Once in a while, roughly once a month so far, I'm taking a look at what's going on at Kickstarter in the realm of adventure games. This genre, long thought commercially dead, seems to be getting a new lease on life, thanks to fans willing to commit money up front, even with no guarantee of an eventual release.
One item I had missed was that the recent Wadjet Eye Games release, Resonance, some five years in the making, sought some Kickstarter funding of its own back in 2009. At the time it was a seriously independent project, and requested a mere $150 in funding to cover incidental "real" costs like contest entry fees, ultimately receiving over $2000 from enthusiastic supporters for an original plan that did not include voice acting and was shooting for a possible 2010 release. I wonder if everyone who pledged finally got their promised free copy via Wadjet Eye this year? I'm pretty sure Dave Gilbert's indie adventure company made good on creator Vince Twelve's original promise, but haven't been able to confirm it -- but the game has been very well received, so I think this one can be chalked up in the "victory" column even if the bulk of its funding didn't come from Kickstarter.
I'm slightly disappointed but also kind of reassured that a couple of projects didn't get funded; some discretion on the part of Kickstarter supporters helps ensure that more of the funded projects will succeed and that a "gold rush" mentality won't destroy the long-term viability of this approach. HeXit, a Hungarian adventure project with an interesting Heavy Metal-esque art style, didn't make its funding goal, reaching only about 1/3 of what it needed. But the team promises to work on development anyway, on a longer, self-funded schedule. The Sam Suede in Undercover Exposure project, somewhat controversial due to Al Lowe's former-but-not-current involvement, failed to reach its goal -- and its listing has apparently been pulled from Kickstarter (in a fit of developer pique?) so there's no way to see where it ended up, though it's still advertised as a coming project at Wisecrack Games' website.
There were also some recent successes. Both Quest for Infamy and Reincarnation: The Root of All Evil are funded, and both seem deserving of their modest budget goals. Currently, Jack Houston and the Necronauts is at around 87% of its goal, with 10 days to go; I hope this one makes it, it's an ambitious and non-spoofy sci-fi adventure with a retro pulp art style that I'd really like to play someday.
We've seen no substantial news on the major Kickstarter-funded projects from Double Fine, the Two Guys from Andromeda, or Jane Jensen just yet; it's not surprising, all of these are early in the process and won't have anything polished to show off for a while. But with most of the major players and established talents seemingly working on something, it's good to see a few new small-scale projects in the ring. Detective Grimoire is a stylishly animated cartoon detective story -- it has exploration elements, but seems to be more of a puzzle-solving game than a traditional point-and-click adventure, and it looks like it will reach its funding goal. Something called OURFIRG is not faring so well -- it's clearly inspired by LOOM, but its presentation to date doesn't inspire much confidence; the artwork is limited, and the environments seem bare and generically textured. Judging from the trailers, the game involves more running around than actual adventuring.
We'll continue to catch up with these projects once in a while here.
Showing posts with label game biz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game biz. Show all posts
Monday, July 30, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Portal Live In Concert
We had a chance to see Jonathan Coulton live in concert last Friday night when he made a stop in Ann Arbor, Michigan on his current Artificial Heart tour. He's a lot of fun in concert -- engaging, improvisational and self-effacing, perfect for a medium-sized venue like The Ark, full to bursting with a youngish audience suited to a self-made, record-contract-free Internet performer. He had great support from his opening act, John Roderick, and the Jonathan Coulton Orchestra, i.e. the skilled and funny Adam Bernstein on bass and a solid drummer whose name I can't remember (Coulton jokingly introduced him as Ringo Starr, and that initial bit of misinformation seems to be stuck in my head.) He played a lot of great material, including a new song that hasn't been recorded yet, and old favorites like Code Monkey and Re: Your Brains, all sounding really fresh with a proper band after years of hearing Coulton's solo studio work. And of course he was expected to play both of his songs from Valve's Portal games, which he did.
Coulton's voice is not GladOS' voice, of course -- Valve's monstrous, manipulative but clumsily charming AI creation owes much of her personality to actress Ellen McLain and a smidgen of digital processing. But hearing the songs live and unadorned made it clear how much Coulton's voice as a songwriter has contributed to the success of this character. GladOS' personality was established by the first Portal during the game, but our understanding of who "she" is was really nailed down by the closing song, Still Alive. And the richer, more sympathetic version of GladOS encountered in Portal 2 might not have been possible without the motivations and semi-human emotions captured by Coulton's work on both games. At the very least, Coulton's mix of witty lyrics, catchy pop music and knowing nerd appeal fits Valve's development ethos, and he was able to take what the writers had established about GladOS and create songs to match.
The net effect is that people who have never played Portal still have some idea about who GladOS is, and people who have played Portal now have some idea about who Jonathan Coulton is. Seeing the man behind the music as a guy on a stage reminded me that video games are delivered and made possible by technology... but what we as gamers, as human beings, are really responding to is another human being, engaging with us across a distance. Designers, artists, and now songwriters are doing what humans have always done -- telling us a story, showing us a picture, opening our perceptions to places we have never been, could never be. What games do well is engage us more directly -- we are not passively watching something, but participating in it. Coulton's songs are an integral part of the Portal experience, a reward for finishing the game, but also an expansion of the game's world and personality.
Here's the closest I can come to approximating the experience via YouTube...
Still Alive in-game:
Still Alive performed live:
Coulton's voice is not GladOS' voice, of course -- Valve's monstrous, manipulative but clumsily charming AI creation owes much of her personality to actress Ellen McLain and a smidgen of digital processing. But hearing the songs live and unadorned made it clear how much Coulton's voice as a songwriter has contributed to the success of this character. GladOS' personality was established by the first Portal during the game, but our understanding of who "she" is was really nailed down by the closing song, Still Alive. And the richer, more sympathetic version of GladOS encountered in Portal 2 might not have been possible without the motivations and semi-human emotions captured by Coulton's work on both games. At the very least, Coulton's mix of witty lyrics, catchy pop music and knowing nerd appeal fits Valve's development ethos, and he was able to take what the writers had established about GladOS and create songs to match.
The net effect is that people who have never played Portal still have some idea about who GladOS is, and people who have played Portal now have some idea about who Jonathan Coulton is. Seeing the man behind the music as a guy on a stage reminded me that video games are delivered and made possible by technology... but what we as gamers, as human beings, are really responding to is another human being, engaging with us across a distance. Designers, artists, and now songwriters are doing what humans have always done -- telling us a story, showing us a picture, opening our perceptions to places we have never been, could never be. What games do well is engage us more directly -- we are not passively watching something, but participating in it. Coulton's songs are an integral part of the Portal experience, a reward for finishing the game, but also an expansion of the game's world and personality.
Here's the closest I can come to approximating the experience via YouTube...
Still Alive in-game:
Still Alive performed live:
Monday, June 11, 2012
Kickstarting a Genre
(UPDATE: The Two Guys from Andromeda (aka Guys from Andromeda LLC) have achieved their funding goal with hours to spare!)
There's something really interesting going on in the adventure game world these days, and it's largely thanks to the innovative Internet funding mechanism pioneered by Kickstarter. Quite a few new adventure titles are being proposed and funded this way; if you're reading this blog, you've probably heard about the headline-making, as-yet-untitled Double Fine Adventure project from Tim Schafer, which aimed to raise $400K and came up with more than $3 million. In the wake of that success, other big names have gotten involved -- Sierra On-Line stalwarts Jane Jensen and The Two Guys from Andromeda (Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe) have launched new projects this way as well. There are also a number of modestly-budgeted independent adventure games like Lilly Looking Through, The Curse of Shadow House and HeXit being pitched and very often fully funded via Kickstarter.
Now, I'm not discounting the financial and creative risks undertaken in recent years by more traditional publishers like Telltale Games and Her Interactive, or indie adventure companies like Wadjet Eye Games; their hard work has kept the genre vital, retaining and expanding the adventure game audience and paving the way for this new wave of titles. And gaming today benefits across the board from the advent of digital distribution over the Internet, taking a healthy chunk of manufacturing and advertising cost out of the publishing equation and making a number of genres commercially viable again in the process.
What's exciting about Kickstarter is that it takes the next step, going beyond inventory and marketing risk to reduce the financial risk of creating new adventures in the first place. By appealing directly to fans, publishers are essentially funding new efforts based on committed pre-orders. But Kickstarter's true genius may lie in its tiered buy-in system -- info-hungry gamers appear to be ready and willing to pay extra for "inside" previews and premium content, like downloadable soundtracks and beta testing access. And if more money is raised than is requested, so much the better -- more funding often means additional platforms and languages can be supported, gameplay can be expanded, and overall quality can be improved.
This approach truly democratizes the domain of the venture capitalist and angel investor -- anyone willing to pony up the cash can feel like a part of the game development process. And, judging from the different rates of progress seen in the current crop of Kickstarter projects seeking money, fans and gamers recognize that they are taking a risk too -- after all, if the money goes out but the project fails to materialize anyway, that investment is lost. There are no guarantees that any of these funded projects will fulfill their early promise, or that the budget targets floated on Kickstarter will prove adequate.
But this isn't a bad thing -- making this whole process more public provides better information for everyone. After all, if a project can't get its Kickstarter listing funded, perhaps it's time to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better idea, instead of investing somebody else's cash in a product that may not find a receptive audience. (The Two Guys from Andromeda are facing this possibility as I write this, as they have not quite hit their $500K funding goal with less than 24 hours of the standard 30-day window to go; one factor may be that they do not have rights to the Space Quest series they created at Sierra, and so are trying to do something similar called SpaceVenture, starring a new hero character.)
The bottom line is that pre-funding a project adequately, if not extravagantly, allows development to proceed with a measure of safety. Game development is traditionally funded by big publishers, who have largely abandoned the adventure genre because it's not an easy sell in the 3-D Call of Duty: Modern Warfare era. But that doesn't mean that there aren't fans out there who are willing to chip in to help a worthy project reach fruition. It's a gamble, but a rational one -- and even if you don't have any skin in the game, the horse race at Kickstarter is always fun to watch.
Personally, I hope that most of these projects meet their funding goals, and that many of them go on to meet their creative goals. The Internet's raw power lies in making connections, and I think that hooking talented designers up with a multitude of fans has great potential. If a team's project gets made with Kickstarter money, turns out well and sells beyond its initial committed fanbase, then another project may very well get funded. It may even get funded through Kickstarter.
There's something really interesting going on in the adventure game world these days, and it's largely thanks to the innovative Internet funding mechanism pioneered by Kickstarter. Quite a few new adventure titles are being proposed and funded this way; if you're reading this blog, you've probably heard about the headline-making, as-yet-untitled Double Fine Adventure project from Tim Schafer, which aimed to raise $400K and came up with more than $3 million. In the wake of that success, other big names have gotten involved -- Sierra On-Line stalwarts Jane Jensen and The Two Guys from Andromeda (Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe) have launched new projects this way as well. There are also a number of modestly-budgeted independent adventure games like Lilly Looking Through, The Curse of Shadow House and HeXit being pitched and very often fully funded via Kickstarter.
Now, I'm not discounting the financial and creative risks undertaken in recent years by more traditional publishers like Telltale Games and Her Interactive, or indie adventure companies like Wadjet Eye Games; their hard work has kept the genre vital, retaining and expanding the adventure game audience and paving the way for this new wave of titles. And gaming today benefits across the board from the advent of digital distribution over the Internet, taking a healthy chunk of manufacturing and advertising cost out of the publishing equation and making a number of genres commercially viable again in the process.
What's exciting about Kickstarter is that it takes the next step, going beyond inventory and marketing risk to reduce the financial risk of creating new adventures in the first place. By appealing directly to fans, publishers are essentially funding new efforts based on committed pre-orders. But Kickstarter's true genius may lie in its tiered buy-in system -- info-hungry gamers appear to be ready and willing to pay extra for "inside" previews and premium content, like downloadable soundtracks and beta testing access. And if more money is raised than is requested, so much the better -- more funding often means additional platforms and languages can be supported, gameplay can be expanded, and overall quality can be improved.
This approach truly democratizes the domain of the venture capitalist and angel investor -- anyone willing to pony up the cash can feel like a part of the game development process. And, judging from the different rates of progress seen in the current crop of Kickstarter projects seeking money, fans and gamers recognize that they are taking a risk too -- after all, if the money goes out but the project fails to materialize anyway, that investment is lost. There are no guarantees that any of these funded projects will fulfill their early promise, or that the budget targets floated on Kickstarter will prove adequate.
But this isn't a bad thing -- making this whole process more public provides better information for everyone. After all, if a project can't get its Kickstarter listing funded, perhaps it's time to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better idea, instead of investing somebody else's cash in a product that may not find a receptive audience. (The Two Guys from Andromeda are facing this possibility as I write this, as they have not quite hit their $500K funding goal with less than 24 hours of the standard 30-day window to go; one factor may be that they do not have rights to the Space Quest series they created at Sierra, and so are trying to do something similar called SpaceVenture, starring a new hero character.)
The bottom line is that pre-funding a project adequately, if not extravagantly, allows development to proceed with a measure of safety. Game development is traditionally funded by big publishers, who have largely abandoned the adventure genre because it's not an easy sell in the 3-D Call of Duty: Modern Warfare era. But that doesn't mean that there aren't fans out there who are willing to chip in to help a worthy project reach fruition. It's a gamble, but a rational one -- and even if you don't have any skin in the game, the horse race at Kickstarter is always fun to watch.
Personally, I hope that most of these projects meet their funding goals, and that many of them go on to meet their creative goals. The Internet's raw power lies in making connections, and I think that hooking talented designers up with a multitude of fans has great potential. If a team's project gets made with Kickstarter money, turns out well and sells beyond its initial committed fanbase, then another project may very well get funded. It may even get funded through Kickstarter.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
More Fun With Flash Games Mart
I've already poked a good deal of fun at this particular game developer, but I stopped by to browse the company's Flash Game wares some more, and this one was too good to pass up without mentioning it here.
Flash Games Mart has created an action game, currently up for exclusive sale to the highest bidder, that requires the player to defend a White House-style building. Combat troops drop in from helicopters, and the player must click-shoot them quickly, before they are able to fire their automatic weapons at the facility until it crumbles to dust.
The game is called Military Rush, and, charitably keeping in mind that English is not the development team's first language, the official Product Description is, hilariously, as follows:
You can check it out live here.
Flash Games Mart has created an action game, currently up for exclusive sale to the highest bidder, that requires the player to defend a White House-style building. Combat troops drop in from helicopters, and the player must click-shoot them quickly, before they are able to fire their automatic weapons at the facility until it crumbles to dust.
The game is called Military Rush, and, charitably keeping in mind that English is not the development team's first language, the official Product Description is, hilariously, as follows:
Hi dudes, if you are interested in buying some action games then you are at the right spot. In this game you are to shoot and kill the opponents who are getting down from the helicopter. Look out for the life chances in the game, do not lose it. See that the building is not busted by the enemies. Earn money and use the various guns that are provided. This action cum shooting game is amazing.
You can check it out live here.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
News from the Spambots - Flash Games Mart
If you share my quirky sense of humor and appreciation of enthusiastic incompetence, be prepared, as there are...
***** SPIT-TAKES AHEAD! *****
I moderate comments here because some of them are commercial spam, trying to post links and content completely unrelated to this blog's subject. A new one has been posting nightly of late, which is annoying. But I'm going to dignify its subject with a more prominent post, because this one is posting links with the text "game development company."
The sponsor of this minor annoyance actually IS a Flash game development company, called FGM for short, Flash Games Mart for long.
FGM's business model is interesting -- they create small Flash games, post them on their own website, and then auction them off as exclusive content to other websites and portals. The games remain playable at FGM's site, so they're not quite as exclusive as they're purported to be. But it's an interesting approach -- potential purchasers can audition the company's work, then bid to lock down the rights, including the original .FLA source code files.
What makes the company's efforts Saturday-blogworthy is that the development team is based in India, and the English employed is always a little awkward. I like this Instructions page for The Haunted Serve, which is not a tennis game, but this:
FGM's offerings are generally simple games in standard casual Flash game genres -- dress-ups (Cute Halloween), casual "adventure" games (Uphill Struggle For The Princess Rescue), time management games (Idly Shop), kissing games (Kinder Garten Kissing), and cooking games (Caribbean jerk rub-corn salsa). Some of them make wholesale, unlicensed use of established, trademarked properties including Disney's Cinderella and James Cameron's Avatar. The background music selected is always repetitive often inappropriate, and vocalized sound bites like "Ow!" and "Mmmmwah!" tend to sound flat and unenthusiastic.
The games aren't very good, but the website is highly entertaining in its own right. Another great description is this one for Glamorous dancing girl dress up:
College professor dress up, which manages to trivialize decades of feminist struggle for academic respect:
Or this, for the politically incorrect Apaches Attack, a shoot-the-tomahawk-bearing-Native-Americans-with-your-rifle contest:
And the kissing games get very bizarre very quickly -- the website description for Kinder Garten Kissing is... man, this is all messed up:
But my favorite bit is this thumbnail image for Peddling boat kissing:
The red spots are miniature kissing lips, visible at normal scale, but the image makes it look like some kind of amour fou zombie/vampire role-playing encounter, or a cautionary tale about gum disease.
Despite the spam marketing approach, I can't begrudge these folks a proper link -- for more unintentional hilarity, visit FGM's very entertaining website here.
***** SPIT-TAKES AHEAD! *****
I moderate comments here because some of them are commercial spam, trying to post links and content completely unrelated to this blog's subject. A new one has been posting nightly of late, which is annoying. But I'm going to dignify its subject with a more prominent post, because this one is posting links with the text "game development company."
The sponsor of this minor annoyance actually IS a Flash game development company, called FGM for short, Flash Games Mart for long.
FGM's business model is interesting -- they create small Flash games, post them on their own website, and then auction them off as exclusive content to other websites and portals. The games remain playable at FGM's site, so they're not quite as exclusive as they're purported to be. But it's an interesting approach -- potential purchasers can audition the company's work, then bid to lock down the rights, including the original .FLA source code files.
What makes the company's efforts Saturday-blogworthy is that the development team is based in India, and the English employed is always a little awkward. I like this Instructions page for The Haunted Serve, which is not a tennis game, but this:
A person was cursed by a witch to run a restaurant for ghosts. Unfortunately the person's faith cannot be changed without pleasing the ghosts. Now he needs your help for serving the ghosts. Serve ghosts with their favorite food on time.
FGM's offerings are generally simple games in standard casual Flash game genres -- dress-ups (Cute Halloween), casual "adventure" games (Uphill Struggle For The Princess Rescue), time management games (Idly Shop), kissing games (Kinder Garten Kissing), and cooking games (Caribbean jerk rub-corn salsa). Some of them make wholesale, unlicensed use of established, trademarked properties including Disney's Cinderella and James Cameron's Avatar. The background music selected is always repetitive often inappropriate, and vocalized sound bites like "Ow!" and "Mmmmwah!" tend to sound flat and unenthusiastic.
The games aren't very good, but the website is highly entertaining in its own right. Another great description is this one for Glamorous dancing girl dress up:
Dress up the girl, who is confused with the costume for her performance and make her to look pretty and glamorous on stage before the audience. Have fun and stay glued with us.
College professor dress up, which manages to trivialize decades of feminist struggle for academic respect:
College professors are one of the most important people in our life. They teach and guide us to lead a perfect life. Thus make her happy by choosing a perfect outfit for a lecture.
Or this, for the politically incorrect Apaches Attack, a shoot-the-tomahawk-bearing-Native-Americans-with-your-rifle contest:
Hi friends, if you would like to play some action games then take up the game of Apaches Attack. You have to attack the enemies in the war field at win over them to finish the level. See that the life is been kept in the game, do not reduce the life.
And the kissing games get very bizarre very quickly -- the website description for Kinder Garten Kissing is... man, this is all messed up:
Hey!!! The Kindergarten warden has given Lisa the responsibility to look after the babies for a while,surprisingly Lisa finds her boyfriend near to the place and makes love with him,now we have to make them enjoy their romantic kisses at the same time should keep an eye on the naughty babies from escaping help Lisa...have fun.
But my favorite bit is this thumbnail image for Peddling boat kissing:
The red spots are miniature kissing lips, visible at normal scale, but the image makes it look like some kind of amour fou zombie/vampire role-playing encounter, or a cautionary tale about gum disease.
Despite the spam marketing approach, I can't begrudge these folks a proper link -- for more unintentional hilarity, visit FGM's very entertaining website here.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
THQ Earnings Call - State of the Industry
Why do I own stock in THQ? I bought it at exactly the wrong time a few years ago, and it hasn't recovered with the market at large. And I've never been very impressed by the company's games. But if I look at it rationally, it turns out that I actually own quite a few THQ titles on various platforms -- retro classics, remakes, and misbegotten sequels, primarily. And the company has managed to survive through a couple of hardware generations now, which is more than a lot of videogame publishers can say.
Anyway, my handful of THQI shares entitled me to listen in on the company's earnings conference call meeting this week -- actually, anyone can do that, it's a public event, but I feel obligated to do so now and then. It's been a few years -- I still had to dial in on the phone last time around, but now the event is Webcast-based and it can be listened to in real-time or after the fact.
From this year's meeting, I learned that:
My take? I remember when an individual programmer could throw something together on the kitchen table and generate enough sales to turn a profit with relatively little risk. Those days are long gone -- even a middle-of-the-road mainstream publisher needs quite a bit of cash to stay afloat. THQ isn't burning up the sales charts or the Metacritic ratings, and it's spreading its investments out and avoiding any truly interesting risks. But the company is still in there fighting. I have to give them credit for that.
Anyway, my handful of THQI shares entitled me to listen in on the company's earnings conference call meeting this week -- actually, anyone can do that, it's a public event, but I feel obligated to do so now and then. It's been a few years -- I still had to dial in on the phone last time around, but now the event is Webcast-based and it can be listened to in real-time or after the fact.
From this year's meeting, I learned that:
- There's a lot of risk in any forward-looking statements, and they don't have to be updated if the company later knows better. Caveat investor. This is standard stuff.
- For the previous fiscal year, the company saw net sales of $160.3 million in software and a net loss of 21 cents per share, or $14.4 million, down from a net gain of 10 cents per share last year. Sequel UFC Undisputed 2010 was the big sales leader, with 2.7 million units shipped for the year, but sales were disappointing compared to the previous game in the series (Ed: maybe because people felt burned by the first game?).
- Significant growth is planned for next year. At E3, THQ's new titles received the most critical acclaim the company has ever received (Ed: That's not saying much). The company is focusing on XBox 360 and PS3 on the console front, and has developers working on the 3DS, with sequels Saint's Row III and de Blob II coming to the new handheld.
- A term with which I was unfamiliar, "technological feasibility," as used by the company appears to mean "release readiness."
- The company still has operating cash on hand. $182 million was invested in software development last year. No new titles are expected in the second quarter.
- Upcoming games... THQ is trying to manage its own IP in addition to licensed games, and build long-term franchises (Ed: Like every other software company.) Red Faction: Armageddon will be promoted with a two-hour Red Faction: Origins movie on the Syfy network. THQ's military shooter Homefront features a script by John Milius (Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn.) WWE and UFC licensed wrestling and fighting titles remain important, including a UFC fitness game coming for Kinect, PS3 Move and Wii (Ed: Ooooookay.) Company of Heroes: Online is THQ's attempt at a mobile online game, hoping to build a revenue stream and reduce the market impact of used games. THQ is also involved in Facebook, XBLA and PSN platforms.
- THQ's big fiscal 2013 games are already being bandied about -- Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki's Devil's Third, and a Warhammer 40,000 MMO.
- The Wii is in a mature, holiday-driven cycle -- it sells strongly at the end of the year; the 360 and PS3 are more robust year-round.
- THQ's new Montreal studio is focused primarily on art asset creation, at a lower cost than the company's existing facilities.
- The company is looking at lengthening its development cycle for the UFC titles, maybe to 18 months, so as not to saturate its market and to tie-in better with franchise events.
- Downloadable add-on metrics are becoming clearer as the market matures -- THQ is looking at online play and DLC as different types of "hooks" appropriate to different kinds of titles.
- The 3DS is perceived as more of a "core gamer" platform than the original, but THQ will be releasing both core and casual titles for the platform.
- THQ expects to burn through a good chunk of its available cash this year, investing in new titles and getting through a rough period.
- Industry growth is becoming even more difficult to predict for packaged and downloadable titles, there's no good hard data that can be used to project numbers. Sales are expected to be down further this year, both in North America and in Europe. And currency exchange rates have been volatile as well.
- Retailers will continue to get behind big titles and be cautious with shelf space for new and smaller titles. Pricing at $60 for premium new titles remains stable for now.
- Inventory is up a tad due to UFC 2010 falling below sales expectations.
- THQ's marketing is shifting focus away from traditional TV ads to "transmedia plays" like the Red Faction TV movie and online communities.
- Q2's absence of new titles is largely traceable to cutbacks THQ had to make a couple of years ago. It will be a difficult quarter, especially because UFC reorders are not expected to be significant.
My take? I remember when an individual programmer could throw something together on the kitchen table and generate enough sales to turn a profit with relatively little risk. Those days are long gone -- even a middle-of-the-road mainstream publisher needs quite a bit of cash to stay afloat. THQ isn't burning up the sales charts or the Metacritic ratings, and it's spreading its investments out and avoiding any truly interesting risks. But the company is still in there fighting. I have to give them credit for that.
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