Red Faction: Armageddon sales below expectations, Volition moving on
Sales of Red Faction: Armageddon were "below our expectations," according to THQ CEO Brian Farrell. With middling reviews and low sales, the Red Faction franchise is being placed on hold.
THQ has been undergoing a dramatic transformation as of late. A newfound focus on core games has led THQ to... further losses. For the quarter ending June 30th, the company reported a net loss of $38.4 million, and a certain game took the spotlight for the financial shortcoming. "We are disappointed in our first quarter financial performance," Brian Farrell, THQ CEO said. "Sales of Red Faction: Armageddon and our licensed kids titles were below our expectations."
The low sales figures may have been the death knell of the franchise.
Investors and representatives repeatedly referred to Armageddon as a "miss," an unfortunate end to a game that was center of a large trans-media campaign. In addition to Armageddon, THQ partnered with SyFy to release a made-for-TV movie. In spite of the more aggressive advertising campaign, sales fell short. And why? The quality.
"Mid-70s is not good enough," Farrell said, referring to the reviews Armageddon ultimately received. (The Xbox 360 version has a 72 on Metacritic.)
The disappointing sales of Armageddon and its digital spin-off, Red Faction: Battlegrounds, has essentially placed the series on hold. The audience is "niche," Farrell said, before saying that "I do not believe we went far enough in cutting our portfolio... Only titles we think will be profitable, like Saint's Row: The Third," will be supported in the future.
So what's the status of developer Volition? "They've rolled on to Insane," Farrel stated. Guillermo del Toro's trilogy is set to begin in 2013, meaning the Red Faction team won't be able to go back to Mars for a long, long time.
"We do not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way," Farrell said.
-
Shacknews
replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Red Faction: Armageddon sales below expectations, Volition moving on.
Sales of Red Faction: Armageddon were "below our expectations," according to THQ CEO Brian Farrell. With middling reviews and low sales, the Red Faction franchise is being placed on hold.-
Armadeddon looked good and had the gameplay (sort of), but they somehow managed to wrap it around a story that I just couldn't care about. Also, they killed off the one character I did care about, which pretty much removed any remaining interest I did have in finishing it.
-
-
Meh once i was told it was not open world like RFG that killed it i do not want to just walk down a premade maze of halls and doors going where told i like to run around and find stuff.
-
They went from an open world, destruction based game to a closed, linear, repair based game. I can't understand how those meetings must go. Nobody has the balls to laugh at a bad idea anymore?
-
-
I agree. It was fun blowing stuff up. And to be honest, you could have Red Faction Armageddon similar to that. Similar to "go here, enter the dungeon to complete the mission" kind of stuff. Be the Red Faction, conquer the Marauders, White Faction, EDF remnants, nano-aliens. The story of the terraformer being destroyed = GREAT! Add in the environmental impacts to the Guerilla universe (think, uh oh...tornado in the middle of a battle), etc.
I enjoyed Armageddon, thought the weapons were fun and creative (magnet gun), and the driving vehicles had some spunk. But the charm of being a "Space A-Hole" was lost.
-
-
[deleted]
-
Exactly this
-
[deleted]
-
Yup. Anyone coming from Guerrilla is going to want the same thing, more types and densely arranged buildings to level.
-
YES. This is the sequel they needed to make.
-
[deleted]
-
The trailers for the game turned me off when it was all in a cave.
-
-
A poster in another site's article on this said something about Volition putting too much stock in the Red Faction fiction. I'm inclined to agree.
I remember back in 2001, a Volition employee made such a big deal out of Red Faction having a pro writer, and the final product had a generic storyline and progression, with some bad gameplay mechanics (escort missions, the scourge of early 2000's FPSes), a slow-rendering engine, and Quake 2 level polycount (okay, maybe that's a bit harsh, but Quake 3 looked better, and that game came out almost two years before Red Faction).
Since then, not much shining in the franchise, aside from Guerilla, purely from the "space asshole" aspect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcUBI-YVRY8 -
Ugh. Saints row franchise is garbage. The only thing that made it mildly amusing was Gary Busy doing the commercials. THQ has absolutely no clue what gamers want. The only franchise that is going to be successful for THQ the is going to be Space Marine. And that is an even more niche market than RF.
-
I'm pretty sure Volition knows exactly what they're doing with the Saints Row franchise. The first game was indeed a rough start. Since then, all they seem to be doing is catering to the fevered wishes people who love the genre. Saints Row 3 has a ton of momentum behind it right now and I have no doubt that it will sell well.
What is it exactly that you want from Saints Row?
-
-
Please make a new Freespace now.
-
-
I am reminded of http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=26040289
-
I'd like to think that Bilson has two franchise kills under his belt now. I'm counting Homefront; despite it selling well enough to probably fund a franchise, I don't think it'll get a lot of repeat buyers, considering how badly they got burned. Maybe the franchise will live on, but Kaos got shut down because of it.
-
That's fuckin sad :(
-
Hilarious that this post was quoted twice but no one actually commented on the original.
-
-
-
This goes for both Guerilla and Armageddon.
1. Make bad game.
2. Prince inflate it in every region that's not the US.
3. ????
4. No profit.-
*price - EDIT BUTTON WHERE ART THOU
-
-
-
[deleted]
-
Armageddon was a step back from Guerrila. They actually somehow managed to make the destruction annoying, a hinderance and just useless rather than cool. Destroying buildings actually required you to rebuild them to proceed. Did they forget the part about being a space asshole? it was just very ho-hum.
You also had far less freedom, as the levels were highly linear. The enemies were dull, too--just generic aliens. The humans were much more fun to fight. The guns were though were pretty impressive and imaginative.
All in all, they missed the boat with this game, and it a shame that it killed the whole series.
-
[deleted]
-
Does that mean ex-Volition employee JT Carroll was right?
jtcarroll: Between Red Faction Origins and the story @DannyBilson forced on Armageddon (@THQ), I think it's safe to call him a franchise killer. #Sigh
Danny Bilson: @jtcarroll Interesting to have such a strong opinion on a game that hasn't shipped?
jtcaroll: @DannyBilson After five years working on Guerrilla and one on Armageddon, yes, it's a strong opinion.
Captured from shack post and twitter: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=26040289-
-
Sometimes you have to post it 9 times!
-
-
I'm flattered! Based on my own experience with THQ, I have no doubt that the direction for RFA was forced on Volition by THQ and the result was catastrophic. Even more than destroying a franchise, they destroyed a studio. The studio founder left and I have no doubt it was because he realized working with THQ was pointless.
-
-
This is so disappointing. THQ MADE THEM do the sequel as a corridor shooter with aliens. If they'd just let them make another open world game, Red Faction would be fine.
-
What can I say? Armageddon was a boring CoD clone with tacked on destruction and a forgettable story. Honestly Volition what was wrong with RF Guerrilla? It had great open ended gameplay and only needed work in a few areas; it was a great new direction for the series and Armageddon just brought it back to mediocrity. If THQ and Volition go down, it will be because of their own bad decisions and I don't feel bad for them.
-
Red Faction 1 and 2 HD anyone heh heh?
-
The only people that SHOULD be commenting on this thread are those that bought it.
As for me, I loved the game and I thought it was a great action game. Then again, like I always say. PUT YOUR MONEY DOWN!
Time and again devs and games close shop cause all gamers do is bitch and play Call of Duty.
Guerrilla was OK..but too many open game, sandbox games.
This game was focused well designed a lot more fun than Guerrilla. Aside from "shooting aliens" which ranks up there with "shooting zombies" and "shooting Nazis" it was fun as hell.
That Battleground shit was stupid and ill advised.
Change is good. -
Armageddon felt like someone wanted to attempt going back to the original concept of the series. Unfortunately, the story needed serious help, and after playing Guerrilla, putting the player back in an enclosed space felt limiting, if not suffocating. Armageddon had it's moments, but I really missed having the ability to choose exactly what I was going to do in the game each night I sat down to play it. Guerrilla felt like Volition/THQ sat down and had a decent win at blackjack, then with Armageddon they took their winnings and played Keno until it was gone.
Was there past articles/interviews that explained why Volition/THQ had decided to abandon the open world aspect of Guerrilla for the enclosed environment of Armageddon? Time and money are the obvious culprits to me, but I'm just curious to know their spin on the decision. -
Armageddon had too much release competition.
I'll probably still play it, but I likely won't buy it till it's on sale at this point :P
-
