Homefront was, for a long time, THQ’s golden child. They were predicting big things and had begun franchise-building long before the first game was on sale. To date, they’ve shipped 2.6 million copies of the game so although sales have been exceptionally strong, it hasn’t yet reached the Call of Duty-rivalling levels THQ were talking about pre-release.
In an interview today with IndustryGamers, CEO Brian Farrell has said that the publisher still has a lot of faith in the franchise, despite a very mixed critical reception.
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
Interesting that in the same interview, Farrell cites Saints Row as a franchise to keep an eye on. With Red Faction and their recent lengthening of a deal to keep making Warhammer games, THQ have got several franchises that they could find stellar success with. They’re certainly not giving up on Homefront though.
Source: IndustryGamers
SpikeyMikey23
decided to leave this game alone, especially after hearing what some TSA readers had to say about it. Dont think I’ll even bother picking it up from the bargain bin. With BF3, MOH and the new COD, THQ have their work cut out.
mugsybalone
He’s right. There’s a massive gap between 2.6 million and 18 million. I checked on my calculator. It’s huge (the gap, not the calculator). In fact, it’s almost as big as the gap in quality between Black Ops and Homefront.
Youles
Jesus, MF must be bad as BO runs like a bag of poo on PS3
Youles
I meant HF not MF – fail :(
Bilbo_bobbins
thats what I was thinking, BO was bad enough, I’m glad I didn’t bother with it in the end.
shields_t
Nobody likes BO, but anti-perspirant can help.
mugsybalone
Yep, it’s pretty bad. I tried to be patient with it, and tried to convince myself that it’s made better by virtue that I picked it up on special offer, but no. It’s actually honest-to-god, flat-out bad. As for Black Ops, I didn’t notice any issues with it on PS3, though it’s the only version I have so can’t compare, and haven’t played it online if that’s where the issues lie.
Youles
Yeah – campaign and zombies are spot on, but online ran terribly for me most of the time….very jittery. It was even more noticeable when aiming down the sights. (And the cheap guns sounds are awful). No doubt someone will tell me it’s my internet connection etc, but I only used the Europe match-making thingy and ALL my MANY other games run perfectly online. I even deleted loads of friends as the stats info exchanged during gameplay apparently caused problems. I just felt visually, and the way it ran, was a slight step back in the CoD series.
And it was a port of the XBox version – proved as during one of the updates, I beleive in one of the PS3 menus it stated “XBox Live Chat” or something along those lines.
8BALL
or between a i-ward cod & a t-arch cod
(mw3, well who knows with 3 parents)
thadon101
“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”
No, but they at least had a solid, half-decent title to build upon. Homefront was a joke – a joke that sold more through marketing than word-of-mouth or reviews, and you can’t help think that John Milius (writer of Red Dawn and Homefront) probably gave them an undeveloped, barebones story he gave up on at some point in exchange for $$$s
aerobes
2.6 million is a pretty good return for what was one of the most disappointing games I’ve played in recent times.
So happy they were sold out and I had to rent a copy. Blockbusters ineptitude wins the day!
Tuffcub
I found endless problems with Homefront including
– Having to wait for characters other than myself to open a door, this happens every single time except at one point where you CAN open the door. Stupid.
– The graphics vary wildly. In the sniper section from the church there no shadows, yet the golden gate bridge looks fab and has them.
– It’s dull as fuck. I do NOT want to listen to 10 mins of exposition while I cant do a bloody thing,not even run.
– So i can see my hands in front of me when im holding a gun but not when im climbing a ladder? Maybe I just float down.
-Screaming babies. OK, so we have to protect the baby, it doesnt have to SCREAM FOR THE ENTIRE MISSION. AAAAARGH!
– Its bugged. As soon as you wake up in the second chapter at the safehouse place you have to follow a bloke down the stairs. If you push forward you will slide up the side of the bloke to about 10ft in the air and hover.
-The plot doesnt make sense. You have ONE chopper pilot, a highly valued commodoity and you send him out on random missions where he could get killed?
I coudl go on. There was a good game hiding somewhere in Homefront but it’s buried under a shed load of problems.
KeRaSh
– It’s dull as fuck. I do NOT want to listen to 10 mins of exposition while I cant do a bloody thing,not even run.
I hate it when some games force you to do mundane tasks that are not even teaching you the controls just to force some player involvement into the exposition because some people can’t pay attention to something for longer than a minute without pulling a trigger.
I’m not saying I prefer a giant wall of text that is read out to me but there is nothing wrong with a great opening cut scene that sets up a great story.
This is just a general opinion as I haven’t played Homefront yet.
Tuffcub
The problem with story is its totally one sided and totally faceless. You only hear about the North Koreans from the Resistance so ALL you hear is their side. Where is the “Radec” character? The “Big bad guy”? There isnt one, its just endless cloned soldiers. You can’t have decent story with just one side of the narrative.
KeRaSh
That’s too bad. I think the topic of the United Stated being overrun by a communist force is a pretty interesting one. There is so much potential that wasn’t used I guess.
Thechunkymunky
If you want a (imo) decent game with that storyline, buy Freedom Fighters. Or if you already own it, play it again :D
shields_t
Surely one of the reasons Call Of Duty has such staying power is that it has the flexibility to address different combat events, different settings. Homefront is a pretty pidgeonholed from the Eastern invasion of the US plot in the “first” game.
BrendanCalls
They might have faith in their games but my faith in them has been faultering following countless awful games. In this generation of games I can only think of 2 games that were better than even half decent, Red Faction:Guerilla & Saints Row 2.
THQ, in my opinion release poor games generally based around successful franchises from the TV or Cinema. SpongeBob Square-Pants games, The Incredibles, Nicktoon’s, Fairly Odd Parents, Finding Nemo, Hello Kitty, Home Alone, Jimmy Neutron, Power Rangers, Ratatuille, Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, Sccoby-Doo, The Sopranos, The Simpsons, Star Wars, Bob the Builder, Bratz, Drake and Josh. Ive not played all these games obviously but I dont think I’d need to in order to be pretty sure that most of them are gonna be poor.
Yes I went to Wikipedia to back up my argument..Sue me ;-)
Funnuy enough, I ended up being even more surprised at how much more rubbish they’ve published than I ever knew about.
My overall point is that THQ isn’t a publisher that I take very seriously because when you look at their back catalogue it hardly inspires you to have faith.
aerobes
There’s a Hello Kitty game? How have I missed this!?
mugsybalone
In fairness, looking at the THQ Wikipedia article, from the film and TV franchise-based releases, the most recent appear to be back in 2008, aside from a couple of Wii/DS Spongebob Titles. Since then, the shift appears to be towards titles such as Metro 2033, Dawn of War II, UFC, WWE and so on – titles that have had a degree of critical and commercial success. Homefront still terrible though.
BrendanCalls
Aerobes – haha, I’m pretty sure thats sarcasm but there’s a little bit of me that remains unconvinced ;-)
musgybalone – your right, maybe my mis-trust of THQ is just a hangover from the previous generation when they had very little new IP releases, my worry then would be that with a business model based upon selling franchised games, their business mind-set wouldn’t have had time to harbour the kind of environment necessary to create new, exciting and ground-breaking IP.
aerobes
You got me. Of course I know about the game, it’s nestled safely between my Peppa Pig plushie and Pablo the little Red Fox DVD. ;)
mugsybalone
Aerobes – you really aren’t joking, are you?
aerobes
Haha! I am as it happens, I only have one of the three.
Pablo the little Red Fox is AMAZING by the way. :D
tom_lord
Oh dear, for me, Homefront was pants. I mean, it was ok, but merely ok doesn’t cut it. What was with all those fridges that blocked the path of the levels too?? Lazy, lazy level design
Crazy_Del
Hmmmm….. very negative and I hate that (pfft) but still opinions are opinions and everyone is entitled to have one.
THQ is okay I enjoyed UFC and old WWF (Not WWE) and other games Red Faction and Saints Row mentioned in the article. Homefront was a good game I really did enjoy it, the gameplay itself and the scenes unfolds the actions (game scenes) almost some of them were cool. I loved the introduction of the game. And the ending was brilliant. I very much enjoyed it despite how short the campagin is but still can replay it again in a year or 2 lol.
Multiplayer is brilliant in my opinion of course I love it, having said that I do NOT like Blops multiplayer nor any CoD multiplayer – not my type and style. Homefront is kinda a mix of Battlefield and CoD (I love Battlefield, who doesn’t xD)
There it’s off my chest now. I’m feeling good now (sigh)
Remember that is my opinion ;) we all have different taste!
BrendanCalls
Who is this guy?…He’s not a made-guy is he?..Can we have him shot?
;-)
Crazy_Del
I would love to get shot. Got shot by a BB Gun close ranged fecking hurt like hell, but the next morning it was even PAINFUL.
Still would like to get shot with a bullet.
I’m I that crazy 0_o
hol
2.8 million copies eh? This is the game that cex refused to take anymore copies in as their shelves were groaning under the weight of unwanted copies? :(