Future 'what-if' shooter Homefront is getting four multiplayer maps as THQ unveil The Rock map pack which will grace the Xbox Live Marketplace first.

As the name suggests, fans get Alcatraz the infamous island prison located in San Francisco. Bridge is also a new map while two others are 'recycled'.


Team deathmatch gets Waterway and Overpass added to their line-up while Alcatraz and Bridge are the all-new maps from the pack. It will release first for Xbox 360 although no date has yet been issued by publisher THQ.

- Alcatraz
America’s most infamous prison becomes the site of fierce close-quarters fighting.

- Bridge
A combined arms effort to secure the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and surrounding area, large-scale warfare at its best!

- Waterway
Wage war atop storefronts and in the streets of the Spillway, where every inch feels like a mile.

- Overpass
Battle in a fan-favorite Ground Control space for the first time in Team Deathmatch!

The Rock map pack will sell for 400 Microsoft Points when it goes up. There are no details when the DLC will be heading for the PlayStation 3 and PC. Are you still fighting North Korean troops in the occupied United States?

THQ has shut down a number of studios this year: Homefront developer Kaos Studios in June, two studios in Australia, and the internal MX vs. ATV developer located in Phoenix, Arizona.  Speaking at the Citi 2011 Tech Conference today, THQ CFO Paul Pucino outlined why those studios had to go.  THQ has decided to streamline its operations to create a few AAA releases each year, with successive iterations every two years.

"In respect to not talking about it at our annual meeting it's because we simply weren't able to announce it at that time," Pucino said. "We think the best position we can be in with respect to studio structure is fewer is better."

"The two we just shut in Australia were working on games that aren't consistent with our strategy anymore - one on a movie tie-in, one on a kids' game," Pucino said. "Our strategy now is bringing fewer, bigger triple-A titles to market: one or two original IPs each year, and sequelling them every two to two-and-a-half years."

Pucino highlighted the new THQ Montreal studio, headed up by Ubisoft-expat and former Assassin’s Creed creative director Patrice Désilets.  THQ believes the new studio will allow them to create AAA games cheaper and more efficiently.

"We're trying to reduce the cost of bringing high quality games to market," Pucino said. "Our studio in Montreal will grow from 150 to 400 employees in the next couple of years. We're going to be able to make games there for 40 percent less than some of our other studios."

Does THQ have a chance against Activision, EA, and Ubisoft?  Homefront didn’t sell as well as it could, the publisher just killed the Red Faction franchise, and its collaboration with director Guillermo del Toro won’t see fruit for many years now.  Is the publisher moving in the right direction?

Having closed down Homefront developers, Kaos Studios, earlier this year, THQ have had to look elsewhere to create a sequel for the massively disappointing shooter. They seem to be going straight to the top. It has just been announced that the publishers are partnering with Crysis creators, Crytek, for the project. The company, currently rumoured to be working on Timesplitters 4, and certainly developing a 360 exclusive, Ryse, for Microsoft, is certainly diverging away from its previous EA-only development. And with multiple studios and presumably Crysis 3 a good way off, it makes sense for them to be picking up work like this.


But Homefront? Perhaps. When the game was revealed it looked like it was going to be incredible, and certain heavily influenced by Crysis. Sadly the result was an extremely dull shooter that offered almost nothing original. But perhaps Crytek are the right people to breathe life into the idea of a band of resistance fighters in a Korean-occupied United States.

Statements from both sides show no admittance that Homefront had been a disappointment. THQ says,

“Homefront’s unique setting and storyline captivated gamers the world over. With Crytek’s industry leading technology and legendary experience in the FPS genre, we’re supremely confident that the next Homefront will deliver that AAA-quality experience that players demand.”

And Crytek’s boss, Cevat Yerli, fawns,

“We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ.”

He does then offer a few lines that the more cynical mind could read as slightly loaded.

“We believe that bringing our level of quality, creativity and production values to the next Homefront title, creates an opportunity for both THQ and Crytek to deliver a truly blockbuster game. It’s really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way.”

In other words, perhaps, “Leave us alone to get on with it.”

It’s a long way off yet. Set to be released in THQ’s fiscal year 2014, that likely means it’ll have at least its initial release date set for late 2013.

A release schedule for publisher THQ has announced Homefront Ultimate Edition will be coming our way before the end of this fiscal year, which strikes out March 31st.

This bundle likely includes multiplayer map pack add-ons The Rock and Fire Sale. It's unclear if anything else will be thrown in as a treat. Homefront got a so-so reception.

While not trail blazing the charts, the original game has at least established the fledgling IP. A sequel is in the works at Crytek UK which is due for release in fiscal 2014.

Original developer Kaos Studios became defunct not long after the shooter's release. In the game we play as part of the American resistance to a North Korean led invasion of the US. THQ have talked up big plans for the series including a possible trip to Britain. The story was co-authored by Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn's John Milius

In unsurprising news Crytek has finally confirmed that its UK studio is being shut down. The company also announced layoffs at its Austin studio, where in-development co-op shooter Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age is being moved over to Frankfurt.

Additionally the Homefront franchise, which the studio was working on in the shape of Homefront: The Revolution, has been bought up by Deep Silver and transferred over to its new Dambuster Studio.

It's really sad Crytek is falling. And worst of all Crytek USA (ex-vigil staff) that made Darksiders are laid off again. Homefront look promising. Hope DeepSilver can do it justice. But i seriously doubt it. Look at Sacred 3.

well the new studio is still based in UK, so it should be fine.

On the Brightside, Darksiders 3 can definitely happen now !