THQ Calls For End of Console Cycles

[Logan Frederick]

THQ Calls For End of Console Cycles

With systems no longer limited to five-year lifespans, THQ CEO Brian Farrell has outlined the multiple system phases seen by modern game machines.

A year ago, THQ Chief Executive Officer Brian Farrell said the gaming console market was splintering into separate demographics [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/70742] based on system prices.

Farrell is now identifying another division based on the divergence between console release cycles.

"We used to always think of this industry as 'the cycle.' I think the reality now is there are several sub-cycles," he said.

Farrell pointed out four unique product courses currently running in the games industry to MTV's Multiplayer [http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/08/04/thq-says-hardware-cycle-dead/] blog:
[ul]
[li]Handhelds[/li]
[li]Perpetually improving online games[/li]
[li]Nintendo's Wii and future iterations[/li]
[li]The traditional Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 lineage[/li]
[/ul]

"It's hard now to talk about 'the cycle' - I think we have to talk about all of the cycles," stated Farrell. "The way we think about it at THQ is we plan our business around each of those platforms, not around 'the cycle.'"

THQ remains committed to the strategy Farrell presented a year ago.

"There are going to be different gamers for the different systems," explained Farrell. "So our strategy is different types of content, segmented on who the users of the systems are."

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[Valiance]

The more I hear from Brian Farrell, he seems like one of the better CEOs in the industry. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders, considering his stance on console cycles and hardware battles. THQ has published countless games, some great, some not-so-great, but undeniably at least one there [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_THQ_games] for every demographic so far.

 

[Worgen]

we already have an end to the console cycle, its called the pc

 

[Signa]

I wish THQ was bigger. It seems like every other game they make/publish is awesome, or has potential to be awesome to the right person. In recent years I've enjoyed Saints Row 2, Supreme Commander/Forged Alliance, and Company of Heroes. Not too shabby.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

we already have an end to the console cycle, its called the pc

That's only substituting the words "graphics card" for "console" in the statement. (And until recently, both were roughly the same price.) Unless you think that today's cards are the apex of the market or something.

I personally like the idea of less focus on antialiasing and big particle/polygon/line counts and more focus on the games themselves... and tailoring games to their intended media, instead of chasing the crossplatform chimera.

-- Steve