For the quarter ending June 30, THQ reported net sales of $195.2 million -- a figure CEO Brian Farrell admitted was disappointing. The chief executive singled out Red Faction: Armageddon sales as a culprit, labeling the shooter as a "niche" product.
"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," Farrell said. "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."
Developer Volition's Red Faction team will be merged into the studio's Insane group, Farrell said, helping the publisher ramp up production on director Guillermo del Toro's foray into video games.
Launched in 2001, Red Faction made a critical and commercial splash with its Total Recall-inspired sci-fi storyline and destructible environments. A 2002 sequel disappointed, and the franchise was put on ice for nearly seven years until Red Faction: Guerrilla shipped in 2009. The latest and evidently last (at least for awhile) Red Faction game, Armageddon, shipped in early June.
Spy Guy says: THQ is now placing its second half hopes on Saints Row: The Third. I'd feel safer betting on the Pirates to win the World Series. The turnaround for THQ appears to lie -- at a minimum -- a full year from now, when Itagaki's Devil's Third kicks off a run of AAA games from big name designers, including del Toro's Insane, Turtle Rock Studios' new shooter, Patrice Desilet's mystery project, and Dawn of War III. So Red Faction is dead for now, where did THQ and Volition go wrong with this promising franchise? 
