THQ Considers MX vs. ATV Alive a Sales Disappointment

[ChaseB]

THQ thought that selling MX vs. ATV Alive at a reduced price point of $39.99 on day one would lead to more initial sales and help drive the post-release DLC. This idea unfortunately did not pan out, according to a conference call with THQ CEO Brian Farrell.

In a news report published by Gamasutra, the idea was to try and mimic a successful business model from another sector of the video game world.

Quote:

Farrell told investors and analysts the game was an attempt to "take some of our learnings from the free-to-play market and apply them to the console world."

However, because of the "high fixed cost of goods in the current console model" Farrell believes THQ could not knock the price down low enough at launch. It has been a long time since ESPN NFL 2K5 was released for $20, and one has to wonder if that sort of business model is even possible in the current console market. If it still is a viable option, maybe THQ just needed to go one step further.

Source - THQ's Farrell: MX Vs. ATV Alive 'Not A Successful Experiment' (Gamasutra)

[av7]

Its not the price point. Its the crap they've put out since the new generation of consoles. The modding community and smaller teams have done a better job at making a motorcross game than a big company with resources have been capable of.

[josef]

seriously. maybe they should take a gander over at Metacritic and check out their score for that junk they put out. i sure as hell would've purchased it for $39 had it not been a disaster.

[RumbleCard]

Either they don't want to admit it or have no clue how bad the game was.

[Richzilla]

I like the game and have played the heck out of it.

With that being said I am glad they feel this deal failed....they should have included everything on the disk instead of the nickle and dime us to death method.

[asu666]

There was probably confusion about whether the on-disc content got reduced too.

[chrisg19]

The game was just not good, plain and simple. There is no doubt in my mind that the business model they were trying to emulate could work, but you need a solid platform to start with. MX vs. ATV alive is not that platform. It is one of the worst games I have played in a long time. Not that there aren't worse games made, just that because of their past history I was expecting a step forward for the series, not the two giant steps backward they took.

[wisemack38]

We'll THQ'!!!!!!!!!! its not that the game was a good Price, It was...But the reason me & my boys did not keep the game, N get any DLC, was cause the game SUCKED..............