Bite size titles that ”sets you up” for the major game and ”makes you familiar with the brand.” Unlockables in the main games and other bonuses are important.
”The biggest prong as you probably know is to turn digital ecosystem on for the console launches. For example, for both Red Faction and Space Marines, we’ve got digital games on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network coming,” said THQ’s Brian Farrell.
”That sets you up for the game and makes you familiar with the brand. There are certain things you are going to unlock in the major games. You can start interacting with the brand. Then there is post-launch downloadable content. There are avatars that users can download. There are season passes.”
Saints Row’s XBLA title was canned because of cost.
”That opportunity can be 20 percent to 40 percent of the retail revenue, and it’s one of the things that companies talk a lot about. The industry hasn’t talked a lot about this. But a good game should get 20 percent to 40 percent of revenue from the digital side, for pre-launch and post-launch digital content sales,” explained Farrell.
THQ takes aim at Facebook. ”We have a group now doing Facebook games but with a strategy of taking brands we own or control onto Facebook. So we took UFC to Facebook and it has just passed a million monthly average users, and it is on a pretty quick run.”
They won’t be rushing into getting digital games out the door as fast as they can - they know they’ve got to build themselves up for the challenge otherwise it’ll put people off.
”You have to have the right team and the right leader to run it. Then you start ramping up. That’s where we are right now. We are starting to ramp in those areas. We can have a solid strategy with the right team in place. Then it’s a matter of bringing the games to market,” continued the THQ boss. Do digital nibbles help you get excited for big games?
