THQ CEO Brian Farrell during an investors call called the IP a “niche” game, and that consequently it is no longer worth pursuing and stated, “Given that that title, now in two successive versions, has just found a niche, we do not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way.”
The issue was that it didn’t attract ”a sufficiently broad console gaming audience” and it only had a ”passionate niche following.”
“In today’s hit-driven, core gaming business, even highly-polished titles with a reasonable following like Red Faction face a bar that continues to move higher and higher,” he said. “Moving forward, our core game titles must meet a very high quality standard with strong creative and product differentiation, appeal to a broad audience, and be marketed aggressively.”
In other words, THQ wants the blockbuster hit and not the game with a small, devoted fanbase - which makes it curious why it’s so attracted to Warhammer 40,000, which is exactly what its fanbase is.
