In his last interview as the executive vice president of THQ core games, Danny Bilson reflects on Homefront 1, and touches on why the publisher decided to hand the reins over to Crytek.

Bilson reckoned, “Homefront had fantastic creative. Arguably, at least in my opinion, one of the best properties for a first person shooter, a fresh world, great environmental storytelling and the execution unfortunately… even though I think it has some phenomenal things in that game, we sold a lot of them and it resonated with people, there were also issues around execution.”

However, Homefront, as a new IP in the FPS genre, was constantly stacked up against Call of Duty and Battlefield.  “Not that [Homefront] wasn’t good,” Bilson told Games Industry. “But you’re being compared to Call Of Duty and Battlefield, two of the best made games in the business.”

He continued, “So what do you do if you’re us and you’ve got this IP you believe in, you know you’ve got the fanbase, you’ve got a million ideas, how do you solve the problem? You go to a beloved developer that we believe can bring our execution up to the level of Call Of Duty and Battlefield with our incredible IP.”

Bilson noted that while he monitored Homefront 2’s development, the title looked “phenomenal.” He added, “the pre-production has been spectacular, I think it’s 5X the game we delivered before when it’s fully realised. And our idea was the consumers who may have been disappointed with some of the aspect of Homefront, with Crytek applied to it, it gives them confidence in the execution with a brand that seems to have a lot of appeal.”

Homefront 2 currently has a prospective FY2014 release date, and will be set in “different part of North America” compared to where the first title took place. Homefront 2 could be a next-gen title, and will be powered by Crytek’s CryEngine 3, watch what the engine is capable of on our forums.

What would you like to see in Homefront 2? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks, Video Gamer
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