THQ: Get ready for 40 weeks of 'Saints Row 3' DLC

THQ: Get ready for 40 weeks of ‘Saints Row 3′ DLC

By Jason Evangelho on 08 September 2011 in News with 10 Comments

THQ CEO Brian Farrell is a vocal proponent of cloud gaming services — evidenced by the company’s frequent partnership deals with OnLive. Fittingly, Farrell recently wrapped up a keynote speech at the Cloud Gaming USA conference in San Diego. In addition to serving up some compelling arguments for the case of disc-less consoles, he also dropped a staggering factoid about the company’s upcoming sandbox action game Saints Row 3. Get ready for an overload of downloadable content — 40 weeks of it, “which will grow and change the experience as the consumer engages with the game.”

Back in April, we reported on an interview Farrell had with Forbes, in which he explained the company’s experimental stance with game pricing and DLC. MX vs ATV Alive sported a budget $40 price tag, with the opportunity to extend the game modes, vehicles, and tracks via microtransactions. During his keynote, however, Farrell explained why that pricepoint and DLC mixture wasn’t the right approach: “But what we found was unlike free to play, $39.99 just wasn’t low enough to drive a big enough install base to push the level of DLC we had initially hoped for.”

So what is THQ’s solution? Build a fully-featured, triple-A game experience like Saints Row 3, and then support it with a year’s worth (or more) of DLC to keep players engaged. “We intend to create an online digital ecosystem with the consumer that keeps them interested for almost a year, perhaps even longer. And we expect most of our large console games going forward will extend the base experience with DLC packs.”

With an open-world sandbox game like Saints Row 3, the sky’s the limit in terms of post-launch DLC. While I’m sure we’ll see additional missions and storylines, Farrell also indicated that the DLC would include “things like online in-game storage, and consumables and other online items.”

One has to wonder if THQ will eventually adopt the Freemium approach that so many other developers are gravitating toward. Farrell expressed interest in this business model during his speech, and it will be interesting to see what lies ahead for the publisher.

Saints Row 3 drops during the insanity of November. You can also check out an audio interview we conducted with Saints Row 3 writer Drew Holmes.

[via GI.Biz]

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Written by Jason Evangelho (406 Posts)

Jason is VGW’s founder, Executive Editor, and a longtime podcaster, writer, and “solopreneur” who is driven by the classic Jello Biafra quote “Don’t hate the media. Become the media.” His singular mission is to develop VideoGameWriters into a gaming site known for its intelligence, timeliness, originality and integrity. You can hear him leading the VGW Collective in the site’s official podcast, “Unlimited Ammo.”