14 DAY TRIAL // Danny Bilson, who is one of the main public faces of video game publisher THQ and a vice president in charge of game development, has said that his company has a number of plans to differentiate the first-person shooter Homefront from other titles in its genre, like Call of Duty or Battlefield.
Speaking at the MI6 Conference, which focuses on how advertising is used in the video game business, the THQ executive stated, “I think there’s a great big audience for people who want to ‘play army’ online, and I’m one of them. I’m really looking forward to the Battlefield game. And that’s because I love having vehicles and more than just infantry running around, like in Homefront, which I’m playing a lot right now. And I’m not just saying that.”
He added, “In the single-player, we will not just be doing ‘no cutscenes’ and immersive stuff. We have a lot more interesting execution plans with technology for the future, but we’re still in the planning stages; nothing’s locked down.”
Bilson acknowledged that the guerrilla concept has not been very well translated into the gameplay with the first Homefront, but he says that it will be a more important part for the future of the franchise.
Developers Kaos Studio are thought to be already at work on a sequel, with THQ saying before the launched of Homefront that it has long-term plans for the series.
The first Homefront was disappointingly short when it comes to single player and played very much like a standard first-person shooter, with little in the way of innovation.
The multiplayer mode of the game has some good ideas but seems to have failed to get the numbers needed to sustain a community in the long term.
Homefront has so far sold more than 1 million units on all platforms.