THQ's Farrell says company is aiming for core foothold
THQ CEO Brian Farrell believes his company can still gain footing in the core gaming market, focusing on a quality level that "resonates with the consumers and the press." Speaking at the Wedbush Morgan Securities annual conference, attended by Gamasutra, Farrell maintains THQ has continued to strike a chord with the core audience. Saint's Row 2 -- a game Farrell described as "the number-two open-world game in the category" behind Rockstar's GTA -- has "done 2.6 million units life to date." Whether "done" means sold or shipped, is unclear.
Farrell also told the audience the Warhammer 40K franchise is one "we should start talking about more." Citing upwards of 4 million units for the original Dawn of War RTS, through initial release to expansion and gold edition. In its first week, Dawn of War 2 jumped to the top of the PC sales charts.
Farrell could be accused of shining as might positive light on the current poor situation his company is in. Analysts have predicted the publisher has a 50% chance of bankruptcy since THQ reported a net loss of $191.8 million for the three months ending December 31, 2008, and a loss of 24 percent of its workforce. As for Farrell's comments, it could be said that achieving a quality bar may be difficult when the company has recently decided to axe a large portion of Quality Assurance employees from Volition, the team behind Saint's Row 2. In the streets, we call that irony.
