In what was supposed to be a very big day for THQ the release of Homefront has actually turned into a bit of a disappointment, as THQ stock dropped 26% after the review scores for Homefront started coming in.

The review scores are actually all over the place, and some of the biggest reviewers have yet to publish their review of the game. The reviews that have been published seem to suggest as we reported that the campaign was short at only about 5 hours of game play; and the while the multiplayer is actually quite good, the title is far from perfect.

The score average on Metacritic is 72 for the Xbox 360 version, 76 for the PlayStation 3 version, and 74 for the PC version. THQ is already claiming that they are not as concerned with the reviews as how the game resonates with consumers. The game is being sold as a mass market title and THQ seems content in letting the players decide the success of the game. (It is generally accepted that a shooter title needs to achieve a Metacritic score of about 80 to be commercially successful.)

THQ does have a lot riding on the success of Homefront; besides the fact that it was the largest pre-ordered game in the company’s history, it cost a lot of money to develop and the expectations for the title were set pretty high. In addition to THQ, developer Kaos Studios also has a lot riding on this title, as we have previously told you that the very future of the studio could be decided by the success or lack of success of Homefront.

Sources that we have spoken with estimate that THQ will need to sell between 2 and 2.5 million copies of Homefront to get to the break even mark. Retailers that we spoke with today indicate that sales have been above average for the first day of release. One independent retailer told us, “…from the sales so far, I think we will have an idea of how successful Homefront will be by the end of the week. Despite some of the negative reviews, I still think it could perform well in the end.”?