Fri, May 06, 2011 | 21:00 BST

THQ: CoD-level success still possible for Homefront

Homefront’s 2.6 million opening pitch may not have quite been the home run THQ was looking for, but it’s nothing to scoff at either. Well, unless you’re Call of Duty, in which case you’ve earned the right to take a sip of your incredibly fine wine and chortle at whatever numbers you please. THQ’s Brian Farrell, however, doesn’t think his game’s lost a battle or a war. After all, he explained, even Call of Duty wasn’t always an 800 lb industry gorilla.

“Of course, the market opportunity is there,” Farrell replied to IndustryGamers when asked if he thinks the Homefront IP has any chance of reaching Call of Duty’s stratospheric heights.

“When I think about it, if you go back and look at the original Call of Duty, how they built that, the first Call of Duty didn’t do 18 million units. The franchise was built over time, building a quality consumer experience and supporting it well. And hey, there’s a lot of room between 2.6 million units and 18.”

Farrell was quick to emphasize, however, that THQ’s far from a one-trick pony. He added:

“Certainly you can’t count out Saints Row. We have a great opportunity this fall with that one as well. We have a lot of strong franchises; we’re the market leader in off-road racing with MX, and we’ve established a great niche that we own in these creativity and art-based games, with the uDraw series. We’re still a leader in our real-time strategy games with our Relic Studio, and we’re also building our Space Marine game, so we think it’s the best line up in our history coming out over the next 24 months.”

Slow and steady wins the race, after all. But having something for everyone – whether you like stealing cars, offroad racing, or cultivating your skills as the next great child art prodigy – certainly doesn’t hurt.

17 comment-trail-alt Posted in: Activision Blizzard, PC, PS3, Shooter, THQ, Xbox 360
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17 comments

#1

loki
06/05/11, 9:27 am

LOL
2,6 million Trashfronts it is shame for gamers who buy it

#2

distraet
06/05/11, 9:54 am

I thought it was pretty decent, though way too short which undermined the whole experience.

#3

ngd91
06/05/11, 10:49 am

hahaha you must be ruddy joking! and thats not to say I have a huge love for COD, my mate had to make me play both but I much prefer COD to Homefront.

Why does everyone keep saying that the campaign was quite good but short, I thought it was massively repetitive and felt like it was developed in the 90′s it had a very basic and old level of creativity thats been done dozens of times before.

Don’t know if anyone knows if there is a link but the engine was smacking of Half Life but the problem is that Half Life came out years ago.

Overall I think Homefront is far off from breaking any gaming fronts!

#4

AHA-Lambda
06/05/11, 11:23 am

homefront is abysmal one of the worst games i’ve played in recent ages

#5

EscoBlades
06/05/11, 11:30 am

LOLOLOL!

*deep breath*

The game was shockingly bad. The end!

#6

UuBuU
06/05/11, 12:36 pm

Give up, THQ. If anything, Homefront sold more than it deserved because it was new and people didn’t know what to expect. Now they know exactly what to expect and many won’t even bother trying a sequel unless it’s drastically different.

The difference between Homefront and COD is, the earlier COD games were actually decent enough to build up a fanbase.

And don’t get me started on Saints Row. Maybe you should stop trying to steal the limelight from big franchises like GTA and COD and actually come up with something new and innovative.

#7

ColdCoffee
06/05/11, 12:55 pm

http://www.gamepur.com/files/images/2010/brian_farrell_thq.jpg

Yeah that just screams I know stuff about games…

What is this crap? They changed their logo? Why are they trying to reinvent themselves? None of this makes any since. The Warhammer games are OK they make OK games. These business tycoons just think you can throw money at everything and creativity doesn’t work that way. THQ is on notice they just went from OK to Walmart budget isle for me. They really need to shut this loud mouth up before he destroy their image. To late…

#8

DarkElfa
06/05/11, 1:31 pm

“Of Course” TEA could still switch to X-Box.

#9

theevilaires
06/05/11, 1:46 pm

^ Hate to break your balls numb nuts but I already have 3 XBOXs. 1 original and 2 360′s.

“Of Course” DarkElfa could learn to troll better ;)

#10

reask
06/05/11, 2:09 pm

I didnt think it was terrible tbh.
It done nothing new but was OK.
What annoyed me was the online or lack of it.
You just couldnt get into a match most of the time.
Anyone know if that improved?

#11

Hunam
06/05/11, 2:15 pm

I buy pretty much all the FPS’s when they come out, but I skipped this because, well, it looked proper shit.

#12

G1GAHURTZ
06/05/11, 2:24 pm

Get in line, THQ.

#13

Prof.Dr.Moertel
06/05/11, 3:14 pm

@10 yes, it was improved, I never had any problems finding a match in the last few weeks.

#14

Old MacDonald
06/05/11, 3:19 pm

Half the CoD-games (the Treyarch ones) have been crap as well, and that hasn’t really put a stop to that franchise. So they’re probably right.

#15

ManuOtaku
06/05/11, 3:22 pm

Old Macdonald +1

#16

HauntaVirus
06/05/11, 9:02 pm

…not

#17

IL DUCE
08/05/11, 10:29 pm

Yeah the SP was hohum until towards the end when you started fighting the other guerilla Americans…but the multiplayer wasn’t bad, graphics were OK, had a gritty look to them that I liked but could’ve been better quality, but multiplayer Battle Points system and Battle Commander mode was pretty cool, basically Battlefield multiplayer with CoD controls…could’ve been much better but hey, it was a decent first attempt

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