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Cover Story: It Came From Outer Space!


The Future Of THQ
We talk with THQ executive VP of core games Danny Bilson about the move to Montreal, avoiding milking franchises, and that pesky Guillermo del Toro rumor.

By Andrew Hayward

Over the course of his 25-year career, Danny Bilson has had his hands in the film, television, comics, and gaming worlds; co-writing and producing 1991's The Rocketeer, developing the 1990 The Flash TV series (along with co-writing a comic arc of that same DC Comics hero), and later working with Electronic Arts on several titles -- including The Sims and James Bond 007 franchise. In his current role as executive vice president of core games at THQ, Bilson is spearheading the publisher's transition from license-heavy multiplatform releases to a focus on cultivating strong original IP (like Red Faction and Darksiders) and developing further media opportunities around them.

During a recent event to mark the opening of THQ's new studio in Montreal -- which will house a new development team led by former Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time creative director, Patrice Desilets -- we had a chance to speak to Bilson about the company's move into the busy development scene of Montreal, as well as the future of THQ, and what exactly "transmedia" means to him.

1UP: Why was now the right time to open a new studio in Montreal?

Danny Bilson: Why was now the right time? Opportunity. We were looking to build out a studio where we could get some financial advantage. To try to build these gigantic, expensive games, you have to sell a lot of them -- sometimes more than is almost realistic. So to still be able to build these incredible experiences, we were looking for places that would give us some help on the funding, and this province has been unbelievable with that; really great.

1UP: Why was Patrice Desilets the right person to head a new development team?

DB: Well, if we're coming into this community, there's a certain advantage to get one of the finest game developers in this community. I mean, look: if we weren't coming to this community, I would sign Patrice if I could. We would put him in any studio; we would've built a studio for him here if we could. There's only so much proven, unbelievable talent like that in the game business. I personally love his games and was tremendously excited to have the opportunity to work with him.

Now, combined with building out this huge facility in Montreal, with the [financial] advantage, and getting that kind of talent who lives here in it, and all his friends live here, we should be able to build out an incredible veteran team to anchor this studio.

1UP: Do you worry about competition in the area, about there not being enough talent? There's also EA and Ubisoft...

DB: No, two reasons: One is, given the best creative opportunity, what's the coolest games to work on? That always has a lot to do with it. And how do you treat your developers; how do they work, how do they live their lives, how do we treat them in the studio? That matters for a lot. And the other thing is the government is completely open to bringing people in from outside Canada to work here. We're a global company; this will be a very international studio full of people from all over the world working here.

1UP: How come Patrice's team won't be coming together until the summer, and will the studio be performing any other work in the meantime?

DB: They've been supporting Homefront; there are some people here now. They're going to be supporting the Warhammer 40K MMO, Dark Millennium Online; an art team that's going to be built out in the meantime. Another team may start up here before Patrice's team gets here in May. But those Ubisoft guys are on a one year non-compete [clause], so they can't work for a year once they leave.

1UP: You have established franchises like Red Faction and Saints Row, as well as newer IP like Homefront and Darksiders. Which will become a bigger part of THQ going forward: supporting current franchises, or continually looking to launch new IPs?

DB: Current franchises will be supported as long as they're relevant. But I don't know how long a franchise stays relevant; I think you have to really give fresh experience to an audience. If you can brand it with something that they're familiar with, that can help introduce it.

But even Darksiders, the sequels of these games... Red Faction: Armageddon's a better example. It's a very different game than Red Faction: Guerilla, but fictionally it's in the same place and related to the other one. But the gameplay; it still has the core mechanic of destruction and unusual weapons, but it's a very different kind of game than the first one. It's all about fresh experience. So, fresh experience first; milking franchises... we're not going to milk them. Because they tend to dry up when you do that.

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Comments (6)

  • ChuckWoolery
  • It's nice to hear he doesn't want to milk a franchise but

    Posted: Nov 13, 2010 12:00AM PST by  ChuckWoolery

    Hiring Patrice from Ubisoft and saying "what's coming out in three years. There's some unbelievable original IP, which will hopefully set off a chain of events like high sales that will allow us to make one or two more in that franchise; there's certain complete, larger stories."

    I believe he truly wants to create new IP's however when one of them hits it big and the others are lagging, I don't think he would hesitate to milk a successful franchise.  It's business.


    • Endgame19
    • I think you're missinterpreting...

      Posted: Nov 15, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Endgame19

      ... the use of the term milking.  It sounds like his plans for are for a series utilizing a self contained story for the first "episode" in the case that it doesn't do as well as he would like.

      I think what is more than likely in the scenario that you put forth is that he might use an existing IP to introduce what would have been in a new original IP. Very much like what he expressed with the Red Faction series.

      I like where this guy's head is at and hopefully he sticks to his guns and doesn't let the financials direct his vision (at least not the financials alone, this is a business after all).

    • AngryAtom!!!
    • ???

      Posted: Nov 15, 2010 12:00AM PST by  AngryAtom!!!

      Theres a difference between creating sequels in a franchise and milking an IP, which is exactly what he said. Its fine to create sequels or games in the same universes but they still have to be fresh and original enough to carry themselves otherwise your franchise gets destroyed and your revenue from it dries up. That sort of business model (like Activision with Guitar Hero) may guarantee some immediate revenue from the next few sequels but then you end up with huge expenses as you put out games that stop selling and then that IP dries up and your stuck looking for the next one.

      Red Faction is a good example of a franchise not doing this. There haven't been new games every single year, and each one has been fairly different from the last. Guerrilla is quite different than RF 1 or 2 was,  and Armageddon and Battlegrounds both look to be different again. Each one has sold around 2 million copies or more so they aren't phenomenally successful but are definitely profitable.

  • Darkstrider311
  • Nice Commentary

    Posted: Nov 13, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Darkstrider311

    Excellent review,Blison hasn't gotten the gaming fat head yet from being overly cocky when an IP gets him (not particularly his company) alot of money.I don't care for the part of the answer about all game distribution going digital,but he seems to have a clear vision about what he aims to do,how he plans on doing it,and the end results of it all.I wish game industry folks shared his views.

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