Red Faction: Guerrilla - Development and Marketing

Development and Marketing

In February 2008, it was announced that the third installment of the Red Faction series was coming to multiple platforms. Few details were released at the time of the games announcement. On July 15, 2008, Rick White, a producer at Volition, debuted a demo at E3 in California (see below). The title was confirmed at the 2008 Game Developers Conference, and in mid-2008, a private multiplayer beta was released on Xbox Live. Among the details revealed at GDC '08 were a new and fully upgraded Geo-Mod system, dubbed Geo-Mod 2.0. It was also confirmed that the game would take place in an open world environment.

A live demo of the game debuted at E3 2008, with narration by Volition producer Rick White. Many of the game's features were presented during the demo. At the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo, a multiplayer demo was shown. The demo showed off the game mode "Team Anarchy", and "Damage Control", as well as some backpacks that the player can equip for certain powers. In mid-2008, Volition opened a private multiplayer beta to Microsoft to see what needed to be fixed or added. Friends and family codes were sent to survey participants on July 30, 2008. Volition confirmed that IGN had distributed up to 25,000 codes to expand the beta further via paid public membership. Public keys for the Xbox 360 version were released through Fileplanet. The Beta on Xbox Live came to an end on August 29 at 3AM EST.

In February 2008, preview screenshots of Liran were leaked to the Internet, causing members at various game forums to come to consider one weapon shown to be an "Ostrich Hammer" based on its shape. Over one year later, on April Fools Day 2009, Volition released a video commenting on the forum posts, and jokingly implied that the Ostrich Hammer would be a weapon in the game. However, due to the positive response to that video, Volition has announced that there will be an Ostrich Hammer weapon present in the game.

On April 23, a single-player demo was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network. A multiplayer demo was released on May 21 on both platforms. The multiplayer demo was removed from the PlayStation Network soon after it was made available due to problems connecting to games. The multiplayer demo was never re-released, and at the time of its removal, there was no official communication from Sony or THQ to let consumers know that it was removed, only comments about the demo's non-functionality.

On September 10, 2008, a Red Faction: Guerrilla Collector's Edition was announced. The collector's edition would have included a 20-inch-tall (510 mm), 7-inch-wide (180 mm), hand painted Walker with pewter handrails, a game art book, and a DVD (Xbox 360 version)/Blu-ray disc (PS3 version). The collector's edition was never released, but various elements that were slated to be included in the collector's edition were made available as pre-order bonuses from specific stores.

A Red Faction: Guerrilla handbook was released by THQ alongside the game's release. A comic strip made by DC Comics contained within the book featured a prologue to Red Faction: Guerrilla, detailing how Dan Mason came to be a Red Faction member. The comic also follows a mission involving Dan, Samanya and various other Red Faction members, who are fighting against the EDF and encounter a small, orphaned boy who joins the Red Faction, only to later betray them.