John-ShepardWe've been talking recently about the concept of quality vs. quantity at PSXE, and yet another publisher has decided to embrace the quality side. It's THQ, who says they plan to cut down the number of "core gamer projects" they release each year.
According to GameSpot, the publisher announced this new plan at the BMO Capital Markets Interactive Entertainment Conference, as THQ CEO Brian Farrell said their new business model only has room for "one or two core gamer products" in any given year, which is about half of what they typically produce. Farrell says it's about focusing their efforts: "When we focus–as we did with Saints Row 2 and Saints Row–we win," he said. Of course, THQ probably won't institute this new model until 2010 as there are already four projects on tap for 2009: Red Faction: Guerilla , Darksiders: Wrath of War , Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 and the PC expansion, Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor . This year, after Saints Row 2 , which just released last month, they have SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 scheduled for November. But in the future, they're going to cut down on the number of released titles and try to increase the inherent quality of a few select projects.
We figure there's nothing wrong with that, especially if they can finally produce a Saints Row that can compete with Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto franchise. This may happen with Saints Row 3 , as THQ has already said the third entry will take an all-new direction. Anyway, it seems like everyone is embracing the idea of quality over quantity in this new generation, and as we're already swamped with stuff to play, we won't complain.
