Sales of first title exceed 1.3 million copies.
Speaking at the IGDA conference in San Francisco last week, THQ VP of Core Games Danny Bilson teased some information about the sequel. He said players won't be taking control of War, the first game's protagonist and one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
"It's a different character and takes place simultaneously to the first game's story, because there's only one apocalypse, and has new mechanics and features that differentiate it a lot and grow it from the first game."
"You have to build on the first one; you can't repeat it and I think that's very important in franchise building."
Darksiders 1 was a surprise hit for THQ. To date, the series has sold over 1.3 million copies since its release last January. In a separate interview with IGN, Bilsone said he believes more people have played the game than sales indicate.
"It's like the movie-to-DVD business," Bilson explained. "If we sold 1.3 million units, at least two and a half million people have played that game because the used game churn is insane, especially on a single-player game where you finish it and sell it back."
Bilson later said development of the sequel is on a tight, 24-month schedule and that it's about 25 percent longer than the first game. He said the challenge with the sequel is growing the audience beyond just the core fan base of players.
"When we come out with a better, more exciting game we've got those people to market it for us, buy it themselves the second time around, and I believe we can grow the audience that way," he explained. "So it's a combination of a belief that at a certain penetration there's a viral quality because of used games to how many people touched the game."
"If Darksiders 2 does 1.3 million there won't be a third one. If it doesn't grow, it just won't support itself financially."
Darksiders 2 is currently scheduled to ship in early 2012.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment