Homefront scores cause THQ stock crash

By Fred Dutton Published 15 March, 2011

Share price falls 20% in 24 hours.

THQ's share price has fallen 20 per cent in the past 24 hours, with pundits blaming the mixed review scores for its Homefront FPS which hit the web today.

According to the latest NASDAQ data, THQ's share price is currently $4.75, down 20.03 per cent on what it was this time yesterday.

An LA Times article has attributed the middling review scores of Homefront. The Kaos-developed shooter scored 6/10 from Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead and is currently sitting on a Metacritic score of 72.

Shareholders might like to keep in mind the fact that, according to comments made by THQ exec Danny Bilson to Eurogamer earlier this month, the game is the most pre-ordered title in the publisher's history.

CEO Brian Farrell certainly doesn't seem too worried. "The game seems to resonate with consumers," he told the LA Times. "It's a mass market title. Let's see what players think."

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About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • beastmaster #1 1 year ago

    Fuck! That happened fast.

  • Gearskin #2 1 year ago

    Which pundits? Isn't this one of THQ's biggest pre-order releases?

  • jimr9999us #3 1 year ago

    I may have to purchase Homefront for no other reason than to support an outstanding publisher with a great track record of supporting developers.

  • Daeltaja #4 1 year ago

    Try not make a CoD clone next time and it might be a different story.

  • kristo #5 1 year ago

    For fucks sake, 70% is decent in my world. As in, if you like the FPS genre, you will most likely enjoy this.

    Retards and their stupid scoring systems.

  • HisDudness #6 1 year ago

    Sometimes markets are so pathetic.

  • jablonski #7 1 year ago

    Happy now Eurogamer?
    You lefty bastards! Bringing capitalism to its knees!

  • wizlon #8 1 year ago

    BUY BUY BUY!!

  • apoc_reg #9 1 year ago

    Dan W review so I'd ignore that but the 72 on meta suggests it's not the best

    Yes Dan I'm still giving you hassle for your Risen PC review.. and will till the day i die :-)

  • metalangel #10 1 year ago

    They really should have pushed the multiplayer side of things instead of the singleplayer.

  • persus-9 #11 1 year ago

    That's a little crazy, I really doubt this title will flop even given how meh it apparently is. I can't see it setting the world on fire without actually being good but with solid pre-order numbers and a good high concept setting I think it'll almost certainly be a commercial success. Knocking 20% off only makes sense if the price was being artificially inflated by one heck of a lot of people who were speculating on it being a COD killer.

    EDIT: Actually that could be the case since the share price has basically just returned to the price it was in COD:BLOPS release week. It started to rise sharply right about the time that the first figures from COD:BLOPS would have been released.
    Edited by persus-9 at 15/03/11 @ 20:18

  • menage #12 1 year ago

    No matter how shit this game is. Moneymakers controlling the fate of games/companies like this can't be good for creativity.

    Yes, yes, the world is like that and such. Still annoying.
    Edited by menage at 15/03/11 @ 20:18

  • Ranger101 #13 1 year ago

    Oh shit time to buy shares in THQ - the review scores might not paint it to be a AAA game, but the marketing and hype is still going to make this game sell bucketloads.

  • Pehmu #14 1 year ago

    metalangel: "They really should have pushed the multiplayer side of things instead of the singleplayer."

    Wrongmundo.
    We already have great multiplayers such as CoD and Bad Company. Those two aren't known for great single player campaigns so there's always some room for a strong story-driven shooter.

  • greenllama88 #15 1 year ago

    @apoc_reg

    Please don't mention that Risen review, it brings out the darkness in me...

  • Freek #16 1 year ago

    The FPS genre is flooded with stand out titles that are playable for a verry long time. Battlefield, CoD, Halo, Killzone, hours and hours and hours of gameplay. Why would you buy a game that's only "okay" when there's "fantastic" availebel for the same price?
    You're either at the top of the genre, or you go home.
    70% avarage score is good, but it isn't good enough to warrent a purchase in a crowded market.

  • andy10 #17 1 year ago

    I think they should have advertised this game more. I've been coming to Eurogamer for weeks and have been surprised at the total lack of promotional build-up.

  • metalangel #18 1 year ago

    @Pehmu: Do you know the history of Kaos Studios? Multiplayer is what they do!

    Bad Company really is Battlefield Lite, Kaos previous game Frontlines was all about big maps, lots of vehicles. Bad Company was more focused on infantry to entice the CoD crowd, with much more limited use of vehicles and more confined maps. Homefront should be pushed at players who enjoyed Bad Company but want bigger battles. As the review says, the singleplayer seems to be (because, like Frontlines, it is) a secondary thing, added because a multiplayer only game is a harder sell.

    I can't understand why... CoD is the biggest console game going and it's not down to the singleplayer.

  • BonzoBanana #19 1 year ago

    Sadly a 70% score for me generally means play the waiting game and pick up a copy from the sub £10 bargain buckets in a few months.

    I've stopped doing the pay near full price and watch the price plummet in a matter of weeks for titles that get average reviews.

  • RevanNL #20 1 year ago

    I thought it would be best to cancel my pre-order. So I did.

  • KDR_11k #21 1 year ago

    Pre-orders don't mean a resonance with the public. At this point it's merely a reflection of the hype rather than the real quality of the game.

  • Pehmu #22 1 year ago

    metalangel: "Do you know the history of Kaos Studios? Multiplayer is what they do!"

    *text*

    Ok, fair enough.

    The way I see it is that we have quite a lot of good multiplayers, but single player games and campaigns are pretty much everytime the same scripted, "cinematic" stuff with too much of handhelding. I'd like to see a shooter that would break this pattern.

  • coomber #23 1 year ago

    Pre-orders can be cancelled so they count for nothing...as RevanNL has shown!

  • metalangel #24 1 year ago

    @Pehmu: you and me both :)

    I wonder what THQ's strategy is... I wonder perhaps if it's to intrigue people with the silly OTT story and then once that attention has been gained, say: "Hey, check out how awesome the multiplayer is!". With CoD dominating I get the feeling the story was deliberately made as ridiculous as possible so the game would stand out. Then they had to back the silly setting up with a story driven mode... I don't know. I just hope I don't find myself disappointed on Friday.

  • CaptainKid #25 1 year ago

    70% score isn't good at all.
    It is for everything else, school, movie reviews etc but not for gaming.
    Good starts at 85%, great at 90%

    Somehow it got that way, notice how you rarely see scores lower then 60?
    And most scores are between 75-95%

  • Xboxfanuk #26 1 year ago

    THQ always seemed like a averagely crap publisher that mostly released 7.0 games. I don't think they will survive long.

  • Xboxfanuk #27 1 year ago

    @Pehmu: Do you know the history of Kaos Studios? Multiplayer is what they do!

    Bad Company really is Battlefield Lite, Kaos previous game Frontlines was all about big maps, lots of vehicles. Bad Company was more focused on infantry to entice the CoD crowd, with much more limited use of vehicles and more confined maps. Homefront should be pushed at players who enjoyed Bad Company but want bigger battles. As the review says, the singleplayer seems to be (because, like Frontlines, it is) a secondary thing, added because a multiplayer only game is a harder sell.

    Frontlines didn't fair that well from what I understand. Kaos' only real success was their Battlefield MOD Desert Combat which really only managed 1 or 2 standout maps. Since then they don't seem to be really innovating like DICE.

    I can't understand why... CoD is the biggest console game going and it's not down to the singleplayer.

  • weebl #28 1 year ago

    [insert a negative comment about FPS's, which will surely sit well with the hardcore crowd here.]

    Anyway, I'm off to play Bangai-O. Upside down. With my feet.

  • metalangel #29 1 year ago

    @xboxfanuk: they are a billion times better than they were in the 16 bit days.

  • Makme #30 1 year ago

    Someone I know opened a computer games store in Japan a couple of weeks ago. At first business was alittle shaky, but now the customers are slowly starting to drift in.

  • MrLovePump #31 1 year ago

    Was on the fence about this, it's americanness put me off, then the 9 out of 10 first scores got a preorder out of me. The latter 6s got a cancel. Will look out for a demo

  • Vortex808 #32 1 year ago

    When did an overall 72% score become shit? Even EG's 6 out of 10 is 'above average' and most marks down seem to be due to it being either a) derivative or b) short single-player campaign.

    Neither of which has influenced my purchase since it's the multiplayer I'm interested in, which seems to be being fairly well-received in all the reviews I've read.

    I am still disappointed in the games-buying public after de Blob 2's shameful sales though. That's a great game and I'd hate to see them go under due to a share crash when they can produce gems like that.

  • Hantheman #33 1 year ago

    Heh "It's a mass market title"

    i.e. it's bland, cliched and made for the idiots that populate 95% of the gaming world.
    Edited by Hantheman at 15/03/11 @ 21:57

  • Jonny5Alive7 #34 1 year ago

    They should have paid off more reviewers or scared them into giving it higher like other companies do.

  • metalangel #35 1 year ago

    I think I might have to revise my previous comments, in view of stuff like @Hantheman and @Zangrief.

    The marketing has totally backfired on THQ. As a result, the ignorant are assuming it's a CoD clone, when in fact it's far closer to genre darling Battlefield, made by the team who were hired to help make Battlefield 2 on the PC.

  • Ryuken #36 1 year ago

    Whether it deserved the less than great scores or not it's very worrying to see how stock money relates to the perceived critical reception of a game. I can't imagine this is the same for other media businesses. Shows once again that being a public company is only for the wicked. Like many are saying too: Metacritic is a plague.

  • 32768Colours #37 1 year ago

    Honestly though, is anyone really surprised by this? Businesses beholden to investors always make over-blown statements about how well things are going and when reality bites, the share prices always fall. This stock crash illustrates just how unsustainable this desire to make the next COD really is.

    I'd feel sorry for them, but honestly, I've been bored senseless of "set-piece" shooters since playing MW2.

    The final straw though was trudging through the bland as hell and completely forgettable MoH campaign. I can honestly say that I have no sympathy for any developer or publisher that comes a cropper by willingly taking this hack approach to game-making.

    Stuff 'em. Stop stagnating my hobby!

  • ucankurbaga #38 1 year ago

    can't buyout them all...

  • coolbritannia #39 1 year ago

    'The FPS genre is flooded with stand out titles that are playable for a verry long time. Battlefield, CoD, Halo, Killzone, hours and hours and hours of gameplay. Why would you buy a game that's only "okay" when there's "fantastic" availebel for the same price?
    You're either at the top of the genre, or you go home.
    70% avarage score is good, but it isn't good enough to warrent a purchase in a crowded market.' +8 at time of reading.

    Exactly what Cliffy B said, yet you all slated him.

  • Zaiz #40 1 year ago

    I always feel bad for THQ when they have trouble. They have some awesome developers, just very few mass market developers. I hope Relic and them don't get dragged down if Homefront kills THQ.

  • Lusterpurge #41 1 year ago

    Stupid ass investers, only caring about how good a game is! At least we gamers know, as demonstrated in this thread, that sales figures are the only thing that is important.

  • Spekingur #42 1 year ago

    Here's the deal. Homefront is not a bad game. It just isn't good enough.

  • KDR_11k #43 1 year ago

    The problem is that the FPS market is extremely competitive. You either make a multi-million seller or you won't even get your dev costs back. Clearly THQ put too much stock into this game. It needed 90%+ scores to succeed and it isn't getting those. Maybe make less risky games next time and try something safer like innovation.

  • super_monty #44 1 year ago

    6/10 probably better than BLOPS then

  • Amgzone #45 1 year ago

    Tbh, if it was called Call Of Duty Homefront or some shit like that, it would of got a 10/10 and sold shit loads, but because its a new FPS and CoD currently dominates that market, its struggling. I've got the game, shopto sent it early and tbh, i love it, its fresh and fun!

  • michaelius #46 1 year ago

    Seems a lot of reviews forgotten mandatory +2 modifier for a game by big western publisher with huge marketing budgets ;)

  • jaxon58 #47 1 year ago

    The share price is only back down to what it was a few months ago. It's no disaster by any means.

  • DirectAim #48 1 year ago

    If you buy this game second hand they limit how high you can level up in multiplayer to level 5.

    COD clone and doesn't touch BF3, ill wait.

  • homerramone #49 1 year ago

    I had this preordered.
    Then I found out it has the project $10 bollocks. Pre order now cancelled.

  • Cronan #50 1 year ago

    @Makme - you're scum, fuck off please.
    Edited by Cronan at 16/03/11 @ 09:40

  • Chazmeister #51 1 year ago

    Well Frontlines Fuel of War wasn't brilliant but I rather enjoyed it none the less, the actual combat felt very satisfying and the multiplayer had a fun casual friendly feel to it. Personally I wouldn't mind giving this a try at some point because it has to be said this looks rather good fun too. I can't stand CoD, so the fact that this isn't like it is a plus point to me.

  • Chazmeister #52 1 year ago

    Just had a look at Metacritic and the scores aren't that bad. An average of 71 with scores ranging from the 90's down to the low 50's. It's got an average score, it's certainly not bombed, what's so terrible about that?

  • RobotRocker #53 1 year ago

    Tell me why I should feel sympathy for a publisher that knew their game wasn't getting amazing scores and embargoed reviews under 8/10 till the day it was launched?

    That Metacritic was the funniest/most pathetic sight before then since the only ones who could get around the embargo were the tiny single format sites who barely had evolved over fan sites.

  • metalangel #54 1 year ago

    @RobotRocker: No embargo in Europe, I take it?

  • Retro_ #55 1 year ago

    A good game can be found in a 70% score, those who think gaming starts at 80% are morons

  • RobotRocker #56 1 year ago

    @RobotRocker: No embargo in Europe, I take it?

    Embargoes are usually on the US release which is why EG was able to put their review up early in the context of the European release. One of Giant Bomb's crew was hinting last night and at the PAX panel that THQ embargoed it, hence why IGN and Gamespot didn't have any early reviews even though THQ were spending fortunes on promoting it.

    Not that its endemic to the games industry. Film distributors sometimes won't do private critic screenings if they think a film is going to be panned or the music industry not sending records around if they think critics will give it a rough ride, but its more blatant and scummy in the games industry, especially since they stopped trying to buy 9's and 10's and are now using the embargo to put pressure on the media.