14 DAY TRIAL // For the last few months, THQ has been doing really well, with releases such as Dawn of War II, Darksiders or Red Faction: Guerrilla, a game that was a bit of a mindless experience, but incredibly fun. And since we know it, the studio itself knows it as well, and is not afraid to show it. Speaking to IGN, Brian Farrell, the CEO of THQ, looked at its company and its place in the gaming industry, and believes that giant publishers like Activision and Electronic Arts should be envious.
"On a performance basis and if you look at things like Metacritic and go back to last year, Red Faction, Darksiders, our Dawn of War expansion, even MX launched at over 80, WWE, UFC -- that's better than almost anybody in the industry in terms of delivering quality," Farrell explained. "In some ways, we're outperforming some of those guys, but we'll let gamers decide. I've been doing this for more than 20 years. You can't fool gamers."
As for one of the myths that told about how THQ tended to be more friendly to the younger section of its fans, the CEO wanted to make it very clear that the publisher was in no way oriented towards a single age-market. "One of the things I think is a little misunderstood -- and this is one of the things that we need to get out in front of a little bit -- is that EA, Activision, Ubi, and Take Two all do kids games and because we've done them so well, sometimes people associate us more with that," he said.
"But if you look at some of the things we've delivered to core gamers, I think the core gamers are actually really figuring it out now. Even some of the consumer feedback we've gotten on a game like Darksiders -- it's awesome. And then think about what we have coming in front of us. Homefront. The next Red Faction. The Warhammer 40K MMO. Saints Row 3. People can say what they want, but we've got a pipeline that I think those guys would be envious of -- and we're doing it internally."
And while there's no denying that the studio delivered great games, and will continue to do so, it looks like there's a bit of too much soul in it, and not enough business. While a good title, Darksiders barely managed to breach NPD's top ten last month and one of THQ's most promising upcoming games, Metro 2033, which will be out in just four weeks, isn't even mentioned by the publisher's CEO. The title has received little publicity, despite it being an absolutely superb-looking game, with a very interesting story and a lot of exciting gameplay mechanics.