THQ: CoD-level success still possible for Homefront

Homefront's 2.6 million opening pitch may not have quite been the home run THQ was looking for, but it's nothing to scoff at either. Well, unless you're Call of Duty, in which case you've earned the right to take a sip of your incredibly fine wine and chortle at whatever numbers you please. THQ's Brian Farrell, however, doesn't think his game's lost a battle or a war. After all, he explained, even Call of Duty wasn't always an 800 lb industry gorilla.

"Of course, the market opportunity is there," Farrell replied to IndustryGamers when asked if he thinks the Homefront IP has any chance of reaching Call of Duty's stratospheric heights.

"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."

Farrell was quick to emphasize, however, that THQ's far from a one-trick pony. He added:

"Certainly you can’t count out Saints Row. We have a great opportunity this fall with that one as well. We have a lot of strong franchises; we’re the market leader in off-road racing with MX, and we’ve established a great niche that we own in these creativity and art-based games, with the uDraw series. We’re still a leader in our real-time strategy games with our Relic Studio, and we’re also building our Space Marine game, so we think it’s the best line up in our history coming out over the next 24 months."

Slow and steady wins the race, after all. But having something for everyone - whether you like stealing cars, offroad racing, or cultivating your skills as the next great child art prodigy - certainly doesn't hurt.