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MCV 23/07/10 21 MCV INTERVIEW ADAM ROBERTS & JON ROOKE, THQ
ROBERTS & ROOKE: The UK sales director and marketing director discuss new IP, building franchises and THQ’s continued dominance of the wrestling sector
Gathering the magic
At THQ’s The Gathering event, the publisher showed off its myriad of forthcoming titles to retail. James Batchelor speaks to UK marketing director Jon Rooke and UK sales director Adam Roberts about how these products are paving the way for THQ’s future…
Historically, THQ has been best known for licensed products, but how much success have you had with original IP in the last 12 months? Jon Rooke: Tons. We had Red Faction: Guerrilla last year. That’s an original IP that THQ had owned for a number of years, and despite a seven- year gap between Red Faction II and Guerilla, we brought that IP back to market and still managed to ship 1.3m units. And it was around the same time as UFC 2009, so we were almost competing with ourselves and still delivered great volume. So that was a great success. We had Darksiders at the start of this year – again, 1.3m units shipped and it took No.1 positions in a lot of markets. To have a first-time developer achieve this in January just proves that we can engage consumers with new IP. Similarly, we saw great success with Metro 2033.
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Looking forward, we have a great pipeline of new IPs. It’s a lot more balanced than it used to be. In previous years, we might have been a little over- reliant on licensed products but we certainly have great IP. There’ll be another Darksiders, another Saints Row,
We have a great pipeline of new IPs. In previous years we might have been a little over- reliant on licensed products. Jon Rooke, Marketing Director
Homefront, we’ve got another Red Faction, not to mention de Blob. We’re building brands and franchises at THQ. Previously, we’d build one game and if it worked we’d build another, but now we have a more franchise-orientated plan.
You’ve mentioned that you have a six to seven year roadmap planned out for de Blob, and as much as 10
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years for Homefront. Why is it important to look so far ahead? Adam Roberts: If you’re prepared to invest in a franchise, you should do that. Don’t just do a fire-and-forget product before moving on to the next one. To me, the whole heart and soul of Homefront is because we’re thinking that way, and all of the work that has been done in advance – generating the scenario, coming up with the fictitious but plausible reality – gives it such substance and depth. And then we can just drop in
sequels, spin-off titles, movies, books. It creates a whole universe that we can work with. Jon Rooke: Gamers want to be engaged. Microsoft didn’t just make up Halo on a whim and roll another game out a couple of years later because the first one did well. They (and Bungie) created the Halo universe and engaged consumers in it. I think we’d be naive
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