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Rumor: THQ Cancels Their 2014 Line-Up & MMO, Looking For Buyers [Up: THQ Responds]

B

Binabik15

Member
Oh fuck me raw.

Dawn of War, Space Marine, CoH, Saints Row, Metro, all good stuff. Darksiders, too, but I've only watched it being played so far.

Best case scenario, I guess: Warhammer franchise gets split up (yeah, I'm a fanboy)

-someone buys Relic and they make Dawn of War 3

-Metro team makes a Necromunda/Gorkamorka fps with team and classvbased MP, they have the gritty atmosphere down

-someone makes a Space Hulk horror game

-the Space Marine team makes Space Marine 2

- Volition gets grabbed by EA and gets everything to make a GorkaMorka/Necromunda sandbox game
 
T

theycallmeryan

Neo Member
This would be a perfect opportunity for big companies like EA, Activision, Sony, Microsoft, etc. to swoop in and buy either the company or a ton of their IPs cheap. I'd LOVE to see Valve pick up Metro, Warhammer, Homefront, and Saint's Row, but that isn't going to happen.
 
F

FatCat

Member
While I have rarely bought THQ games, this is once again a sad day for the industry. Saints Row is a fantastic franchise. Hoping Volition and Vigil will both pull through and find a decent home.

However, I must say that I saw this coming for a long time and am surprised they got this far. Their business strategy was crap, full stop. Someone mentioned the whole thing with deBlob and the uDraw software; it just shows that these titles (not necessarily having budgets that rival GoW or other big games) can tank as much as others and ultimately can bring a publisher down. Their portofolio is bland imo, or rather it was misused by THQ.

Good luck to all those working for the company.
 
C

charlequin

Banned
Durante said:
How big/rich is Zenimax? Would they have any interest in picking up any of the studios?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they could afford to buy, financially speaking, but I didn't get the sense they were actually interested in expanding on that particular scale.

SlipperySlope said:
How much debt does THQ have?
Click to expand...

They'll have zero when they finish paying off their current big loan (just, as others mentioned, then they'll have to drop payroll.) A buyer wouldn't be on the hook here for old debt, just ongoing day-to-day operational liabilities.

KevinCow said:
Do they own Darksiders, or does THQ? Will they be able to just go, "Welp, let's find some other publisher for Darksiders 3," or will the other publisher have to buy the IP first?
Click to expand...

Vigil is a fully-owned subsidiary of THQ, who owns the IP.

JJConrad said:
Disney could be a potentially good suitor. They already have a relationship. It would depend on how much they're looking to expand.
Click to expand...

I'm under the impression Disney is trying to reduce their exposure to the console games market again, though, not make it bigger.
 
P

params7

Banned
theycallmeryan said:
This would be a perfect opportunity for big companies like EA, Activision, Sony, Microsoft, etc. to swoop in and buy either the company or a ton of their IPs cheap. I'd LOVE to see Valve pick up Metro, Warhammer, Homefront, and Saint's Row, but that isn't going to happen.
Click to expand...

Activision/EA buying Stalker.


NO FOR THE LOVE OF
 
T

Tron 2.0

Member
JJConrad said:
Disney could be a potentially good suitor. They already have a relationship. It would depend on how much they're looking to expand.
Click to expand...
Disney would have no interest. They're basically out of the console video game industry after losing money quarter after quarter. They're focusing pretty extensively on iOS and other more casual games.
 
F

Feindflug

Member
Grisby said:
MS should come in and buy up some of the studios or something. Give them more first-party support.
Click to expand...

Sure MS could use Devil's Third (they supposedly still have a good relationship with Itagaki) and Darksiders for example as they're both genres that their first party lineup is lacking but that makes too much sense thus that's not going to happen.

Really really sad news overall, the future of a lot of promising games is not looking good and a lot of people are gonna lose their jobs. :(
 
J

jamesinclair

Banned
Should have stayed as a Nintendo licensed games shovelware company. Thats where the big bucks were.

That, and putting Microsoft games on Nintendo platforms
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Wherever Relic ends up, they better make Homeworld 3. God damn. 2 looks amazing still, imagine what it could look like on the hardware of today.. *drool*
 
S

SteveWinwood

Member
Woah. First off saints row 3 is complete just by itself. It's not like they cut off half the game and sold it as dlc. What are you smoking?
 
S

Sweeper17

Neo Member
They did nothing during the PS2 days and kept ignoring fans to bring AKI back they also hyped up some of the early GC wrestling games which where like Superman64 bad DOR games where great tho.
 
B

ban25

Member
It's tough trying to sell one studio when all the prospective buyers know you are out of money and about to go under, let alone an entire stable of studios.
 
M

Mindlog

Member
If anyone buys Relic I sort of hope it's SEGA. They have been kind to Creative Assembly. It's worked out as well as could have been expected.
 
B

Biggzy

Member
Feindflug said:
Sure MS could use Devil's Third (they supposedly still have a good relationship with Itagaki) and Darksiders for example as they're both genres that their first party lineup is lacking but that makes too much sense thus that's not going to happen.

Really really sad news overall, the future of a lot of promising games is not looking good and a lot of people are gonna lose their jobs. :(
Click to expand...

If there's one thing I can pretty much guarantee is that MS wont buy any THQ studios. The days of MS spending $300 million on a studio are long gone. Now they either acquire small developers like twisted pixel or make their own studios from the ground up if they want bigger studios.
 
P

params7

Banned
Seraphinianus said:
the only things crashing are shitty games marketed as AAA games and good games that aren't marketed at all.
Click to expand...

Which results in them not selling well and their studios being shut down. All this focus on the casual gamer as the first priority (dictated by CoD, WoW and Wii sales) is going to be their undoing.

Maybe a repeat of '83 won't actually be so bad for this industry. Gaming can become a niche again and start afresh. Though we are far from that happening but we might be moving towards it given the state of publishers today.
 
D

DrAndonuts

Member
Really is a shame to hear this - THQ really put out some quality games this past year. De Blob 2, You Don't Know Jack, Space Marine, and Saints Row: The Third were all fantastic. Red Faction: Armageddon and Homefront were decent as well.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
Ffffffffffuuuuuuuuuccccccccckkkkkkkkk

Hope someone cool buys them and lets all the various devs (Vigil, Volition in particular) keep on keeping on.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Would THQ even want to sell each IP separately or only bundled for big monies?

Like I can imagine Valve wanting to get Homeworld licence but maybe they cannot get it without other Relic properties which they do not want.
 
F

Feindflug

Member
Biggzy said:
If there's one thing I can pretty much guarantee is that MS wont buy any THQ studios. The days of MS spending $300 million on a studio are long gone. Now they either acquire small developers like twisted pixel or make their own studios from the ground up if they want bigger studios.
Click to expand...

Well I don't know much about these kind of things but can't they just buy and fund the IP's and have Valhalla and Vigil work for them as second parties like Insomniac did for Sony all those years?
 
A

Alrus

Member
FateBreaker said:
Wow, really? It seemed like Homefront sold somewhat well, and Saints Row 3 seems to be doing all right. I guess I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

Homefront's development was a mess and it had a bloated budget, it probably didn't make that much money (if any). Saints Row probably sold well but one single decently profitable series won't save an entire company. Same thing happened to Midway, MK still sold well but that couldn't save them from bankruptcy.
 
KingJ2002

KingJ2002

Member
B_Rik_Schitthaus said:
The bidding war between 2K and EA (and maybe Acti, Sega ) over those two licenses will go down in history.
Click to expand...

well... Dana White had a little beef with EA Sports... but i think the two can agree to terms if they went after the license.

since the UFC picked up Strikeforce.... EA really doesn't have a choice if they want to continue making MMA titles... they have a MMA engine ready for the UFC to put their brand on it... but it's "global" view will more than likely be gone... as im sure EA will call this "EA Sports Presents UFC 2014"

same goes for the WWE... a while back WWE wanted to drop Jakks-Pacific... and we're looking to sign to EA to create their titles.... with this development... EA is poised to be the frontrunner for both licenses.

but if 2K allowed them to take both licenses... EA Sports would be the de facto choice for sports gaming... giving them leverage to attain the MLB license back and if i we're a 2K exec... i would try my hardest to stop that from happening.

Biggzy said:
If there's one thing I can pretty much guarantee is that MS wont buy any THQ studios. The days of MS spending $300 million on a studio are long gone. Now they either acquire small developers like twisted pixel or make their own studios from the ground up if they want bigger studios.
Click to expand...

they could acquire valhalla games... and get itagaki to try and crack open japan... but they had that chance when he left tecmo-koei.
 
P

params7

Banned
Cygnus X-1 said:
Ok, now a legit question: who are the potential buyers?
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Asian Firms.

Codemasters sold 50% to an Indian firm (Reliance) a year ago. Maybe something along those lines.

I'm still waiting for any confirmation on this. The studio heads are saying they have no knowledge of this and so far that twitter has been the only source.
 
S

Shiggy

Member
f0rk said:
Interested in what would happen to the Warhammer/40k license.
Click to expand...

warhammer139o1k.jpg
warhammer2rtqrt.jpg


That was just one of their ideas. I'm not joking. (It looked worse in motion)
 
G

GillianSeed79

Member
I might be wrong, but I have a feeling that this trend of of mid-tier publishers going belly up and rapid consolidation will continue, at least in the console space.

I would have thought the industry would have evolved into more of the movie studio publishing model, where there are only a dozen or so major studios.

It seems more and more like the industry is going down the television/radio model to me, though, where you have NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox as the major players that own everything. I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 years the only major publishers left are Nintendo, Activision and EA. It may seem shocking, but that's what has happened in other major mediums in the past. We just don't realize it to some extent since video games are still so young.

edit: and Valve. How could I forget valve.
 
F

Frankfurt

Banned
The Nature Roy said:
I see a lot of love for WB but my (very limited) recent experience with them was not good.

As great as Arkham City may have been, WB bungled that release terribly.

You had the Catwoman deal, codes not being included with the game, annoying store specific pre-order bonuses, artificial delays for the PC version (claiming it was for 'polish' yet the entire Rocksteady team went on vacation during that time and the code showed the PC version development wrapped along the console versions -- and the PC version ended up with a broken DX11 mode which is still buggy even after patching), vanishing saves, and terrible communication concerning all of these issues the entire time.

Arkham City would have been just as good and perhaps better if WB hadn't bought Rocksteady.
Click to expand...

I'm baffled at the WB praise, also. Mortal Kombat was a clusterfuck, just like Batman AC. Both games are good, but WB's handling was awful.

And what's with people talking about Darksiders and saying it's a "strong IP" and so on, like the first game set the world on fire and broke sales records or something?
 
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