THQ's VP of core games Danny Bilson has told CVG that the launch of Red Faction: Armageddon will be preceded by an Xbox Live Arcade title to build buzz towards the impending release of the game.
Stating that XBLA and PSN games like this are "revenue generators and marketing tools," Bilson went on to say that the arcade game will ship three or four months prior to the release of Red Faction: Armageddon, allowing ample time to generate buzz towards the main game: "What's interesting is that we will sell it to the fans, it will have content you can download that is TV show-related, it will build up to the new game and also we can use it to drive pre-orders, too; we can give codes and aspects of it, we can give the whole thing away."
Red Faction: Armageddon - as you'll know from our first impressions from E3 2010 - sees the freedom fighters driven from the surface of Mars, back underground where you'll be fighting against a malevolent force that threatens the human race. Don't they always?
Bilson added that this kind of marketing strategy will become increasingly commonplace for THQ IP going forward, with similar "multi-faceted mini-games" planned for the next Saints Row and more.
"You'll see it on Red Faction, you'll see it on Saints Row and a couple of others," he declared. "Not only that, we have a comic book coming on it as well. And in December we'll announce the Saints Row situation, which is the biggest trans-media play anyone has ever done."
Sounds very interesting indeed. Red Faction: Armageddon is slated for a March 2011 arrival. Sledgehammers at the ready then...
