News THQ dead - RIP

[JR#8]

It seems that THQ is in a state of flux right at the moment. The company’s 2014 game lineup has been cancelled, and the publisher is currently trying to find a buyer.

http://n4g.com/news/921773/thq-all-but-dead-cancels-2014-games-looking-for-a-buyer

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=459014

Hopefully someone else takes on a Darksiders 2!

 

[pantskyle]

It's says games are still being developed.

 

[Kaan]

Saints Row series better not ****ing die.

 

[Upgrayedd]

http://n4g.com/news/921773/thq-all-but-dead-cancels-2014-games-looking-for-a-buyer
Hopefully someone else takes on a Darksiders 2!

Why don't you just play zelda?

 

[SpaceCow]

I'd envisage them still doing Darksiders 2, that's not a 2014 game, rather a 2012 one which from my understanding is still in the pipeworks.

Shame to hear about the 40k brand which they did a lot of good stuff with. Dawn of War was an excellent RTS and I thoroughly enjoyed Warhammer: Space Marine and was looking forward to a sequel.

 

[Testekill]

So THQ is in trouble

http://www.yourgamercards.net/index...-cancels-2014-games-looking-for-a-buyer-r1406

It seems that THQ is in a state of flux right at the moment. The company’s 2014 game lineup has been cancelled, and the publisher is currently trying to find a buyer. Kevin Dent, who has been sending out a slew of tweets about the situation, said that “THQ are offering themselves to Asian firms to increase value!”

While I'm not happy that people are losing their jobs, I'm not going to miss THQ. They have a history at halfassing releases and giving pre-release hype which is eventually proven to be bullshit.

EDIT: Damn, someones posted already. Can a mod delete/lock this?

 

[vast]

I read an article last year about one of the main developers of assassins creed moving from Ubisoft to THQ and taking some other staff with him, there was a court case about it to. Im sure he is glad he left now.

Then again if he probably wont have too much trouble finding another job if THQ actually crumbles.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

well there goes WWE's Xmas marketing campaign

 

[JR#8]

THQ has just responded to IGN saying it's not cancelling it's 2014 line up. Head to IGN to read the article. Im on my iphone so cbf posting the link.

 

[HBK619]

Hopefully EA buys them, cuts the fat, re-invigorates their IP's and turns it around.

Although THQ brought us SR3 last year, easily their best game in a long, long time. They also forced Volition to bring out that abortion of a Red Faction game in Armaggedon...then had the gall to cancel the series after the complete direction change ruined the quality of the title and sold like shit when they didn't need to change a damn thing.

THQ also have the big problem of being a follower. EA and Activision have COD and Battlefield, THQ go for Homefront (killing the dev off in the process) and fail. They try the whole iterative DLC system that is shakey at best. And their Online Pass system tends to offer the least amount of incentives out of them all.

Let's not forget the systematic destroying of their biggest franchise in WWE with the smallest of incremental additions and lack of community outreach. Guess that 5 year contract may be broken sooner than later. One can hope...

 

[relapse]

Hopefully EA buys them, cuts the fat, re-invigorates their IP's and turns it around.

Although THQ brought us SR3 last year, easily their best game in a long, long time. They also forced Volition to bring out that abortion of a Red Faction game in Armaggedon...then had the gall to cancel the series after the complete direction change ruined the quality of the title and sold like shit when they didn't need to change a damn thing.

THQ also have the big problem of being a follower. EA and Activision have COD and Battlefield, THQ go for Homefront (killing the dev off in the process) and fail. They try the whole iterative DLC system that is shakey at best. And their Online Pass system tends to offer the least amount of incentives out of them all.

Let's not forget the systematic destroying of their biggest franchise in WWE with the smallest of incremental additions and lack of community outreach. Guess that 5 year contract may be broken sooner than later. One can hope...

I also wonder how much Homefront hurt THQ, they had the right idea ie release a COD style game in the middle of Black Ops lifespan. Shame the game sucked, if the game was half decent it wouldnt have been close to the flop it was. Within 6 months the game was already sitting in most of the bargain bins in JB, EB etc and THQ had shut down the studio.

I know it sold a million, but I imagine for a first time game the development costs for Homefront would have been huge, THQ most probably were hoping to break even and then make money on sequels to make up the difference.

 

[HBK619]

I also wonder how much Homefront hurt THQ, they had the right idea ie release a COD style game in the middle of Black Ops lifespan. Shame the game sucked, if the game was half decent it wouldnt have been close to the flop it was. Within 6 months the game was already sitting in most of the bargain bins in JB, EB etc and THQ had shut down the studio.

I know it sold a million, but I imagine for a first time game the development costs for Homefront would have been huge, THQ most probably were hoping to break even and then make money on sequels to make up the difference.

Realistically it should've made money.

They sold more than 2 million units. The problem is that THQ would've spent an absolute shitload on marketing.

I guess they're hoping now that hiring Crytek and letting them go for the sequel will be what brings the quality of the title up and gets the long term sales as well as short term. But it's still going to be extremely hard if the expectations remain so high.

It's also still very unfair that they closed down Kaos when the game still pulled in the sales it did, ridiculous that a dev can put out a game that sells 2 million+ units and still sends them under.

 

[Testekill]

Hopefully EA buys them, cuts the fat, re-invigorates their IP's and turns it around.

Let's not forget the systematic destroying of their biggest franchise in WWE with the smallest of incremental additions and lack of community outreach. Guess that 5 year contract may be broken sooner than later. One can hope...

I'd actually rather see a Japanese company like Atlus purchase THQ and set up a similar sort of thing to what Square-Enix has with Eidos.

On the other point, THQ really did **** around with the WWE games in a bad way. Setting up servers that can't handle the community, glitchy and broken at times and removing plenty of moves and such without adding enough in. Two years ago 2010 had about 9 variations of Shining Wizard while WWE'12 has a shining enziguri and two kinds of Drive-By Kick. Which is fine if you're creating Masahiro Chono but terrible for someone like Great Muta.

 

[pantskyle]

They should at least be happy that they didn't make a game about E.T.

 

[HBK619]

They should at least be happy that they didn't make a game about E.T.

It's funny that this was the last post.

So as it turns out, in the aftermath of all of this and just general end of financial year investor calls from Publishers. THQ has revealed it's big falter point for 2011 was uDraw, which while not E.T. proportions of money loss coming from it was the sole reason THQ have basically gone under (although things look like they MAY stay steady now).

You see apart from uDraw, THQ had one of their best years yet. WWE 12 sold well as usual, Saints Row 3 did well and uDraw on the Wii sold very well too.

However the success of uDraw on the Wii saw THQ make the very stupid mistake of ordering an exorbitant amount of tablets (a tablet similar to the Wii U's controller) for the PS3 and 360. Instead of pushing it out into the market with 250k or 500k units, they ordered up about 2 million units thinking that this would go gangbusters...it didn't. 3 months later and THQ have 1.4 million tablets sitting in a warehouse with no place to go.

This caused THQ to lose roughly $100 million, basically cancelling out any profits made by SR3, WWE 12 and their various other titles.

Anyway, the trickle on affect was great and now THQ have some plan to attempt to rid themselves of the 1.4 million uDraw tablets, however whatever they do the costs will have been too great to make back. They need to hope for a big 2012 otherwise they could still be in big trouble.

Read more about THQ and how they're planning to change things here:
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/tidbits-from-todays-unhappy-thq-earning-call/3961/

 

[JR#8]

Shit time to be a game developer. Sega Australia also let of 40 people.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...off_37_staff_focusing_on_digital_releases.php

 

[Mancey]

Wow. fail on the udraw. An idiot could have told them kid friendly apps would never sell as well on the ps3 360 as it did on wii.

Like going all in in poker when you have a pair of 3s

 

[HBK619]

President Danny Bilson gone, replaced by former Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin.

Interesting move, as a lot of people saw Bilson as the reason THQ turned their games around to a fair extent over the last few years.

Source: http://au.ign.com/articles/2012/05/29/naughty-dog-co-founder-becomes-thq-president

THQ announced today that Jason Rubin has replaced Danny Bilson as president of the company. According to a statement, Rubin will be responsible “for all of THQ’s worldwide product development, marketing, and publishing operations.” Rubin will report to THQ chairman and CEO Brian Farrell.

Rubin is known for co-founding Naughty Dog and for serving as co-creator and director of Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. More recently, Rubin was co-founder of Flektor, a “media mashup tool” owned by Newscorp (the same parent company as IGN).

THQ notes that Bilson “is leaving to pursue other interests” and will no longer be with the company. Other shifts in management include the departure of Dave Davis (senior vice president of core studios) and the hiring of Jason Kay as chief strategy officer.

 

[Eth]

President Danny Bilson gone, replaced by former Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin.

Interesting move, as a lot of people saw Bilson as the reason THQ turned their games around to a fair extent over the last few years.

Source: http://au.ign.com/articles/2012/05/29/naughty-dog-co-founder-becomes-thq-president

Interesting indeed, although it did say Bilson left for other interests.

At least they've secured someone with good credentials, having worked on Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter and being the head of the company that created the latter and also Uncharted.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see whether it pays off...

 

[Quivorir]

Very good choice for a replacement imo

 

[Lance Uppercut]

no good...

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/12/thq-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/

THQ Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

The publisher behind games like Saints Row and Homefront has filed for bankruptcy. THQ is going to Chapter 11, the company said in a press release today. It will continue to operate as normal — in other words, all future games will continue as planned — as it goes through the bankruptcy process.

“The sale and filing are necessary next steps to complete THQ’s transformation and position the company for the future, as we remain confident in our existing pipeline of games, the strength of our studios and THQ’s deep bench of talent,” CEO Brian Farrell said in the press release.
“We are grateful to our outstanding team of employees, partners and suppliers who have worked with us through this transition. We are pleased to have attracted a strong financial partner for our business, and we hope to complete the sale swiftly to make the process as seamless as possible.”
THQ emphasised that this bankruptcy will not affect any of the games they currently have in production, a library that includes Metro: Last Light, South Park: The Stick of Truth and Homefront II.

“All of the company’s studios remain open, and all development teams continue,” the press release reads. “The company remains confident in its existing pipeline of games.”

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/12/thq-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/

potentially not great for future Saints Row games

 

[Upgrayedd]

Sunk a lot of money into some very average games like Saints row 3 and Darksiders really hurt them


I wonder what this means for Metro last night and South Park, was really looking forward to them

 

[Quivorir]

Goodbye THQ, take your shit servers with you.

 

[twce13]

hopefully we still get the new south park game (with minimal delays)

 

[Kaan]

Saints Row is developed by Volition.

They could just get someone else to publish it, no?