14 DAY TRIAL // With E3, the biggest trade show of the videogames industry, fast approaching, more and more companies are dropping hints related to the new titles they might talk about as part of their presentations. THQ, not content with developing games based on both the UFC and the WWE, is set to launch a new fighting-oriented franchise, apparently coming from a well known developer and built around a famous brand.
Danny Bilson, who is the vice president of core games at publisher THQ, has told CVG that “The fighting group is actually taking on the management of another game that we're going to announce at E3 that has a certain amount of melee combat in it but it's... we'll announce it at E3.”
Unable to offer more actual details on the game, Bilson added that “It's a major developer and you'll get exactly what I'm talking about when I'm able to talk about it. It's really cool, it's another one of the things I'm doing to rebuild everything around the core division of THQ.”
Considering the significant success THQ has had with UFC Undisputed and in its partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the new videogame might be an experience based on The Ultimate Fighter, resembling a reality show where little known fighters are isolated, trained and pushed hard by Dana White in order to get a six-figure UFC contract. The gamer could be cast as an initially unknown fighter that enters the show and competes in a variety of events, some of them based around fights, some around other athletic abilities.
There's also the possibility of THQ taking over a franchise like Fight Night from Electronic Arts or even of stealing the Mortal Kombat team from the now defunct Midway. Nothing definitive will be known until the THQ E3 presentation.