Ben-DutkaHomefront wasn't a bad game at all, and sales still managed to outstrip both expectations and tentative critic recommendations.
Still, there's little chance of it competing with the mammoth Call of Duty franchise, right? Not so fast, says THQ: CEO Brian Farrell told IndustryGamers that "the market opportunity is there," and reminded everyone that Homefront is just the beginning of a new franchise. Said Farrell:
"When I think about it, if you go back and look at the original Call of Duty, how they built that, the first Call of Duty didn’t do 18 million units. The franchise was built over time, building a quality consumer experience and supporting it well. And hey, there’s a lot of room between 2.6 million units and 18."
While that's certainly true, lightning rarely strikes twice, and maybe we shouldn't forget that Call of Duty didn't have a FPS giant with which to compete. At least not one that sold 20 million copies, at any rate. But Farrell and Co. aren't fazed and he also mentioned Saints Row as another possible mega-blockbuster:
"Certainly you can’t count out Saints Row. We have a great opportunity this fall with that one as well. We have a lot of strong franchises; we’re the market leader in off-road racing with MX, and we’ve established a great niche that we own in these creativity and art-based games, with the uDraw series. We’re still a leader in our real-time strategy games with our Relic Studio, and we’re also building our Space Marine game, so we think it’s the best line up in our history coming out over the next 24 months. And I think it’s one that anyone in the industry would love to have."
We always appreciate confidence and enthusiasm, and Farrell shows a great abundance of both here. But there are a lot of factors that don't seem to be coming to light, such as the fact that CoD thrives almost entirely on multiplayer, while most will say the dramatic single-player was the reason Homefront did so well (the multiplayer felt bland and a little broken on launch day).
As for Saints Row …somehow, it would have to outstrip Grand Theft Auto 's globally popular name and widely revered quality. But hey, who can predict the future?
Related Game(s): Homefront
I think Saint's Row will be coming at a great time to get people's money. I've never played it but GTAV is still probably at least a year in the offing so people might be craving the wacky style of SR anyway since GTA went realistic.
I don't think Homefront will really be able to do extremely well since Battlefield is primed to bite at CODs ankles, but it's good that THQ is moving forward because I appreciate any first effort IP that delivers a good enough punch to be worth considering.
I've never thought of THQ as a leader in anything,their games(that i've played)are mediocre at best.
I agree
theyre gonna have to fix the matchmaking in the current one before i even consider getting the second one. that said, when i actually get in to a game its quite enjoyable.
i dont know ..you can't beat call of duty by copying it …thats why the only multiplayer fps i see having a prayer is …battlefield 3, uncharted 3 or resistance 3 …and i have high hopes for battlefield 3
Homefront is in prime position to be it's own game. No other FPS is telling a story that good from that perspective. Forget there is a Call of Duty. Be your own franchise.
I agree, I hope they branch away from it and work hard to bring an amazing experience and try to do something new instead of other developers copying CoD.
I have confidence in DICE to make Battlefield 3 an amazing game.
Homefront certainly has the POTENTIAL if they take a moment to listen to player feedback. I wasn't thrilled with the gameplay; the AI was really, really horrible. I can't comment on the MP aspect since the network went down the week I got HF…SOCOM and HF both are probably suffering from this outage….I wonder how Sony plans to try and make good with their developers.
When fighting against competition like Battlefield and Call of Duty, I doubt THQ can match them, let alone beat them, when it comes to quality.
I applaud THQ's confidence in themselves & hope it takes them far into success. I just hope they find a way to make Homefront a quality series that learns from it's mistakes and creates new and wonderful experiences with every sequel, as opposed to becoming stale yet selling more than ever like one particular franchise that I will no longer acknowledge in the same sentence as the words "quality franchise"
Even better!
How about beating CoD sales records by doing something new and fresh that ISN'T an FPS!!!
It's like a television network trying to take on YouTube by releasing the same type of product but with their own spin on it and exclusive content. Instead of making a near clone, why not just take a few risks and find a hardcore experience that appeals to casual gamers too with deep gameplay and easy to pick up and play controls. CoD already rules the fps genre for now, so how about aiming at a different genre and make that a mainstream success!!
I'm sick of CoD clones. While battlefield is it's own game, it's still a realistic war fps video game. It's why I was more excited for No More Heroes 2 around the same time black ops was announced. One is more original and offers a fresh experience.
Enough ranting. I'm sorry THQ, you make quality games, but I'm afraid it's not on the same level as battlefield or COD. Or GTA. As long as you try to clone those quality experiences, you will only be known as a cloning video game company. But a pretty good one at that.
Last edited by Dancemachine55 on 5/10/2011 10:32:08 AM
3rd person games have really bad control. Instead of making a first person or a third person just make them both. Not that hard look at racing games. GTA would be a lot better first person.
well the first one did have some very good gameplay and fluid controls.
No, Halo didn't sell 20 million, but it did move many many millions of casual fps gamers to start playing online. No doubt IW said "hey, let's get this fan base to play OUR game" and proceeded to make a game that appealed to that mass of gamers. Simply making a Halo copy wasn't what was needed.
This is where so many fps devs go wrong. Far too many are playing catch-up rather than actually thinking about WHY CoD works so well.
Personally I think THQ should thank their lucky stars that their advertising department did as well as they did because the game is not great.
Yeah, obviously all devs have to realize that they need to cater to casual gamers and take depth out of their games. That's the CoD way, after all.
And if that wasn't clear enough, basically what I'm saying is that devs don't need to learn ANY lessons from CoD. They can look at Battlefield, Killzone, or Resistance for inspiration, but anyone aspiring to be a CoD-like game is not going to be making a very good game, I can assure you of that.
Ha! If Battlefield has its work cut out for it in trying to compete with Call of Duty, no way in hell is a piece of crap game like Home Front going to even make a dent.
Sorry THQ, but I don't think you have a chance.
"The franchise was built over time"
not really lol
it was made popular with cod4 for its fast paced cool action and mp the older ww2 were practically different games
also i think homefront would need alot of work to be in the same league as mw and battlefield it just didnt seem polished enough or have enough of its own ideas
Hahaha sorry but that made me laugh. HF was crap the SP was bland at best and you just wanted to strangle that guy Connor.
Anyhow the MP froze my PS3 on numerous occasions, the graphics were bad and I feared for my PS3's life as I know Dillon did too having said so on the forums (for those that don't visit back there). Anyhow I traded the 1st one after clocking the SP campaign as no matter what I tried I could not connect to a game online the PS3 would freeze up on me no matter what. So they are going to have to do something drastic to make me want to even consider the 2nd one.
At the current quality level this game is at, it stands no chance against CoD. If they can iron out all the freezing and glitches, improve the graphics substantially, and implement just a few more original ideas, they might have something here. But huge success will definitely not come quickly for this series, especially if there are only gradual improvements between this game and the next.
I think we need all these FPS shooters to really up their ante so they can bite away at Anti-vision, and rip the flesh away from of kotex's ankles.
And "Demon Dog" has just volunteered to be sent to the front line as their mascot, just as long as he gets the first thousand bites in, & can find a few good veins for his Drano-filled chew-toy.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 5/10/2011 9:00:27 PM
Somebody needs to tell THQ to wake up. That isn't possible how much I don't like the COD games.
BS!
im sorry, but no phucking way!
homefront could of been a fantastic game, it had a great setup, great plot, but the story fell flat and that ruined it!
i mean when parents are getting executed on the streets right in front of there parents and you could not care less thats when you know somethings seriously wrong!
theres no drama, no emotion in that game what so ever!
its almost like the devs did everything they can to make you NOT care about the characters!
LOL. The last THQ game that I can think of that was above all other games was WWF NO MERCY on N64.
Sorry , Homefront was a major disappointment. I really, really wanted to like that game. It's going to take a major overhaul, just to get me to look at it's sequel.