THQ has announced that the next game in its Homefront franchise will be developed by FPS veterans Crytek.

There's currently no announced name for the title (we'll call it "Homefront 2"), but the publisher said it's in development for PC and "home console platforms", which doesn't rule out a Wii U release.

It's being handled by Crytek's Nottingham-based UK studio (formerly Free Radical), which most recently worked on Crysis 2's multiplayer component, and will "benefit from the very latest CryENGINE technology".

The game's currently scheduled for release in THQ's financial year ending March 31, 2014.

"Selecting Crytek to take Homefront forward underscores our strategy of working with the industry's best talent," said THQ core games boss Danny Bilson.

"Homefront's unique setting and storyline captivated gamers the world over. With Crytek's industry leading technology and legendary experience in the FPS genre, we're supremely confident that the next Homefront will deliver that AAA-quality experience that players demand."

Watch in HD No comments yet, be the first!

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said: "We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ.

"We believe that bringing our level of quality, creativity and production values to the next Homefront title, creates an opportunity for both THQ and Crytek to deliver a truly blockbuster game."

Yerli added: "It's really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way."

The first Homefront game released in March 2011. It received middling reviews but "proved to be a commercial success for THQ", the publisher said today.

Back in June, THQ's Bilson said the company had "interesting" plans for the "franchise going forward", despite the closure of the original game's developer, Kaos Studios.

Homefront dev explains the importance of dedicated servers

Following the wildly negative reaction to Modern Warfare 2's lack of dedicated servers on PC, one of the marketing bullet points for THQ's FPS Homefront has been its promise of such dedicated servers -- not only on PC, but on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, as well. But how important are they?

"You have to think about your constraints when you're making a game," Homefront senior designer Brian Holinka, of developer Kaos Studios, explained to us at a recent press event for the game. "If we host a server on a console, all of a sudden, that console is both server and it's playing the game. That really lowers everything: player count, the number of vehicles, everything. Dedicated servers allow us to offload all that work and basically all the client has to worry about is running the game."

Through dedicated servers, Homefront will support a chaotic 16-versus-16 online mode, where every player can summon a vehicle at will. "It means everything is bigger -- there's more players, more vehicles, more targets, more airstrikes," Holinka hyped.

"It really helps us offload a lot of work," he reiterated about the servers, "and now our scope is a lot bigger." But can you really call a 32-player match "a lot," when a game like MAG has littered the virtual battlefield with 256 players? We asked Holinka why Kaos wasn't using the dedicated servers to expand the number of players per match even further, and he reminded us that "we had more in Frontlines," the studio's previous game. Apparently, the team tested out larger battles for Homefront, but "it just didn't work," Holinka said. "We just found it wasn't fun. It just plays better at 32."

"If you played a level with 50 or 60 people in there," the developer found, "every time you turn around, you'd get shot."

Via:Joystiq

THQ and Mattel enter game deal, includes Masters of the Universe rights

THQ will target kids with a new multi-year, multiplatform "alliance" with Mattel -- that's for sure. What we're not so sure about is whether those targets are intended to be kids of the 80s or their kids of today. A news announcement reads like a who's who of garage-sale name drops: Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Masters of the Universe, and even Polly Pocket (who's apparently still going strong these days).

While the deal with Mattel encompasses games that could appear on any platform imaginable, THQ did specifically note the potential in re-introducing the toy maker's brands through the uDraw GameTablet for Wii. "As we have shown with the combination of uDraw and Pictionary, there is enormous potential for the strategic relationship between THQ and Mattel," said Martin Good, executive veep of THQ's Kids, Family and Casual Games division.

The brilliant part about all this is that when you hand over THQ's Tablet and a copy of the He-Man: By the Power of Grayscale drawing game to the GameStop clerk, you simply say, "It's for my kid" -- and he sort of has to believe you.
[Image source: Madman Entertainment; credit: Mattel]
Source: THQ
Via:Joystiq

Homefront DLC maps to debut on Xbox Live, 'Suburbs' exclusive to Xbox

Homefront is following in Call of Duty's footsteps in more ways than one. As Activision has done for its FPS franchise, THQ is partnering up with Microsoft to offer Xbox Live members first access to all future downloadable content for Homefront, Xbox's Major Nelson announced today at a THQ press event for the game. In addition, the Xbox 360 version of the game will include an exclusive map at launch, dubbed "Suburbs."

Additional details about the map and partnership will be revealed on "Inside Xbox" next week.

THQ logo revamped for a new focus on 'innovation and creativity'

You know that old, silly THQ logo? The one where it looks like the letters are going high speed? That is now, officially, old and busted. As seen above, the publisher unveiled its new logo (aka "the new hotness") this morning, with company head Brian Farrell noting, "Our new logo epitomizes the change, innovation and creative growth that are the cornerstones of the new THQ." Farrell is of course speaking to the past few years of major changes at THQ, kicked off with the hiring of core games VP Danny Bilson in early 2008 and followed by several successful business choices in the subsequent years -- everything from achieving cost-cutting goals early on to brokering deals with top talent.

The new logo will start making retail product appearances this February and "will be rolled out over the next few months" in other venues. Goodbye speedy THQ logo, hello crazy future-font THQ logo!