I sat down at the noisy THQ Gamer Day party to speak with Bob Aniello, the senior vice president of worldwide marketing at the Calabasas, Calif.-based video game company. THQ has become a powerhouse over the past decade as it expanded into a variety of new markets, from casual games on consoles to mobile phone games. Its titles include games based on Pixar’s animated movies such as “Cars” and “Ratatouille,” as well as hardcore games such as “Company of Heroes” and the upcoming “Darksiders,” pictured here.
Aniello has some choice words about all of the casual game start-ups being funded, Hollywood studios moving into games, and his bigger competition, Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard.
Q: I’m seeing so many casual games start-ups coming out of stealth. There are two or three a week. They’ve been funded by angels. Why is this happening?A few years ago, there were 100 mobile companies. Does it make sense to you?
A: We are very active in the casual games area and have a casual games group. Whether you are talking about the Nintendo Wii, the Nintendo DS, or casual games on the online PC, we’re seeing it explode. When you say the word “casual,” it can mean a lot of different things. We see a broadening of the gamer base. More females. They are up to 20 percent of the total gaming population. Going back a long way, that was something we always dreamed about (Editor note: yeah, remember how guy gamers couldn’t get dates?). Kids are gaming at younger ages. That’s opening a lot of opportunity in casual games. How many should there be? It should probably end up like mobile. There will be consolidation. There will be companies that are aggregators and those that create content.
De Blob (pictured, for the Nintendo Wii) and Construction Combat: Lock’s Quest (for the Nintendo DS) for us came from small indie development. We pay a lot of attention to the indie community. When we see something good, we grab it and blow it out across a lot of platforms. So we have to partner with those who make the great games.
Q: These casual start-ups are more like social networking sites, with games added. They would fit better with Facebook than with console game companies.
A: We’re seeing an explosion of community on console too. The whole community aspect is not limited to online, though online PCs have better functionality now than console online games.
WWE (pictured) is a fantastic example of community build around our games. What has been absent for a long time is that communities are now forming around games. Like Guitar Hero. We see that trend as platform agnostic.
Q: There are a lot of companies doing Facebook games. Is that attractive to you? Electronic Arts’ executives had a lot of slides with Facebook logos on them. It suggests there is value in getting their brand in front of Facebook users or getting them to play games on Facebook.
A: Facebook is a multiplicity of communities. We partnered with Oberon, which is doing light games on Facebook. We are making (retail) games of the Oberon titles that appear on Facebook. We are attacking that opportunity in a much more traditional way. It’s really about being platform agnostic. Read the rest of this entry »
