Following disappointing sales of Red Faction: Armageddon, THQ has stated that it will not continue with the franchise.
“Given that that title now in two successive versions has [only]found a niche,” said THQ’s CEO Brian Farrell, as reported by Gamasutra, “we do not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way.”
It’s a shame, given the fact that both Red Faction: Guerrilla and Armageddon really did push the boundaries of in-game destruction physics with the Geomod engine. Hopefully this tech will find its feet in another Volition franchise.
Good night sweet prince. Daddy’s going to miss you.
THQ Phases Out Red Faction Franchise Following ‘Disappointing’ Sales [Gamasutra]
Strange
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 9:32 AMThere’s no name next to “By”. Were you ashamed of that awful pun? :P
Strange
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:14 AMHey, you fixed it! Now I just look silly!
MrBS
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 1:03 PMSerells, go sit in the corner and think about what you did!
Effluvium Boy
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 9:33 AMOh, such glorious wit!
Adam Ruch
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 9:41 AMThey should have stuck closer to the guerrilla idea. That was a fun game, just needed more ‘stuff’ in it I think.
706
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:25 AMAgreed. Guerilla’s open world and free reign to destory were both really great. The small side missions like the hostage rescues and where you would be given limited ammo and time to destroy a structure, they were a lot of fun.
Unfortunately the storyline was pretty poor and the core shooting mechanics weren’t very solid. The wold could certainly use more to it to make it feel more alive, much of it was just empty wasteland. Which did fit with the concept but made the long drives pretty boring.
Even the upgrade system wasn’t bad but could use some tweaking. The only other criticism would be that once you destroyed buildings, they never came back so the game got stale. If they had put the regenerator in the single player, say as a reward for finishing the campaign it would have given the game hours more fun.
I think Guerilla was a good game that was just shy of being great. Why they took it in such a different direction for Armageddon I don’t know, when they were already on to something good, it just needed polish.
Blaghman, patron saint of doing it wrong.
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 9:46 AMI bought it!
Yesterday.
Because it was $45 for the slightly better than normal edition.
I would love to see the sales comparison between Guerilla and Armageddon, because the latter really did seem to appear out of nowhere, and I didn’t see that much in the way of marketing…
Chazz
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 9:52 AMHaven’t played Armageddon yet, still gotta finish Guerrilla (pile of shame) but it’s on my list to buy.
And yes, hopefully the destruction physics with the Geomod engine is used in other games, lot’s of fun has been had with the hammer.
Matthew K
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 9:53 AMI played the demo of Armageddon and actually liked it, I was surprised to discover that the game actually did poorly.
I might have to read some reviews and find out where it went wrong. My wife did remark watching me play the demo that it’s silly that they let you destroy stuff you have to walk across because then you just have to repair it anyway – but that’s more of an itpick than a criticism.
Exaemo
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 9:55 AMAnd I just started playing Armageddon yesterday after a Guerilla marathon.
Real damn shame…I was enjoying it so much I didn’t even realize that evening turned into mid-morning.
Guess I’m a part of that “niche” gamer base.
It deserved more attention than both Duke Nukem or Amy Winehouse.
Beau
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 9:56 AMHey that’s my old red faction competition photo!!
Chuloopa
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:08 AMHaha i noticed that too – and an epic win it was
Hey.. by the way.. is that geelong?! The old cement refinery?
Beau
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 11:54 AMIt sure is, me and the other guys in the photo live just down the road from it!
Chuloopa
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 12:11 PMHAHA!
Small world.
I used to live around the corner from it.. now i’m up closer to the coles area, sort of lol
I love driving past that place – it looks so awesome… pity they’re going to tear it down and build apartments there instead
Chuloopa
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 9:59 AMHELLS YEAH!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI6Ms0b4q-4
Mdrit
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:09 AMThis makes me sad :(
Absolutely loved this game. Played through it twice but couldn’t even get through Guerilla once. Got bored well before the end!
KRiSX
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:12 AMmmm i didn’t mind it… oh well…
weresmurf
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:14 AMBe nice to see them include GeoMod in a new Saints Row game… just sayin’…
crotchdot
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:27 AMI loved the open world of Guerilla. When I read Armageddon was going to be linear, I lost all interest. I’ll probably still pick it up when it goes cheap, which from the tone of the article won’t be too long.
Thank boognish Saints Row is still open world.
Exaemo
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:38 AMConsidering the linearity of most games nowadays, its not a bad game at all. The destruction/construction mechanic of the game is entertaining enough to distract you from wanderlust.
Also, consider that the first Red Faction was a mostly-linear underground game. Armageddon fits perfectly in the franchise.
Chazz
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 11:14 AMIf you’re after a PC copy and use Steam then cdkeysdirect have Armageddon for $22.99.
SpandexArmstrong
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:27 AMMan, this sucks. After Guerilla I was hoping they would improve that formula. But no they went about making a lame brown 3rd person shooter & killed it!
SuperFred
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:38 AMBest. Title. Ever.
Glenn
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:39 AMAww man, I really enjoyed the Red Faction series, and I quite enjoyed the last game despite it only lasting 6 hours :(
On the bright side, give it another 10 years and I’m sure they’ll sell the series or resurrect it.
Shane
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:41 AMTook me three separate views of the article to get the punny title. Now I like it :)
Mark Serrels
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:43 AMI was so proud of myself with that pun that I ate a piece of chocolate to celebrate.
Also – good to see your comments actually coming through!
WOJAus
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 11:27 AMYou should be proud. It’s gold hahaha.
boomtish
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:51 AMVolition and Techland (CoJ) have both pulled really dumb moves this year. Take a successful franchise, turn it on it’s head from what made the previous iteration a winner, then watch it bomb..
Exaemo
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 11:01 AMNotice that they are saying that they are closing the curtains on the franchise due to the fact that BOTH Guerilla AND Armageddon didn’t win them a lot of money.
NegativeZero
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 11:18 AMMaybe Volition can get back to doing what they should have been doing all along. Descent 4.
Rupert
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 11:59 AMThere was a descent-like part of the game IN rfa. Pretty sure it was shown on here, kotaku :)
Dunnowhathuh
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 11:55 AMI didn’t buy it because of their choice to regionally price it on Steam.
Neo Kaiser
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 12:10 PMI played the demo and the only thing I could think of was “Magnetizing a bucket to a large water pipe should not make an entire building explode”. I let this problem go in Guerrilla because it was a new system and they were just getting out the original concept. They should have been improving on the initial design so that it will require more effort to bring something down.
Also they should have stayed and built on the initial concept that the heroes from the previous game were the villians in the new one.
Tehanu
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 12:14 PMDamn… Always liked the franchise.. Just hope they continue developing their destruction systems.
Dmoli
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 1:35 PMBest article title
DerangedStoat
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 1:37 PMIt’s a sad day when “finding a niche” is a bad thing for a title…
DerangedStoat
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 1:38 PM*is considered
Pottsy
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 1:40 PMI hired Armageddon the day I finished and took Duke Nukem Forever back. I enjoyed it soooo much but I think this had to do more with getting over the pain I endured with DNF.
Also, I thought it was a brainless ‘blow shit up’ romp that is needed every now and then. Not as good as Guerrilla but it is definitely underrated.