<<I mean something on the order of Rugrats, WCW or WWF.>>
Even better in the PC-biased eyes of Wall Street, think Doom 2000 from Id. We all know that THQ now has the cash to buy more big licenses and keep growing eps and revs at way more than 20%. We might see something as soon as March and presumably by E3 in May. But even better would be getting the next hot game from Id.
As I understand it, GTI published Doom, Doom 2, Ultimate Doom, and Quake. (Well, Doom was self-published at first, but you know what I mean.) All were huge hits. Then Activision outbid GTI for Quake 2. Ie, they stole it just like EA stole WCW from THQ. Activision is also set to publish Quake 3: Arena this year.
The next game Id is working on is at least jokingly called Doom 2000. It's a perfect name, actually. First-person shooters are still big, however cliched. And no name has more cachet than Doom and no development house has more respect than Id Software. Quake 2 was slightly disappointing, sales-wise. Gee, it only now passed a million copies. What would Doom 2000 do? 1.5 million?
In one swoop, THQ would get a giant jump in PC revenues, respect on Wall Street, and props from serious gamers. THQ certainly has the cash to bid aggressively for this license. They've gotta be in better position than Activision was when it took Quake from GTI.
It's time for Farrell to be bold.
Marc |
