THQ Think Highly Of Themselves

When you consider the top publishers in the video game industry right now, you probably think of companies like Activision, EA, Bethesda, etc. If you’re like me, you might not think of THQ as one of the best, but their CEO, Brian Farrell, shockingly thinks otherwise. During an interview with Industry Gamers, Brian had this to say about THQ’s place in the video game industry.

“We certainly think of ourselves as one of the big ones. We had the top selling game in March with Homefront. …There was a time, ‘Oh my gosh, THQ! You’re launching Homefront in March. It’s so crowded. You’ve got Crisis, you’ve got dadadadada…’  We were number one. We crushed the competition here and in the U.K. and in other markets that we track. So our goal is to have great products, pick our spots, where we can compete and win. We talked about how we’re going to do that with Saints Row: The Third later this year. So it’s picking your spots, having great games from great creators, and it’s not about numbers of products – it’s about bringing great products to market, marketing them as we did with Homefront and as we intend to do with the rest of these games. So when we can compete, we win.

We talked about that on our call and I think the way we like to think about this is, we undertook a brand new strategy 2 years ago and turned the company around in 2010. Last year was kind of the quiet year for us, we didn’t release a lot of products, and now we’ve got a pipeline that I think our competitors would be envious of. So I’m a competitor, I love to compete, and we intend to compete and win.”

THQ certainly is a large publisher with a lot of good projects, but I think what’s holding them back is that they’re lacking something a few of the bigger publishers have: a consistent big time franchise that keeps the media buzzing by either winning GOTY awards, or selling tens of millions of copies. Activision has it with Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. EA has it with their sports franchises, Mass Effect, Battlefield and a plethora of other long running solid franchises.

I certainly don’t want to take anything away from THQ, because they have some good IP’s, but they’re not quite at the same level as the industry leaders; at least not yet. Just don’t tell them that.

Source: Industry Gamers