THQ loves the Wii

Wii News | They're having a lot of fun with it, apparently.

In a video interview with Eurogamer TV, THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell has commented on how much fun the company was having with the Wii, as well as giving Nintendo praise for taking games back to their fun factor roots.

"We love the Wii - it's all about having fun, right? Games are about having fun and sometimes this industry takes itself a bit too seriously. If you watch people with that Wii controller, it's just fun to play with," gushed Farrell. "A lot of our properties, like Cars and Spongebob and others, really map well... Potentially even wrestling - I can think of a lot of great things to do with the controller for that product as well."

The unique technology behind both the Wii and the PS3 has presented a series of challenges to THQ, traditionally a muti-format company that's released the same content on each console. This has been welcomed by Farrell however, who holds no grudges against any of the strategies that Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have embraced. Having said that, the CEO was quick to dismiss any platform exclusives, instead admitting that unique features rather than unique titles may be the order of the day.

"It's all about competition between the platform holders and we love that actually," he commented. "Their job is to drive hardware into the market - for a software publisher, that's nirvana. The more hardware, the more intense the battle to drive hardware into homes, the better the addressable market for companies like THQ. Because of high development costs it's going to be harder and more costly for someone to do an exclusive title. We've done exclusive titles in the past; we're always open to having those discussions. I think what you'll see with the Nintendo Wii, though, because it is a unique platform, you'll see unique if not exclusive titles"

When questioned on the outlook of his company for the next year, Farrell also had this to say: "Our goal at E3 was to put a flag in the ground as a true next-generation games company, and I think we've done that. He who has the best games wins - that's what's great about this industry. We've built out our global infrastructure, we have a world class development organisation, we understand what gamers want. So once you have that infrastructure and that know-how in place, it's all about the games"

To check out the full interview, head here.

Related Content

Worms franchise coming to the Wii
03 Sep, 2007 The invertebrate combat continues.

Nintendo Wii and G1 Jockey winners announced
27 Aug, 2007 Did you get lucky at the races?

Iwata on Virtual Console
07 Jun, 2006 Drops first hints regarding prices.

14 Comments

rodvcpetrie

5 years ago

I'd love to play an Evil Dead game on the Wii. It would be cool cause you'd be able to use the remote for the shotgun and nunchuk for the chainsaw, heh, heh.

Wyvern

5 years ago

How about a Star Wars game? It would be cool with the wii controller. You can use it as a lightsaber, or use it to control a creasture or a spacecraft....just think of it.

admeister

5 years ago

We already know that there is a star wars game in development.

"Games are about having fun and sometimes this industry takes itself a bit too seriously."

I couldn't agree more with statement, Microsoft are way too serious, and Sony can be a bit that way too.

"taking games back to their fun factor roots"

The fun factor is what sold games originally, and I think it's important to keep sight of that.

Jellyfish

5 years ago

admeister wrote

Microsoft are way too serious,

Viva Pinata anyone? Not to mention some of the arcade titles.

Joseph

5 years ago

Ha ha, yeah, that Viva Pinata looks pretty funny. I know people that would critisise me for liking the look of that game, but it looks both visually impressive, and fun. What's wrong with that? That's why I like the "kiddie" games more so than the "mature" titles. They're fun!

Chris-Leigh

5 years ago

admeister wrote

Microsoft are way too serious, and Sony can be a bit that way too.

To be honest, I just think Microsoft and Sony are catering for the older demographics.

David

5 years ago

rodvcpetrie wrote

I'd love to play an Evil Dead game on the Wii. It would be cool cause you'd be able to use the remote for the shotgun and nunchuk for the chainsaw, heh, heh.

Oh hell yeah! Unless the Wii is a total runaway success (then again, the DS is...), it's unlikely though. Also, can you imagine the American politicians getting their hands on a game like that?

nikack wrote

admeister wrote

Microsoft are way too serious,

Viva Pinata anyone? Not to mention some of the arcade titles.

You have to admit, the vast majority of Xbox games on EB's shelves are 'post apocalptic/warzone shooter', 'post apocalptic/gangsta racer (with shooting)', and 'ultra realistik gangsta shooter brawler fightin'.

There are obviously other types of games on Microsoft platforms, but due to the way MS has marketed their brand and the demographic they've built up, games like Viva Pinata will be buried, even by some EA shooter dreck. The only chance a non-shooter has is if it's based on a Disney property.

Chris-Leigh wrote

admeister wrote

We already know that there is a star wars game in development.

To be honest, I just think Microsoft and Sony are catering for the older demographics.

What's that got to do with Star Wars?

Chris-Leigh

5 years ago

^^ Typo.

David wrote

There are obviously other types of games on Microsoft platforms, but due to the way MS has marketed their brand and the demographic they've built up, games like Viva Pinata will be buried, even by some EA shooter dreck.

Just a hunch, but I'd be deeply surprised if Viva Pinata is buried as you say - it's got some major backing, with Microsoft and Fox both throwing their full weight behind the franchise, which doesn't just stop at a game. Could be a real biggie, IMO.

With that said, I imagine if it was on a Nintendo console a higher percentage of owners probably would pick the game up.

David wrote

The only chance a non-shooter has is if it's based on a Disney property.

Nah, disagree - there's 117 games in the Xbox Platinum range - games that sold over 400,000 units in their first nine months. How many shooters are in there from the 116?

Counter-Strike
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3
Call of Duty: Finest Hour
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Doom 3
Full Spectrum Warrior
Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo 2
James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing
James Bond 007: NightFire
Medal of Honor: Frontline
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War
Tom Clancy's Classic Trilogy
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2
Unreal Championship

That's 20 shooters. Disney properties in the list? There's just the one (Finding Nemo). So that's 21 out of 117 of the best-selling games that are shooters or Disney fare. Which means 96 other games have done rather well, despite the argument that shooters and Disney games only have a decent chance.

Jellyfish

5 years ago

I wouldn't know, it's hard to find Xbox games when PS2 takes up 3/4s of the shop

. But in others shops it's mostly those younger audience targeted platformers and EA titles I mostly see.

Maybe it's because I really like the Xbox and watch/read most of the videos/articles that pop up about them that I've noticed they're not some soulless monster attempting to devour gaming.

There's the J Allard PGR3 video on the PGR site.
The "Major Nelson Suxxors" corpse humping Halo 2 Humpday Challenge animated GIF on the Bungie website.
There's also the numerous times I've seen the Xbox.com guys change Xbox Staffer's favourite games to things like "Barbie's Horse Adventure"

There's also some pretty funny Staff and Fan stuff in the Xbox forums.

admeister

5 years ago

"With that said, I imagine if it was on a Nintendo console a higher percentage of owners probably would pick the game up."

Well there you go then, you can tell that Microsoft have built up a reputation in the industry, one that isn't particularly kid friendly. Rather than looking at the platinum list, I'd like to know what percentage of the games released on Xbox were/are rated M or higher.

That's a better indicator.

Nectarine

5 years ago

THQ doesn't seem to have published that many games that are worth mentioning. A lot of kids games though.
The exceptions I can see are Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, Destroy All Humans, MotoGP, Titan Quest, and Cars.
They mostly seem to make movie titles. The bad ones.

But considering the gems they have done, I guess we can be happy they are excited about their future. Or maybe it's just their accountant that's excited.

David

5 years ago

Chris, even from the list on PALGN there are more shooters then that. But I was speaking in hyperbole. Obviously Disney means Disney/Dreamworks/Harry Potter etc for example.

Joseph

5 years ago

Nectarine wrote

Speaking of kid games, the new Spongebob Wii game has been receiving a good wrap. My bet is though that a year or two down the track, most people will be saying it sucks... Maybe...

The thing is though, the Wii is aimed at simplicity in games (a.k.a. fun), something THQ are doing with their kid games. Interesting isn't it? Often, we shrug at these sorts of games but we now we're starting to pay attention to them. Do we actually like true "kiddie" games but don't have the guts to admit it? Or is it that more time and effort is being spent into developing simple, yet engaging media?

admeister

5 years ago

I think it could be the latter. That does seem to be a growing trend, and Nintendo are showing this very clearly with the Wii. Not to mention games like Buzz and Singstar/Guitar Hero are doing something different.

View as forum topic

Add Comment