THQ Has Solid Plans for Digital Distribution

Despite the continued existence of the retail business, the entire video game industry will move more towards the digital space in the coming years, allowing for a bigger number of games to become all-around hits.

Jason Rubin, who is an executive vice president working at THQ, told Game Informer that, “In general, how do you succeed with games that aren’t Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Assassin’s Creed? The way the industry has been set up with all titles selling for roughly the same price at retail next to each other, is that there’s been a race to make the biggest, baddest-[expletive] game.”

He added, “If you walk into a store as a gamer and see a massive $120 million dollar game next to a $30 million dollar game, and a $80 million marketing budget backing that $120 million game up, it’s likely you’re going to pull that one off the shelf.”

Jason Rubin is the man who replaced outspoken Danny Bilson when he decided to leave his position as executive vice president of Core Games in May.

THQ has reported big problems during 2011 and the company was forced to restructure aggressively in order to survive.

The publisher has dropped all efforts to develop casual and tie-in games and is focusing on delivering core properties like Darksiders, Company of Heroes and Warhammer.

The digital distribution model allows companies to no longer depend on brick and mortar stores and get more money directly from players.

There’s speculation that the coming home consoles from Microsoft and Sony will include digital distribution services, a rumor that is boosted by the Sony acquisition of Gaikai.

The upcoming big launch from THQ is Darksiders II, which is coming in the middle of August on the PC as well as the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.