THQ: MX vs ATV DLC experiment was unsuccessful

Brian Farrell, CEO of THQ, has declared that the new DLC-centric business model it attempted with MX vs ATV Alive was "not a successful experiment".

The publisher announced earlier this year that it would release the off-road racer at a reduced RRP and drive revenue with regular waves of downloadable content.

Speaking in a conference call following THQ’s recent earnings statement, Farrell told analysts and investors that the firm has tried to "take some of our learning from the free-to-play market and apply them to the console world", according to Gamasutra.

He went on to claim that the lower price point – $39.99 in the US, 29.99 in the UK – "gave us good acceleration of sales, [but] it just wasn’t enough to drive the installed base to what we wanted to do".

"Our takeaway there is it’s not a great model in the console market because with the high fixed cost of goods in the current console model, you can’t get the price point low enough to drive that installed base for the client out there to drive the DLC," said Farrell.

He dubbed the attempt a "noble experiment" and predicted stead sales for the game.

Earlier this week, THQ posted disappointing Q1 results with losses of $38.45m.