworks copy protection. Meanwhile, a Steam-exclusive Dawn of War II multiplayer beta has been underway for several weeks.

GameStop employees had previously insisted that the company simply exhausted its preorder stock.

A fresh batch of screenshots from Relic's Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II have come out of publisher THQ, meant to show off the game's cooperative missions.

Requiring a Steam install to play, the PC action-RTS hits retailers on February 19.

THQ today announced that Relic's upcoming RTS Dawn of War II will require Steam to run due to its implementation of Valve's Steamworks copy protection.

"We love Steamworks because it offers so many advantages for the player," said Dawn of War II lead designer Jonny Ebbert. "Gamers who purchase the game and register with Steam can install the game on as many PCs as they want, can play online or offline and no CD is required to play."

"Best of all, if the player ever loses the CD, the game can be downloaded for free from Steam," he added.

Retailer GameStop recently halted preorders of Dawn of War II, leading some to speculate that GameStop was using slash-and-burn tactics to fight PC digital distribution competitor Steam. Neither Valve, THQ or GameStop have chosen to comment on the issue.

Dawn of War II is set for a PC release on February 19.