With Poor Sales for Armageddon, THQ Phasing Out Red Faction

We don't know how badly Red Faction: Armageddon sold, but it didn't chart in the top ten after it's release on June 7. THQ said it's one of the primary reasons the company experienced a poor quarter, and seems to mark the end of Red Faction.

"Red Faction: Armageddon did not meet our expectations," said THQ CEO Brian Farrell on an earnings call today. "While this title has a passionate niche following, the title did not resonate with the sufficiently broad console audience."

"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 continued.

Red Faction developer Volition is currently working on Saints Row: The Third for this November, in addition to the Guillermo del Toro horror production (and proposed trilogy), Insane.

It's unlikely it will be producing another major Red Faction game, however.

"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," he said.

what? 
 
it sold poorly because it was a shitty game that no one wanted. Nothing wrong with the franchise at all.

Sad

UH hmmm

Maybe not change the gameplay when everyone loved Guerilla.

So depressing how quickly developers will throw out a franchise these days.

We took what everyone loved from the last game and threw it in the dumpster out back and made a shitty third person "stop and pop" corridor shooter! Why would that ever fail?!

Oh, it did? Screw it, shut it down!

"In today's hit-driven core gaming business, even highly polished titles [sic] with a reasonable following like Red Faction face a bar that continues to move higher and higher,"

Yo, dude. It failed. You aren't going to sell any more copies of that turd now. You can stop lying to us.

Armageddon was everything I didn't want in the series. Give me Guerrilla 2 and I'm all for it.

That's stupid, they need to go back and look at Guerrilla and build on what made that a great game, not just scrap the whole franchise.

These publishers don't know wtf they're doing anymore.

It's a shame. I loved Guerrilla, but the demo for Armageddon turned me off to the full game (at least at full price).

Lets make a shitty game!
 
Oh, shitty games don't sell!
 
Lets quit the franchise for now.
 
Idiots.

Sad that one iterations incompetence doomed the entire franchise. I would still love to see a refined version of guerrilla.

rf:a is a shitty gears of war wannabe. 

rf:g was a brilliant open world game.

they came out the same week as E3 so nobody was really paying attention to games on store shelves much 
released same day as Infamous 2 which was a better game 
was a lame and shitty direction and went away from the better sandbox-y Guerrilla 
story sucked 
 
hm, I can't see why it wasn't selling in droves, really

@Grimmy616 said:

Maybe not change the gameplay when everyone loved Guerilla.

yup...it made no sense whatsoever that they changed it as much as they did...such a shame!

Ouch, that is really too bad. I didn't think this game looked great either, but it's too bad they just couldn't build something better on top of Red Faction Guerilla. I think they also mistook just how interesting their fiction and universe was.

If anything, they should have known that Red Faction's merit was in it's destructible gameplay, not it's universe.

If they stuck to what made Guerilla work and just added more it may not come to this. 
 
Sad news either way.

Kind of sad really. Perhaps they should just slow down and wait for a great idea that fits well with the setting.  I think they had something with Guerilla - the destroyable environment was something that really separated RF from the other shooters and an open world environment just let the player have fun with it. 
 
I don't think any of the games were complete AAA tier games - but I did really enjoy the first game, and Guerilla.

Im edgy tattoo man overthesholderan shootan omgggg collect the ammo

Man, that sucks. Guerilla was awesome and Armageddon was just so-so. :(

So sad! Really liked Guerilla, and that's the game they should have built upon. Not made it a damn linear bland aliens 3rd person shooter. Oh THQ...you will never learn. Also, they must have had a new Red Faction in the works if this one didn't tank. Volition is 200+ people...aren't thay?

Thats a real shame
 
I was actually surprised myself how much I actually liked the game. Perhaps even more than RFG. Granted, there should have been more variety in levels. But no more driving around in an empty open world just to get to the next mission!
Fuck the haters!

Is it just me or does it seem to anyone else that the people running these companies seem to be getting more and more disassociated from their target audience.

Every time a executive says something to this effect I like big-budget console games are doomed to all be highly marketable uninspired crap from here on. Really depressing.

Take a good game, make it suck, act surprised when no one wants to pay you for it. THQ got caught cashing in on Guerrillas moderate success, and instead of taking the blame, they pass it on to the end-user. Classy.

"Hey guys. So we had a decently reviewed, fairly good selling game last time. Everyone wants another one, just with some of the bugs fixed, and with some new gameplay. Fuck that, let's take out the only part that made that game good, copy Gears of War and watch the money roll in. Then we can make a Red Faction MMORPG!"

Poor reception is because they had everyone thinking this would be RF Guerrilla 2 with more stuff (I was really excited about the multiplayer preview they did on Giant Bomb a while back), but instead they went and put out a generic shooter with some quirky guns, for no good reason.

So, I'm sad to see this brand go but THQ/Volition brought this on themselves.

I hope they read these comments and change their minds, because this page has all the advice they need. Keep Red Faction in an open-world environment and you can't lose.

Armageddon will probably be 30 dollars in a month.....

Ah, give it another go. Return to the somewhat proven formula of Guerilla. See if you can spice up the gameplay some, get rid of that huge amount of repetive action of that game. I would love to see a follow-up to Guerilla. I was interested in Armageddon too until I saw the reviews come in.

I am legitimately angry that a publisher could be so fucking stupid.

That sucks, RF: A was a fun game.

If they make a good Red Faction game, it will sell well. Example... Red Faction Guerilla.  
 
If they make a bad Red Faction game, it will sell poorly. Example... Red Faction Armageddon. 
 
THQ does a lot of dumb things. 

Just have Volition make the inevitable Total Recall remake movie tie-in game. Drop the Total Recall universe over Guerrilla's formula. I take cash and traveler's checks, THQ.

While I agree with everyone that the new game went in a bad direction, nobody seems to be noticing the part where he says that Armageddon and Guerilla's sales are to blame for this. They (THQ) are looking for blockbuster sales, and this series just isn't doing it.

@ajamafalous: Agreed man. I was thinking the same thing. You know what I played last weekend for hours on end? RED FACTION. The original. Still a unique online game play experience that is never the same twice, with the most exhilarating CTF mode. Oh and some of the best weapons in an FPS. It's not gamers' problem that the developers who've made the last 3 RF games just didn't get what made the original so incredible.

@mrangryface said:

Im edgy tattoo man overthesholderan shootan omgggg collect the ammo

lol

Dayum shame.   It's a great series.. the last game just happened to be sub par. =(

That blows, I would have loved a more refined RFG. I don't know what they were thinking with Armageddon, and it's a shame the whole series has to die off because of one misstep.

By the way, Red Faction: Guerrilla is $10 on PSN for a short while. Excellent deal if you haven't played it.

Goddamnit, they shitcan Red Faction and still persist with that piece of shit Homefront. :(

We want Red Faction Legends 3, THQ!

I don't think Armageddon was so bad. It paled in comparison to Guerilla, but it was still a somewhat fun game.

Sad they ditch the franchise, there were still great things to be done with it.

@ajamafalous: Agreed man. I was thinking the same thing. You know what I played last weekend for hours on end? RED FACTION. The original. Still a unique online game play experience that is never the same twice, with the most exhilarating CTF mode. Oh and some of the best weapons in an FPS. It's not gamers' problem that the developers who've made the last 3 RF games just didn't get what made the original so incredible.

The reason that armageddon sold poorly was because it totally sucked in comparison to Guerilla. People want a large, open environment to blow shit up in. I cannot believe that they took that whole concept and threw it away with Armageddon. Such a disappointment.

Didn't this very thing happen with the Unreal Tournament series? They crippled the series with UT3, then abandon the franchise? It's like a restaurant that serves great food, then decides one day to take a shit on a plate, charge $60 for it, and then wonder what went wrong.

Completely changing the game, blaming the poor sales on people tiring of Red Faction. It really sucks that we won't get any more Red Faction goodness because of some dudes at THQ continually making dumb decisions.

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

If they make a good Red Faction game, it will sell well. Example... Red Faction Guerilla.   If they make a bad Red Faction game, it will sell poorly. Example... Red Faction Armageddon.  THQ does a lot of dumb things. 

It's incredibly disappointing that they didn't expand on Red Faction Guerilla at all. I really enjoyed that game, and the multiplayer was surprisingly great.

This game was barely Red Faction though...