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THQ already planning Homefront 2

Publisher says cliff-hangers in upcoming game's single-player campaign will be picked up in downloadable content, ultimately leading to a full sequel.

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Earlier this year, THQ revealed the next project from Kaos Studios, the military first-person shooter Homefront. Set in the near future, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC game's hook is that it is set in the midst of a foreign invasion of the United States. While Homefront's premise lost some of its novelty in the wake of the recently released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2--which includes segments where players fight Russian soldiers on American soil--THQ's core gaming group head Danny Bilson isn't worried about its ability to compete.

Homefront imagines a North Korean invasion of the US in 2027.
Homefront imagines a North Korean invasion of the US in 2027.

During a presentation at the FBR Capital Markets 2009 Fall Investor Conference today, Bilson was asked how he plans to position Homefront against competition like the next Call of Duty and Medal of Honor games. In response, Bilson pointed to the game's narrative talent, as well as its multiplayer pedigree.

Bilson noted that Homefront developer Kaos was born from the ashes of Trauma Studios, maker of the popular Desert Combat mod for the World War II shooter Battlefield 1942. The group's first project for THQ, Frontlines: Fuel of War, was not a tremendous success in critical or commercial terms. However, Bilson chalked it up as "an incomplete experiment under pressure to ship" and reasserted his faith in Kaos to "build the best online battlefield."

Single-player action is also a concern of THQ's. To that end, Bilson also touted the involvement of filmmaker John Milius, who wrote and directed Red Dawn, a fictional account of the Soviet Union invading the US.

Homefront's story won't all be contained in the game itself. An online promotional campaign will dole out bits of Homefront's backstory in the weeks leading up to the game's release, Bilson said, adding that the single-player campaign mode is only a small part of the overall story.

"This is about a guy moving some fuel," Bilson. "That's what the single-player is about, to restart some vehicles and retake the Golden Gate Bridge. It's the beginning of a story. We're going to tell this like a serial, with cliff-hangers. And then we intend to continue the story in [downloadable content], until we go to Homefront 2."

Bilson said the downloadable content for the game will include a mix of single-player and multiplayer action.

"This is one of our big bets, I'll be honest," Bilson told investors. "People say, 'Why are you going into this Call of Duty space?' And it's because I know we can compete. I know we can compete."

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mission76

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Trailer looks ok...but they have got to be joking if they think that they will put out a single player storyline that is "to be continued with DLC" and expect people to rush out and buy it. I will definitly cross that one off the list if ots true. DLC is fine in certain situations but come on it is getting a little ridiculous

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firehawk998

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North Korea invading the US ?!!!!!!!!. That country cannot even feen half of its population let alone can any one imagine them invading the US?

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sLiPz1984

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How the hell would North Korea manage to not only take out the American military but occupy it for 2 whole years? North Korea along with China perhaps but North Korea would cease to exist before they could ever finish declaring war.

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Asheileon

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Looks like something that's already been done a bit too many times already.

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firedrakes

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looks sweet

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Trogeton

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Gotta love FPS games

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namdar

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@gandaf007 Agreed!

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gandaf007

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Looks pretty cool, but I think BF2 will always reign supreme.

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marcusceltic

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I hate all this DLC stuff, i wish they would just put in the original game, the only good DLC ive played was the chapters for GTA, and thats just because they were huge.

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DontEatCream

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Well, ya gotta give this guy some credit for at least telling the truth. He's got some balls to just out and out say, "Yeap, our game's got no ending unless you pay cash for it."

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korko3

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this is everything that is wrong with gaming today, next to nobody is actually setting out to make the best game they can.

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YoungDab

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DO WORK $ON!!

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monco59

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Is there no end to publishers' greed? We have to start buying DLC just to see the story to its conclusion? Homefront just lost a potential customer...

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Grubzic

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This game looks absolutely ridiculous. Even seeing the Russians invade America was baffling and unrealistic, but seeing freaking NORTH KOREANS attack America is extremely implausible and quite distasteful to me. North Korea is not even capable of seizing South Korea all by itself. How can it even cross Japan? How can its Mig-21 supported Air Force cross the Pacific to launch a full scale invasion of almighty america? Impossible, even for a video game, it's stupid. And as a Korean-American, I think it's even more stupid.

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Franko_3

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My first reaction to this was to *sigh*. Unless it come with a robot that bring beer, I am not going to spend 50$ for the original game, 10$+ for the dlc that will continue the storyline and add 1 mp map and 50$ for the sequel that will *maybe* finish the storyline of the first. "Homefront imagines a North Korean invasion of the US in 2027." yeah right, I will imagine it myself for free, not like it's interesting or original.

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icepickiii

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more power to them. As long as they get the mechanics and gun realism(not uber real) down then it should be good. Thats cool they brought in the writer of Red Dawn. I think this game can def distract me from COD MW2 if it does it right.

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nurnberg

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The market seems to be saturated with generic shooters right now. There is like 1 being released every week. It looks like they just copy-paste the textures and game mechanics, add a few changes and call it a new game!

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Maxor127

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This game better be $10 or have a 30+ single player if they plan on putting that much emphasis on DLC.

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halojp23

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why do there have to be so many games comeing out next year shi@ just think real hard about all those games comeing out. man i am going to be broke

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doctorsleem

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Looks rad. There's plenty of space in this genre. I prefer future combat to modern combat. Also, I thought Frontlines: Fuel of War got a bad rap -- that game was awesome. Droid helis for the win!

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Mr_Alexander

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"Publisher says cliff-hangers in upcoming game's single-player campaign will be picked up in downloadable content," Great, another game (Prince of Persia) we have to pay to see the ending, don't get me wrong I love DLC but having the real game's ending as DLC is just lame, I want DLC to be optional: prequels, spin-offs, weapons, anything! just not the game's ending...

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chapman86

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north korea is building nuclear weapons to avoid ground battles. by 2027, they will pretty much be attacking by pressing buttons rather than physical troop landing in enemy territory.

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cytheh

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It may be sandwiched by the next cod game which tryarch is making and medal of honor. North Korea invading USA? that doesn't sound good to be a good storyline. I mean that's like imagining Iraq invading usa... they'll lose like after 10 hours. Beside, EA should be pretty serious about this medal of honor game since they didn't add any subtitle to the name. So if they mess up, they'll ruin the name of the franchise.

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jazilla

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Can we just get a console that is all FPS all the time?

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Unheard-Volume

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I definitely never get tired of quality FPSs, so if THQ thinks they can create a "top of the line" title...I am not one to complain! Every year amazing new games come out that trump games from the year before! I'd love to see a new title come up from the rear and give CoD a run for its money! ;)

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WarEagle1357

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Kaos also made Frontlines: Fuel of War. That game was a decent FPS, but I already saw an identical rocket laucher from it in the trailer, the gunplay seems the same, and 1 of the vehicles is the same. For this to work, they need to update the engine, and improve the graphics/gameplay/controls.

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VXLbeast

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Cliffhangers with tons of DLC they can charge us for? No thanks. But, I do wish them the best of luck. So many people are busy drooling over MW2, they don't realize how many other great war games there are. That and everyone hates Activision, lol. I really wish these guys the best of luck. It iwll be hard, but I hope they succeed!

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DFen

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[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

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ozzmarkk

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Wow... The typical simpleton posts comparing to COD are already coming in.

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needacode

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only time will tell if this will pan out.

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Paul_GameFury

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At least they warned me ahead of time about the cliffhangers so I know not to buy it. Why is it ok for games to not give us endings? It's just a cheap tactic done by people who are afraid they can't make a second good story to follow up their first game.

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pure_evil_80

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I haven't seen anything that makes this game look impressive. I watch the previews and read the articles about it but it looks so underwhelming. If it gets an 8 or above I will be really surprised. Visually it isn't particularly great and the way the gameplay flows from the stuff shown looks like this will be a really dull and uninteresting game.

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XanderKage

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Sequel? The game's release date is still TBA, and they're planning a sequel? Finish this first. I'd rather have a one good ganme then 2 half-finished ones.

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milan4554

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This game doesnt look good but cant compete with COD and BattleField... we shall see what happen! i think the graphics look $hit

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nicebai1224

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not my type of shooter game

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Vari3ty

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I really think this game is not going to do well going up against such tough competition. The amount of FPS's coming out next year is ridiculous. This game will have to compete with Battlefield Bad Company 2, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty 7, Ghost Recon: Predator, not to mention Modern Warfare 2 from this year. This guy Bilson says he knows they can compete, but I have my doubts. Good luck THQ. You're going to need it.

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downloadthefile

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this actually looks like it has some potential, i like the whole theme of what if our enemies beat us, so long as it remains only a what if. kind of reminds me of when i saw world in conflict. hopefully its great competition for CoD and BF, I'd like to see something new for a change.

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l33tek

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I am sure this will be an excellent game to play!

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