THQ Closes Homefront Studio

[Andy Chalk]

In this day and age, you want at least 15% return on investment. Maybe the expectation is higher for the cows you specifically want to milk.

Maybe, but Homefront is a brand-new IP. It brought middling reviews, pushed a couple million units sold and made a little money. In other words, it laid a foundation, which THQ apparently felt was worth two things: one, a sequel, and two, absolutely no loyalty whatsoever to the people who put it down.

 

[Nedoras]

Well that certainly sucks, I give my best wishes to all of those that lost their jobs. I don't really see why they closed down the studio. As far as I know, the game sold a decent amount of units and made a profit. It got decent yet somewhat mixed reviews (yes that 70/100 on meta critic is a GOOD THING), but I guess THQ is like all the other publishers in thinking that anything lower than an 80 on meta critic is a failure. But it still seems that they have hope in the franchise (it made a profit) since they're continuing it, but they just felt like firing the "failure" of a game studio that made it (it only got a 70 average). Thinking about it I think I see why they closed down the studio....and it's for a really stupid reason. Once again, I wish the best of luck to them.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

Not at all, THQ obviously agree with me.

Your being an obvious troll now. I'm done talking to you.

Sorry, they must have closed the studio down because of its history of making critically and commercially successful games

Apparently if you don't agree with him = troll.

No I don't think that at all. If he doesn't like the game then he has that right to do so. I just think that he was being midly abrupt in his way to express his opinion. I guess I got carried away before so I'm sorry about the troll insulting.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I guess they should not have tried a CoD clone, as people call it. I did like the general idea of the games story though, always did interest me, just not enough fora £40 sale, now they have closed down, I might be able to get the game cheap and second hand.

Best wishes for the future to everyone at Kaos and Digital Warrington.

Hear hear.

 

[Canid117]

So is THQ done telling us that all of our non positive opinions about Homefront are wrong?

 

[rabidmidget]

They may not have been the best studio, but I'm always sad to hear of one closing down....dammit now I'm thinking about Pandemic again [small]I promised myself I wouldn't cry... [/small]

 

[ReservoirAngel]

As long as they don't fuck with Volition or Yuke's, I have no reason to be annoyed about this. Sure it sucks for the guys working there, obviously. But in terms of getting the "damn it, I liked their games" thing? Not so much. Never played Homefront in any way.

 

[Funkysandwich]

I'm really sad by this news, homefront may have not been a excellent game but at least they had great ideas and original concepts. My feelings go out to the developers who lost their jobs.

In the minute or 2 I've seen of Homefront, the dialogue was painfully insulting to the point that it almost made me physically ill. I wanted the Koreans to win just because the protagonists are a bunch of stupid assholes. And I get the strong impression that everybody else has even better reasons to believe Kaos is full of talentless hacks to who don't deserve the families they feed.

I think he was trying to say that Homefront was a great concept, but it was executed poorly. I was pretty interested in it, but I didn't end up buying it because it turned of the reasons you just listed. It's kinda sad though, it had the potential to be a really good game.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

so hold on, it basically happened like this:
THQ: "come to us, make a game, we're nice people"
Kaos: "Okay here's your game and 1,000,000 sales!"
THQ: "We don't need you, piss off. Your game didn't sell enough. But we will be using our guys to make sequels forever. Thanks for the formula for a selling game."

fuck THQ...

and yeah, like stated above, fuck with Volition, and we'll have a problem. I love me some Red Faction and Saint's Row.

 

[0p3rati0n]

Homefront was ok. It could of done more with Single Player. They could of kept it really short, but they never really gave me that "Yeah this is occupied American and shits going down" feeling. I had that feeling for the first half of the first mission after that it was just a shooter. Multiplayer was fun and kinda fresh, but it never held for long.

I'm quite impressed that it got that much attention. 1 million copies is pretty nice. I do think it's a good idea to give Homefront to another studio because they might be able to do better. On the other hand to close down a studio seems extreme. But that is the unfair and unjust world that we live in. So good luck to those who got booted.

 

[Spencer Petersen]

I would be sympathetic if the game wasn't the definition of FPS mediocrity. At least a bad game can enrich the gaming landscape by showing how not to make a game, a game like Homefront is just a waste of resources celebrated by painful cliche. I have sympathy for the workers, I have no sympathy for the studio.

 

[Super Toast]

It's sad to hear, but unsurprising. Homefront was short, derivative and tried too damn hard to look mature. If you make a bad game, don't be surprised if you get shut down.

With that being said, good luck to those who lost their jobs and I hope you succeed in your future endeavors!

 

[Beautiful End]

I'm not surprised at all. Homefront was not that good at all. I had high hopes for the game when they started talking about an alternate reality where the US was invaded and such. But at the end, the game fell short and it was...well, incredibly short! It didn't even bring a single innovative element to the table; the plot is not enough to give this game popularity.

Something like Brink, which I see as a Killzone rip-off, brings some few elements and it's fun to play nonetheless. But Homefront? Well, when you compare it to CoD, which was the point all along, is not that good. Heck, it's not even close to Medal of Honor and, in my own humble opinion, is second best when it comes to FPS.

I always feel bad for the people who worked on the game so hard. Artists, developers, programmers, you name it. It's horrible to work on something for so long, try to turn it into a mind blowing title and then seeing it flop. And then get fired. That's the only reason why these are sad news.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

Shame to hear. Best of luck to the people let go.

When a studio can push over a million units less than two weeks after launch and end up shut down for its efforts, is it any wonder that most major-publisher releases these days are such derivative crapola?

Perhaps if you push 1 million units and still fail its a sign that your business practices are flawed in some way.

Games are costing more and more to make, but what is that money being put towards? Games seem to keep getting shorter, less complex, and less original. Yet the price to make them keeps rising.

What the fuck are they spending that money on?

They need to spend it on fully rendering your commanding officer's mustache so it looks nice and real when he's yelling at you.

 

[grigjd3]

There could be another side to this that THQ isn't bringing up. It's almost certainly cheaper to operate a studio in Montreal than to operate one in New York City.

 

[Still Life]

t laid a foundation, which THQ apparently felt was worth two things: one, a sequel, and two, absolutely no loyalty whatsoever to the people who put it down.

I remember THQ coming out in the press (damage control?) and claiming exactly this: claiming the game as a success; and claiming pride in the studio's work. For a new IP, in an over-saturated market, Homefront did OK and showed potential. Guess it wasn't enough.

Also, since when did an average score in the mid 70s indicate a poor game?

 

[Hybridwolf]

THQ, please just make saints row 3, then stop. Just take a breather and work out what you want your developers to do. Armageddon was good, saints row 3 will be brill, so use those success to stop ruining developers in vain attempts to make cod killers or even before they've made their first game. And above all else, make sure the next Dawn of War is either a completely new story or fecking gold dust, otherwise you might as well add that to the scrap heap.

 

[Sabinfrost]

The game was a commercial success, that alone should warrant the survival of the studio. If you shut down every studio after an average first release you would never see new development. Not to mention many of the great studios have learn't from their mistakes. Homefront was un-innovative yet hardly the worst game ever made. I'm convinced the successful sales should have warranted giving the studio a chance to improve.

 

[Corporal Yakob]

That Homefront picture is so delightfully appropriate >

Also: thats a shame, I enjoyed Homefront despite its flaws and would definitely have played a sequel if it'd been more polished.

 

[WanderingFool]

Shame to hear. Best of luck to the people let go.

When a studio can push over a million units less than two weeks after launch and end up shut down for its efforts, is it any wonder that most major-publisher releases these days are such derivative crapola?

Perhaps if you push 1 million units and still fail its a sign that your business practices are flawed in some way.

Games are costing more and more to make, but what is that money being put towards? Games seem to keep getting shorter, less complex, and less original. Yet the price to make them keeps rising.

What the fuck are they spending that money on?

Thats what im wondering...

Anyways, Im sort of torn, while I enjoyed Homefront MP, I did not feel it was a $60 game (thankfully, I got it for about half that off of Amazon). Maybe the sequal, made under a different studio, will fix alot of the problems of the first... Though I do think it might have gone better if they didnt set it up as a COD-killer... The only COD killer out there is Activision, as they will most likely drive it the way of GH.