Jon Rooke, THQ’s head of marketting, says their upcoming First Person Shooter, Homefront, will not be able to defeat Call of Duty and replace it as the genre’s definitive title.
He says trying to make their game something special in an already overcrowded and over-competitive genre is very different, far less trying to make it the best shooter title- it’s a newly formed IP, after all.
“We’re not going to do what maybe some of competitors do, and set themselves up to fail on that stage,’ says Rooke, following this up with the statement that franchises like Call of Duty, Battlefield and Medal of Honor have taken up years to build a firm place into the industry and establish themselves.
“We’re not going to do 15 million unit sales overnight with the first game – even if the market potential is there and we spent money on it, we just wouldn’t do it,” Rooke said.
“You have to take time to build fans, engage consumers, give them a reason to purchase – and then keep them with it as you go to sequel iterations.”
All Rooke wants is a game that is well recieved by the critics..
“I wouldn’t necessarily use myself the words ‘It’s a world-beater’,” he goes on to say.
“I think that conjures up the idea that we’ll be the best-selling first-person shooter game next year. We won’t – because there’ll be another Call of Duty, which will do that.”
We will keep you up on Homefront as more news comes.