Q: You've been in this business a long time. Why did you join THQ? The company does have a lot of difficulties at this time - restructuring and dealing with financial trouble and changing strategy... Did you come to them or did THQ call you?
Jason Rubin: Brian called me up and said, "Look, will you do me a favor and go around and take a look at everything we've got and come back and tell me what you think?" So I did a three-week tour around all of the teams except Metro, which is a third party company in the Ukraine - that was a little too far. But I did play Metro. I said, "You know what, Brian? You've got a reasonably sized slate. Maybe it's one title too big. A lot of them are good games, but most importantly, the teams are excellent and some of the stuff that hasn't been announced that people haven't seen is really good. I think you have a huge opportunity to make this better." And he said, "Well, where do you think the industry's going? Do you think these titles can compete with $120 million dollar super titles?"
So I said, "Well, you know, three, four years ago I would've said no. Even two years ago I would've said no." But looking at the industry in the future and what's happened in PC space, I think there's going to be a much wider variety of games in the future. I think you'll see things like Portal or World of Tanks or League of Legends or other ways of attracting people that don't require the snazziest graphics, the most dollars per minute on screen, 600 person teams. Not that those titles won't do well. They'll do really well. And they'll get bigger and that's a race. But we don't have to necessarily play in that race. Maybe some of our titles will compete with some of the mid-sized triple-A titles - you know, a Naughty Dog title or something in the $50-$70 million dollar range. Some of our titles might be smaller than that. Whereas two years ago that might've been death, in two years I don't think that'll be a problem.
And I think we can do all right without it. Take a look at [South Park] Stick of Truth. A lot of people are talking about it, excited about it. That's not a blockbuster. Graphically, it's not going to compete with Call of Duty, but it's a really cool game. Metro's gotten a lot of nominations for Best in Show. Company of Heroes, the sequel to the highest rated RTS of all time. There are good things to do. [Saints Row developer] Volition, has an incredible amount of talent. I think that if they had been fostered in the same way that Naughty Dog was at Sony, given the tools that they needed to succeed, that there would be a much much more successful title there.
Not that Saints Row hasn't been successful, because it's a successful title. But they could have a blockbuster. So perhaps that team is making triple-A and some of the other teams are making a little bit smaller, and that's OK in the future, because there will be other ways in the future where you don't have to put it in a box at 60 bucks next to another $60 title that had five times the budget and four times the marketing. I think it's a great challenge. I think there's a huge potential. So that's why I came here.
