14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher THQ has announced that its first-person shooter Homefront has managed to sell more than 1 million copies all over North America, Europe and Asia, with another 1.4 million units shipped to store, ready to sell in the coming weeks and months.
Homefront is important to THQ because the company has invested much in the development of the game and in its marketing, aiming to create a franchise that will be able to compete toe to toe with other big shooter series like Call of Duty from Activision Blizzard and Battlefield from Electronic Arts.
Initial reviews for Homefront were pretty bad, chiding the game for the very small single-player campaign, which lasts for about 4 hours, while seeing little in the way of interesting innovation in the multiplayer.
We have a Quick Look for Homefront up on Softpedia and a review will also be posted soon.
The THQ stock has dropped about one quarter after Homefront launched.
Brian Farrell, who is the chief executive officer at THQ, has stated, “We are very pleased with strong worldwide shipments and sell-through for Homefront, and we continue to fulfill new retail orders for the game across the globe. Homefront is clearly resonating with gamers and we are certainly pleased with our initial sales results.”
Jesse Divinich, who is the analyst watching the video game industry for EEDAR, has added, “In the case of Homefront, it is clear that the investment community did not take into account all the factors including the strong preorders and pre-release awareness that existed among consumers for the title. The reality is that numerous factors exist that can impact the overall sales performance for a title.”
Before launch, THQ said that Homefront, which deals a North Korean invasion of North America, was the most pre-ordered game in the history of the company.