14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher THQ has announced that Homefront, the upcoming first-person shooter that will be launched in the middle of March, is the most pre-ordered title in the history of the company, with United States gamers alone reserving more than 200,000 copies, a figure apparently matched by players all around the world.
THQ has pulled all the stops in order to make Homefront a success, even going so far as to launch a North Korean themed food truck that promotes the game while serving what is described as “worker” cuisine.
There's also a promotion linked to the OnLive streaming service, which will give away its micro-console device to those who pre-order Homefront from it before the date of March 14.
The success of Homefront is important for both publisher THQ and for developer Kaos Games.
The team working on the game might be relocated if they fail to deliver a hit.
Danny Bilson, who is the vice president of core games at THQ, has said, “I tell them the more successful a game is, the better the economics are for the franchise, and that will help to influence what we do.”
He added, “So we haven't made any decisions at the moment. We're going to look at how it goes. We don't want to relocate people just to relocate people.”
The publisher is trying to move into the premium first-person shooter market with Homefront, hoping that it will create a franchise on the same level as Call of Duty from Activision or Battlefield from Electronic Arts.
Homefront will task the gamer with fighting back, as a member of a resistance group, against the North Korean forces that have invaded the mainland United States.
The theme of the game has generated some controversy as did the apparent graphics nature of the warzone that Homefront will depict.