THQ CEO: Move & Natal games shouldn't be ports
During an earnings conference call today, THQ CEO Brian Farrell told investors and press not to expect the publisher to release ports of its existing games for Project Natal or PlayStation Move. "What you will not see is porting of games to Natal, or I don't think you should see that," he said. "I think they should be specific, standalone game experiences that exploit that very new and significant technology. And the Move is the same way: You've got to do something unique and not just an add-on with respect to that platform."
Later in the call, however, Farrell did not entirely rule out ports of Wii games for PlayStation Move. When asked about the possibility of "Moving" games like De Blob (future iterations of which have been confirmed as multiplatform), Farrell said that THQ would "take advantage where we can in terms of development environments [and] take advantage of technology we already have," though he noted that because of the HD capabilities of the Xbox 360 and PS3, "just porting over those assets doesn't work." We'll see what THQ is developing with the new technologies next month, as Farrell said, "you'll like what we show at E3."
Even without porting, Farrell said that development costs for Natal and Move games were lower than on traditional games, "because, again, it's not about the technology, but it's about the gameplay." The big draw for Natal titles, he said, is the "interaction with digital objects." Farrell even alluded to passing the savings on to the consumer, rather than defaulting to a $60 retail price for future HD motion games published by THQ. He said that the company is "still deliberating internally on that" and "may not even announce those launch prices until much closer to the launch" of the games.
