Homefront Doesn't Fear the Call of Duty Franchise

THQ already announced the latest project of Kaos Studios, Homefront, earlier this year, but now it released a few more details concerning the game's framework. The game will be set during a fictitious invasion of the United States by North Korea, and, even if it is no longer innovative with this idea due to the recent release of Modern Warfare 2, which contains a similar scenario, the title's publisher doesn't see this as a problem at all.

At the FBR Capital Markets 2009 Fall Investor Conference held yesterday, Danny Bilson, the head of THQ's core gaming group, talked lengthily about the game and answered a rather hot topic. Asked about how Homefront planned to face the competition, in the form of the next Modern Warfare, and the newly revealed Medal of Honor, Bilson replied that he felt confident in the game's narrative drive, but also in the multiplayer history that stood behind it. He was quick to remind us that the game's developer, Kaos, was born from the late Trauma Studios, the one responsible for the Desert Combat mod of Battlefield 1942.

But this isn't the studio's first project, and the previous Frontlines: Fuel of War proved to be a considerable flop. Even so, Bilson felt confident in the upcoming Homefront, and labeled Fuel of War as "an incomplete experiment under pressure to ship." While relying on the game's multiplayer, the single-player campaign and the narrative elements haven't been forgotten by THQ and it has brought in John Milius, the writer and director of Red Dawn. But the game's single-player story won't be delivered all at once, as the title is planned with an episodic content, with DLCs leading up to Homefront 2.

"This is about a guy moving some fuel," he said. "That's what the single-player is about, to restart some vehicles and retake the Golden Gate Bridge. It's the beginning of a story. We're going to tell this like a serial, with cliff-hangers. And then we intend to continue the story in [downloadable content], until we go to Homefront 2." Bilson further added that, "This is one of our big bets, I'll be honest. People say, 'Why are you going into this Call of Duty space?' And it's because I know we can compete. I know we can compete." Still, competing isn't the problem, anyone can do that. Winning, now, winning is a different matter altogether.