Red Faction 4, Saints Row 3, Darksiders 2 scheduled, Space Marine delayed

Following THQ's holiday quarter earnings report today, CEO and president Brian Farrell discussed strategy with analysts in a conference call. The suburban Los Angeles-based company's tack is to release at least two titles targeted at the "core gamer each year." For the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, the company pointed to Red Faction: Guerrilla and Darksiders as its offerings for dedicated players.

For the coming fiscal year ending March 31, 2011, THQ is again planning a double shot of core games. Up first will be Homefront, the military shooter set in 2027 inside a North Korea-occupied United States. The first-person shooter is in development at Kaos Studios (Frontlines: Fuel of War) for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC and will be written by John Millius, the writer-director of the Cold War-era cult classic Red Dawn.

THQ's second big game will be a successor to Volition's hit Red Faction: Guerrilla, the third game in the Mars-set sci-fi action series. First revealed last April, the unnamed sequel was set for THQ's 2012 fiscal year, which begins on April 1, 2011. However, Farrell said the game's release had been moved up to capitalize on the popularity of the critically acclaimed Guerrilla and promised "robust online gameplay" and increased environmental destruction. He promised that both it and Homefront would be a major presence at THQ's booth at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo this June, as would the still-unseen Warhammer 40,000 massively multiplayer game.

Looking ahead to THQ's 2012 fiscal year, Farrell promised "accelerated" growth courtesy of three more core games: Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine, a Darksiders sequel, and a new Saints Row game. The former game had been on the company's 2011 docket, and the second was first mentioned alongside Red Faction 4's reveal last April.

As for the Saints Row sequel, it will likely arrive nearly three years after Saints Row 2 debuted to solid reviews and multimillion-unit sales. Farrell emphasized that the game would be a "third generation" of the franchise, which he called "the most complex" type to build. This echoed comments made by Volition associate producer Dan Sutton, who said in October 2008 that his studio has "started work on Saints Row 3, and we have a new direction we want to go in…which we, of course, can't talk about."