74 MCV 11/06/10
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MCV INTERVIEW DANNY BILSON, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CORE GAME BRANDS, THQ
comeback Call it a
Two years ago THQ’s main focus was on survival, but a string of hits and a dramatic global restructure later and the publisher is back on the offensive. Christopher Dring speaks to executive vice president of core games Danny Bilson on the firm’s digital ambitions and developing cross-media franchises…
THQ was going through a tough time a few years back, but you’ve turned things around. How have you managed that?
On the core side we focused everything on quality and we were much more selective about what we were making and how we were making it. Also, about a year and a half ago we reorganised and closed something like eight studios – we almost reduced our capacity in half. This has allowed us to spend more on the studios left to get the quality right. To compete in games
now you have to compete at the highest level. There is no room for an average game. That means fewer, better games, and you’d have seen that happen with THQ. Over the past year pretty much every core game from us was 80 or above on Metacritic.
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How has the explosive growth in UFC helped in this turnaround? It made our year last year. It outperformed our US expectations by almost double. We are really excited about UFC 2010 because it’s excellent and we know what the plans are for next year. We are growing UFC into the finest fighting game franchise in the world.
Are you concerned about EA launching its own MMA title? Does the licence give you an edge? It is a lot more than that. I think it is the licence and the experience THQ has
in building wrestling games. We’ve been creating them for 10 or 12 years. They are extremely difficult to make and we are constantly working on the tech, tools and engine. EA has a big challenge in terms of getting the quality up and doing it without a licence. There is no concern from us and from our partners at UFC about what they are doing.
WWE is a brand in decline at the moment. Are you still confident in this licence? We can only really control the game
I have to deal with what our amazing rivals are doing. Everytime I turn around the other guy is blowing me away with Red Dead or Black Ops. Danny Bilson, THQ
One of the big new IPs you’ve invested heavily in is your FPS Homefront. What are your expectations for this title? We expect it to be one of the games the shooter fans look forward to and talk about every time it ships. It is a very deep shooter in that we touch on elements of social science fiction, speculative fiction and a lot of emotion – there are places we go with that game that the our rivals don’t. I am proud of what the team is doing with Homefront.
side of it. What you are going to see coming out of us is a lot of innovation and we are going to be announcing some new games under the licence that are really exciting. We are doing a lot on our side of the relationship to progress the brand for the fans of WWE. You are going to see some neat WWE stuff at E3.
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Old THQ was largely known for its licensed games. You still have many licensed properties, but is it your aim to move away from your association with them? Licensed games is important to a segment of THQ. In my group it is really important to the fighting category with WWE and UFC. But in core our primary initiative is original IP and building new franchises. We will be unveiling a new title at E3 and you’ll see incredible things we are doing with existing brands, too.
Do you feel it will become the benchmark of what THQ has to make? I don’t think there is such thing as a benchmark in a business where every time I turn around the other guy is blowing me away with a trailer for Black Ops or with the experiences I am having in Red Dead Redemption. I have to deal with what our amazing competitors are doing. They keep raising the bar. What Homefront was two months ago and what I am asking it to be two months from now are different because of what our rivals are doing. It is a very exciting time in the blockbuster games space because of the amazing innovation in the art form. We fully expect our teams to compete with that and we drive them very hard. The bar is moving all the time. I hope we can set some of them, but then we expect the other guy to push it up after that.
How do you feel the THQ of today differs from THQ two years ago? The building I walked into two and a half years ago is not the building I sit in today. It’s dramatically different. The people who are still here after the transition are people who were smart and agile enough to change and buy into new plans.
THQ’s boss for core games Danny Bilson wants to realise his ‘transmedia dream,’ which will see a Red Faction mini-series appear on SyFy
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