Grow Up THQ

[Soviet Heavy]

You know, something about THQ reminds me of the tagalong kid who follows the bigger boys around, trying to look cool, but only managing to come off as annoying.

Mostly, I am annoyed at their release schedules, and how arrogant the publisher comes off as. Homefront sells moderately well, and THQ suddenly declares that they are a "major player" among the likes of EA and Activision. That alone is pretty presumptuous, but it turned to nothing the minute they closed down Kaos Studios once they realized Homefront sucked.

Then they did it again with Space Marine. Now, this game has down pretty well for itself, apparently selling 1.2 million copies. I am happy for Relic that their game managed to attract a decent crowd, but I have to question the release schedule that THQ put out. The game was put out a week or two before Gears of War 3, like they hoped they would bite into the sales of Epic's juggernaut. Now this is being pompous. You are expecting a new IP to compete with an established franchise that has most likely garnered more preorders than your new game will sell regularly.

And so THQ's net losses have apparently doubled since this time last year, which makes me wonder just what they are thinking with their release strategies. Warhammer already has an established fanbase to work with, so why not release the game at a time when it would be advantageous and without major competition. If it wasn't released within weeks of GOW3, and if it had more time put into development to iron out some kinks (like making a healing mechanic applied to range combat as well), and just release a superior product against little competition.

THQ just strikes me as being so obsessed with being recognized as a major publisher that they are letting their games suffer for it. And I want them to stop. Relic makes fucking good games, if they are given time. Let them make the best game they can, and work around that, rather than forcing them into being a new contender to fight with a heavyweight like Epic.

Also, don't kill smaller studios after YOU rush their games. Homefront might have been better had it not been thrown out the door when it was, and Kaos Studios might have had a chance to make a name for itself. But instead, we got a half baked product and another dead development team.

 

[JoshGod]

My problem with THQ is that their games seem to dissapear from steam (I think mostly limited to the UK), I think space marine is still not on there although I seem to remember that a disc copy will then use steam... The most likely reason is from retailers threats, but even if that is the case THQ decided go along with them.

 

[Feriluce]

Now this is being pompous. You are expecting a new IP to compete with an established franchise that has most likely garnered more preorders than your new game will sell regularly.

Wat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000

Take note of the "Years active" field. It says 1987-present. The 40k IP is older than me.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Now this is being pompous. You are expecting a new IP to compete with an established franchise that has most likely garnered more preorders than your new game will sell regularly.

Wat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000

Take note of the "Years active" field. It says 1987-present. The 40k IP is older than me.

Sorry, I meant the IP for the Space Marine Game specifically.

 

[Feriluce]

Now this is being pompous. You are expecting a new IP to compete with an established franchise that has most likely garnered more preorders than your new game will sell regularly.

Wat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000

Take note of the "Years active" field. It says 1987-present. The 40k IP is older than me.

Sorry, I meant the IP for the Space Marine Game specifically.

The IP for the space marine game is Warhammer 40k. Nothing else. It has a much, much larger fanbase than gears of war ever will have. In fact gears of war have ripped off 40k on many key points.

 

[Scow2]

Now this is being pompous. You are expecting a new IP to compete with an established franchise that has most likely garnered more preorders than your new game will sell regularly.

Wat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000

Take note of the "Years active" field. It says 1987-present. The 40k IP is older than me.

Sorry, I meant the IP for the Space Marine Game specifically.

The IP for the space marine game is Warhammer 40k. Nothing else. It has a much, much larger fanbase than gears of war ever will have. In fact gears of war have ripped off 40k on many key points.

Furthermore, THQ's Dawn of War series also strengthened the Space Marine IP: As far as publicity goes, Space Marine was just as well off as Gears of War 3 - but it suffered in sales because it was merely an "Okay" game.

 

[PureIrony]

You're bashing THQ for trying to compete with the big boys in a competitive market?

Uh, that's kind of the whole idea of business, buddy boy.

And I bet you wouldn't be bitching if they were an even less influential small indie company.

 

[octafish]

The sequel for Homefront will be a great game, until the aliens show up and ruin everything. Crytek know how to do North Koreans really well.

 

[everythingbeeps]

The reason THQ acts like a major player is because they DESERVE to be. Sure, Homefront sucked (and I'll argue that 80% of the problem with it was its length; I actually enjoyed the story, environments, and shooting), but they put out some damn great games. SR3 is easily one of the most anticipated games of the year by a lot of people.

 

[Baron_BJ]

If it had more time put into development to iron out some kinks (like making a healing mechanic applied to range combat as well).

It's MEANT to be like that. You aren't MEANT to heal at a range. There have been whole reviews about this. The mechanic is fucking brilliant.

With regards to them competing with the "big boys" I'd compare them with EA and Activision in the same way that Linux competes with Microsoft and Apple (well, in earlier years, when they were a little more comparable than today) They're like that unofficial third guy that's definetly there, but he's solidly locked in third.

Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again though; Homefront was my worst game of 2011 and I'm glad those dumbasses lost their jobs over that titanic failure.

 

[DesertHawk]

Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again though; Homefront was my worst game of 2011 and I'm glad those dumbasses lost their jobs over that titanic failure.

What a miserable thing to say.

The game had a poor single player campaign, but solid (if not very flashy) multiplayer. What about that necessitates an entire team losing their jobs? And who the heck do you think you are to dismiss them as "dumbasses"?

Let's take a little closer look at their background, shall we? The core of Kaos Studios goes as far back as the Desert Combat mod for BF1942 and their collaborative effort on BF2. With their only previous game as Kaos Studios being Frontlines: Fuel of War, I think you can begin to see a pattern here. This team's strengths lie in multiplayer, through and through. If they had been allowed to focus on that strength, we may be having an entirely different discussion now. Instead, Kaos Studios was tasked with crafting a cinematic, single-player campaign that was to compare with the likes of the Call of Duty series. Unfortunately, this is a task that the team just did not have the raw experience for. Of course, that didn't stop THQ from marketing it as "The-Next-Big-Thing", and launching the hype train into f'n orbit. The game launched with consumer and investor expectations that just could not possibly be satisfied. And unlike other major development studios, Kaos Studios did not have a nice back catalog to maintain credibility enough to stay afloat. Fingers were pointed, and someone needed to pay the price.

And now, because of poor top-level direction, an up-and coming team that certainly could have had something to prove is shut down. It's an unfortunate, and not uncommon, story in the gaming industry. In any case, try to keep ignorant comments to yourself....it just makes you look silly.

-Rob

 

[Baron_BJ]

Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again though; Homefront was my worst game of 2011 and I'm glad those dumbasses lost their jobs over that titanic failure.

What a miserable thing to say.

The game had a poor single player campaign, but solid (if not very flashy) multiplayer. What about that necessitates an entire team losing their jobs? And who the heck do you think you are to dismiss them as "dumbasses"?

Let's take a little closer look at their background, shall we? The core of Kaos Studios goes as far back as the Desert Combat mod for BF1942 and their collaborative effort on BF2. With their only previous game as Kaos Studios being Frontlines: Fuel of War, I think you can begin to see a pattern here. This team's strengths lie in multiplayer, through and through. If they had been allowed to focus on that strength, we may be having an entirely different discussion now. Instead, Kaos Studios was tasked with crafting a cinematic, single-player campaign that was to compare with the likes of the Call of Duty series. Unfortunately, this is a task that the team just did not have the raw experience for. Of course, that didn't stop THQ from marketing it as "The-Next-Big-Thing", and launching the hype train into f'n orbit. The game launched with consumer and investor expectations that just could not possibly be satisfied. And unlike other major development studios, Kaos Studios did not have a nice back catalog to maintain credibility enough to stay afloat. Fingers were pointed, and someone needed to pay the price.

And now, because of poor top-level direction, an up-and coming team that certainly could have had something to prove is shut down. It's an unfortunate, and not uncommon, story in the gaming industry. In any case, try to keep ignorant comments to yourself....it just makes you look silly.

-Rob

Allow me to rephrase that then, they're not dumbasses, they're simply incompetant. None of the points you made is any excuse to let that glorified turd slip out the door. I stand by what I said.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Now this is being pompous. You are expecting a new IP to compete with an established franchise that has most likely garnered more preorders than your new game will sell regularly.

Wat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000

Take note of the "Years active" field. It says 1987-present. The 40k IP is older than me.

Sorry, I meant the IP for the Space Marine Game specifically.

Sorry, but I just had to laugh, OP. Way to try and land on your feet.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Granted some are hit and miss but Warhammer 40k, WWE, Saints Row, Red Faction, Metro 2033, Darksiders, UFC games are all top quality.

Was STALKER one of the misses? Because that's pretty much everything from THQ I've played with production values worth a damn... Because of that, I can't really address the OP.