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[monome]

Wow. But they had such an enthousiasm going 2 years ago, but they sort of had it coming with much of their recent releases.

Who's next?

Next-gen is gonna be tough, wonder what I should do as a consummer/gamer?

 

[AcceptableGhost]

Hey shitty Japanese game company that hasn't made a good game in years, a good game company is for sale. Buy them, brand them, and then leave them alone and profit.

Get Capcom on the phone!

 

[scitek]

So, Capcom's been looking for more developers to take over their IPs. Anyone think they'd be up for owning an entire western arm?

EDIT: ^^Beaten ha!

 

[[Nintex]]

Here's two examples of why THQ is so dumb.

They release deBlob on the Wii. Little to no advertising - sells 800,000 copies.

Years later, they release deBlob 2 on the Wii, PS3, and 360. The Wii takes a backseat in advertising/previews etc. Massive bomb. The developer is shut down a few months later. RIP BlueTongue.

THQ releases uDraw on the Wii. Resounding success. Months later, they release HD versions for PS3 and 360 - Huge financial loss, no one buys it.

smh

At that point in the cycle deBlob 2 would've probably sold even less as a Wii exclusive. THQ was stupid to turn deBlob 2 into such a large project. A Steam/XBLA/PSN release of multiple games smaller in scale would've been a much better fit for the franchise. You're right about uDraw HD and the money for that market segment should've been spend on Kinect support instead. But the market changes fast so a project that looks good on paper today might be irrelevant in 2/3 years.

With Steam/XBLA and other services we have proof that big budget blockbusters can co-exist with the smaller/cheaper type of games. Turning the C-projects like HomeFront into 'AAA' material by the marketing approach just doesn't work.

 

[Nirolak]

So, Capcom's been looking for more developers to take over their IPs. Anyone think they'd be up for owning an entire western arm?

EDIT: ^^Beaten ha!

I feel they're a darkhorse, but they have stated that they don't like to buy studios they haven't worked with yet.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Why not EA buy them? Don't they buy everything?

 

[TGMIII]

Any idea what their market worth is?

 

[Nirolak]

Square-Enix bought the rights. It's going to be their action sandbox game, I assume. The game was apparently very close to completion anyway. Had a female protagonist, then Activision cracked the shits because "nobody wants to play as a girl", made the devs change it to a guy, demoed at E3, and then scrapped it.

That was Treyarch's game actually.

It was very conceptually similar though.

 

[charlequin]

anywho... the next question is... which company can use their portfolio?

i would assume that the top runners for THQ would be EA, Activision, Take Two since their portfolio would be strengthened immensely.

Not at all. All three of these companies already have full slates of releases and have actually cut down on new IPs and iterations on their medium-sized franchises (see Nirolak's commentary on EA going from a 70-game publisher to a 25-game publisher.) All of THQ's assets are essentially redundancies for any of these publishers; they'd wind up firing most of the staff and sitting on most of the IPs, which would be a huge waste of money even at these bargain basement prices. The best two candidates I've seen mentioned in the thread are WB and Square-Enix.

WB has a relatively strong business going but their slate of titles is pretty thin (MK, FEAR, and Batman being their only big releases at the moment), which means they're well-positioned to take on 4-5 new major franchises and work them into their rotation. They're also the arm of a major conglomerate, so they can afford to take on a bunch of ongoing projects at once and spend the time to correctly curate and cull them without running into the same kind of cashflow issues THQ did.

Square-Enix has redefined itself as a primarily Western publisher thanks to its purchase of Eidos, but it still only has about 4-5 viable franchises in its current state, covering a very narrow genre range. Absorbing THQ would give SE a successful open-world franchise as well as teams who work in strategy and 3D action, and a nearly-finished MMO they can ship. There'd be basically no redundancy (in terms of product niches) between Eidos and THQ here, Square-Enix has already demonstrated a (kind of remarkable) ability to smoothly incorporate a Western publisher's operations into their fold, and it'd help SE achieve their goal of entering the upper echelons of Western publishers.

Past those two I'm not thinking of anyone else who'd have good reason to buy the whole package, but I might be forgetting someone, and there are a lot of people who could easily buy up the individual studios one by one -- Vigil, Volition, and Relic should all be worthwhile at the kinds of prices they'll be offered at.

 

[[Nintex]]

I feel they're a darkhorse, but they have stated that they don't like to buy studios they haven't worked with yet.

I also don't think they have the financial means to do so. In fact if Capcom buys them we'll probably have a thread like this for Capcom in 5 years time.

 

[Phanatic8390]

Well this sucks.

Dark Millennium was the only MMO I would even consider subbing up for.

I just hope Relic survives intact. I need more 40K.

 

[ZealousD]

You know, exclusive to the platform it like, doesn't have an audience on.

Presumably Nintendo will fire over half their staff as well since they're not making an MMO.

It's a nice fate to wish on them.

Hell if Nintendo actually bought Vigil they'd probably just fold the staff into Retro Studios since both are based out of Austin.

 

[gatti-man]

No Darksiders 2 would really suck. DS was one of my favorite games this gen.

 

[MattyGrovesOrMe]

Imagine the world we'd live in today if i'd only bought Deadly Creatures.

 

[Dark Ninja]

I know this is sad news and all but....YES!! I can't wait for them to lose the WWE license. Hopefully this is the end of Yukes developing the games.

 

[Sinatar]

Good god someone save Relic.

SOMEONE SAVE RELIC RIGHT GOD DAMNED NOW

 

[C_H_T]

.

 

[MesserWolf]

Would Games Workshop even want to get into the risky videogame business?

from wikipedia

Games Workshop licensed or produced several ZX Spectrum games in the early years, none of which were based in the usual Warhammer settings:

Apocalypse (1983) based on the original boardgame
Argent Warrior (1984) Illustrated adventure
Battlecars (1984) 2 player racing game written in BASIC
Blood Bowl (1995), published by MicroLeague
Chaos (1985) multiplayer turn based "board" game, written by Julian Gollop
D-Day (1985) based on the Normandy Landings
HeroQuest (1991) based on the MB board game
Journey's End (1985) text adventure
Key Of Hope, The (1985) text adventure
Ringworld (1984) text adventure
Runestone (1986) text adventure
Talisman (1985) multiplayer turn based "board" game
Tower Of Despair (1985) text adventure

Many computer games have been produced by third parties based on the Warhammer universes owned by the firm. These include (miniature game they are based on is included in parentheses after the game name):

Space Crusade (Space Crusade) and 1 sequel for the Amiga.
Dark Omen (RTT game based on Warhammer Fantasy Battles)
Shadow of the Horned Rat (RTT game based on Warhammer Fantasy Battles)
Space Hulk (Space Hulk)
Space Hulk - Vengeance of the Blood Angels (Space Hulk) That is now out of Production
Final Liberation (Epic 40,000 - Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Orks)
Fire Warrior (Warhammer 40,000 - Tau)
Dawn of War (Warhammer 40,000 - Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, Chaos Space Marines)
Winter Assault (Add-on)(Armies same as Dawn of War, also: Imperial Guard)
Dark Crusade (Stand-Alone)(Same as Winter Assault, also: Necrons and Tau)
Soulstorm (Stand-Alone)(Same as Dark Crusade, also: Sisters of Battle and Dark Eldar)
Chaos Gate (Warhammer 40,000 - Space Marines, Forces of Chaos)
Rites of War (Warhammer 40,000 - Eldar, Space Marines, Tyranid)
Mark of Chaos (Warhammer - The Empire, High Elves, Hordes of Chaos, Skaven, Orcs and Goblins, Dwarves)
Battle March (Add-on)(Armies same as Mark of Chaos, also: Dark Elves)
Squad Command, a turn based strategy game which focuses on a squad of Ultramarines fighting Chaos Space Marines.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, a Warhammer MMORPG by Mythic Entertainment.
Dawn of War II, a sequel to Dawn of War focusing less on base-building and more on squad tactics.

Space Marine, an Action/RPG game featuring the Ultramarines Space Marines.

so I would say that they already are in the risky business of videogames, but now they depend on somebody else.

This on one hand shields you from their failures, and on the other hand makes you dependant to a third party. They were lucky enough find a studio who could exploit well their IP/lore ... so now they would have the opportunity to ensure that such studio can keep working, and even reduce the costs for producing such games (if it is an internal studio, less risks concerning contracts, licence agreements etc for example.).

If they have the money it could be a good opportunity. How often you get the opportunity to buy out a good business partner for what could be a "cheap" deal. I would think about it for sure. Again, if they have the liquidity .

 

[rpmurphy]

I think I still own a few stocks of THQI. It must be worth next to nothing now lol. Poor THQ, good devs but just too ambitious of a publisher.

 

[scitek]

I can't help but think that Capcom's seen how absorbing Eidos has worked out for Square-Enix and may be tempted to try and copy their success.

 

[EatChildren]

Square-Enix has redefined itself as a primarily Western publisher thanks to its purchase of Eidos, but it still only has about 4-5 viable franchises in its current state, covering a very narrow genre range. Absorbing THQ would give SE a successful open-world franchise as well as teams who work in strategy and 3D action, and a nearly-finished MMO they can ship. There'd be basically no redundancy (in terms of product niches) between Eidos and THQ here, Square-Enix has already demonstrated a (kind of remarkable) ability to smoothly incorporate a Western publisher's operations into their fold, and it'd help SE achieve their goal of entering the upper echelons of Western publishers.

Square-Enix likely picked up True Crime to fill their open world gap. That will be rebranded and marketed as their own exclusive sandbox game.

Relic's work on RTS might interest them though, given they don't really have anything in that genre, but they might not see the genre as worth the investment either. The Zelda-esque action adventure gap could be filled by Darksiders too.

SE/WB are the two best picks though, I agree. WB is probably the better of the two I'd say, since they seem very eager to grow their interactive branch and, as you pointed out, are in need of new IPs and have the money to spend.

 

[qq more]

EDIT: Holy shit, I forgot that THQ was responsible for Saints Row. What a shame, the games looked really fun. (I have Saint Rows 2 but my graphics card makes the game an eyesore to play, not to mention terrible framerate. ) How was 3?

Did you miss when Devs were making tons of wii games, the only 3rd party game to stick was Just Dance, the Wii wasn't a missed opportunity it was a cul de sac.

Oh yeah, let's forget that RE4 sold a million and a half and people wanted more Wii games like that. Let's also forget how Capcom instead fucks every RE Wii fan over with 2 stupid railshooters and ports that doesn't even take advantage of the Wiimote. Let's also forget that most 3rd party game attempts were either rushed, halfassed or niche games to begin with.

 

[Grisby]

MS should come in and buy up some of the studios or something. Give them more first-party support.

 

[Haunted]

and so dies gaming's traditional middle class.

show's over folks.

First Midway, now this.

 

[monome]

I don't see Capcom nor Square breaking the bank.

It should be Nintendo, if they wanted to have a full range of modern game styles.

I don't think that if Bizarre could find no owner, THQ has much chance of selling the complete package.

 

[fresquito]

Golden era of gaming, indeed.

 

[Semblance]

Not the least bit surprising, but sad to hear all the same.

 

[Totobeni]

this is depressing. i hate seeing companies go under like this.... just gives me a bad feeling about the industry especially when THQ has created some of the best games of the year (SR3, space marines). if a company that creates these great games is going bankrupt then that tells me it's a bad situation in the game industry

They were one of the best publishers and developer this gen imho Saints Row1/2/3,Conan,Darksiders,Drawn to Life,Juiced 2,Red Faction: Guerrilla,UFC ,Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.

Shame that a stpid project like uDraw HD killed the company...at least die because of inSane or Warhammer MMO or something that people care about.

 

[JJConrad]

I hope they can hang around a bit longer. Their UDraw brand could become extremely valuable in the near future. It's as if both the concept and the name were designed for the WiiU in mind.

 

[ghst]

Relic's work on RTS might interest them though, given they don't really have anything in that genre, but they might not see the genre as worth the investment either. The Zelda-esque action adventure gap could be filled by Darksiders too.

they had an experiment with "order of war" some time back, which bombed like the sub-men of war clone is was (fortunately or developers wargaming.net, they hit gold when they recycled its assets/code into their "world of tanks" f2p mmo) so there is, or atleast was, interest there.

edit: and supcom. duh.

 

[Durante]

How big/rich is Zenimax? Would they have any interest in picking up any of the studios?

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

Square-Enix likely picked up True Crime to fill their open world gap. That will be rebranded and marketed as their own exclusive sandbox game.

Relic's work on RTS might interest them though, given they don't really have anything in that genre, but they might not see the genre as worth the investment either. The Zelda-esque action adventure gap could be filled by Darksiders too.

SE/WB are the two best picks though, I agree. WB is probably the better of the two I'd say, since they seem very eager to grow their interactive branch and, as you pointed out, are in need of new IPs and have the money to spend.

Doesn't SE own the Supreme Commander franchise now? If they were willing to invest into gaining ownership of a RTS franchise then they must see some value in the genre itself.

How big/rich is Zenimax? Would they have any interest in picking up any of the studios?

Insanely rich. The board of directors for Zenixmax include the following people:

Robert A. Altman
Chairman & CEO
Ernest Del
President

Jerry Bruckheimer
Jerry Bruckheimer Films

Michael Dominguez
Managing Director, Providence Equity Partners Inc.

Leslie Moonves
President & CEO, CBS Corporation

Cal Ripken, Jr.
President & CEO, Ripken Baseball, Inc.

Harry E. Sloan
Chairman, Global Eagle Acquisition Corp.

Robert S. Trump
President, Trump Management, Inc.

 

[corrosivefrost]

This sucks for fans of a lot of the IPs that were under THQ, but I never had interest in any of them except for Darksiders. So as long as Vigil can continue to find a publisher for any Darksiders games, I'm good.

 

[WickedLaharl]

I hope my favorite company buys all their talent and IPs just so they can be platform exclusive.

 

[Green Biker Dude]

FUCK THIS GAY EARTH

 

[KingJ2002]

I honestly don't think anybody will pick up the 'majority' of THQ. I expect studios and IPs to be sold off separately. Pubs will be more willing to one studio up over "TAKE EVERYTHING PLEASE OH GOD".

Yeah... this isnt a merger so if their titles were to be split up... I would love for these companies to look at the following franchises:


Take Two / 2K Sports: WWE & UFC licenses

Activision: Disney Licenses & Saints Row

Warner Bros: Darksiders, Metro, Warhammer, INsane, Homefront, Saints Row

Square-Enix: Devil's Third

EA: Dreamworks Licenses

Not at all. All three of these companies already have full slates of releases and have actually cut down on new IPs and iterations on their medium-sized franchises (see Nirolak's commentary on EA going from a 70-game publisher to a 25-game publisher.) All of THQ's assets are essentially redundancies for any of these publishers; they'd wind up firing most of the staff and sitting on most of the IPs, which would be a huge waste of money even at these bargain basement prices. The best two candidates I've seen mentioned in the thread are WB and Square-Enix.

WB has a relatively strong business going but their slate of titles is pretty thin (MK, FEAR, and Batman being their only big releases at the moment), which means they're well-positioned to take on 4-5 new major franchises and work them into their rotation. They're also the arm of a major conglomerate, so they can afford to take on a bunch of ongoing projects at once and spend the time to correctly curate and cull them without running into the same kind of cashflow issues THQ did.

Square-Enix has redefined itself as a primarily Western publisher thanks to its purchase of Eidos, but it still only has about 4-5 viable franchises in its current state, covering a very narrow genre range. Absorbing THQ would give SE a successful open-world franchise as well as teams who work in strategy and 3D action, and a nearly-finished MMO they can ship. There'd be basically no redundancy (in terms of product niches) between Eidos and THQ here, Square-Enix has already demonstrated a (kind of remarkable) ability to smoothly incorporate a Western publisher's operations into their fold, and it'd help SE achieve their goal of entering the upper echelons of Western publishers.

Past those two I'm not thinking of anyone else who'd have good reason to buy the whole package, but I might be forgetting someone, and there are a lot of people who could easily buy up the individual studios one by one -- Vigil, Volition, and Relic should all be worthwhile at the kinds of prices they'll be offered at.

good point... especially with Activision and EA. After reading up more about THQ's devs... i also agree that Warner Bros. is the frontrunner for picking up the bulk of their titles... they could even create movie tie-in's if they're successful to help build their franchises. If mortal kombat is getting another movie shot... i'm sure any one of those THQ titles can get the same treatment.

but I can imagine those licenses that kept THQ afloat garner interest from EA (dreamworks), Activision (Disney), and Take Two (WWE & UFC)

 

[Haunted]

Just for perspective and so people understand why this was not a big surprise to most people - list of THQ subsidiaries that had to shut down this generation:

Concrete Games, founded in 2004, closed January 2008.
Mass Media, founded in the late 1980s, acquired in 2007, closed November 2008.
Paradigm Entertainment, founded in 1998, acquired from Atari in May 2006, closed November 2008.
Helixe, founded in July 2000, closed November 2008.
Sandblast Games, founded in August 2002 as Cranky Pants Games, closed November 2008.
Heavy Iron Studios, founded in 1999, spun off in March 2009.
Incinerator Studios, founded in 2005, spun off in March 2009.
Big Huge Games, founded in February 2000, acquired in January 2008, sold in May 2009.
Locomotive Games, founded as DT Productions in 1997, acquired in 1999, closed November 2010.
Universomo, founded in 2002, acquired in May 2007, closed March 2, 2010.
THQ Digital Warrington, founded as Juice Games in 2003, acquired in 2006, Closed June 2011.
THQ Studio Australia, started in January 2003, closed August 2011
Kaos Studios, started in 2006. Closed 2012
Blue Tongue, founded in 1995, acquired in November 2004, closed 2012
THQ Digital Phoenix, founded as Rainbow Studios in 1996, acquired in 2001, Closed 2012

 

[iavi]

How big/rich is Zenimax? Would they have any interest in picking up any of the studios?

Zenimax did grab Tango, to have them grab Valhalla too would be an interesting move. Itagaki and Mikami under one house.

 

[SlipperySlope]

How much debt does THQ have?

 

[Acidote]

So, who is going to end up with Relic? Who'll buy the rights to Saint's Row?

These are the big questions!!!

Pretty much my only matters. Big DoW/CoH and SR fan.

 

[KageMaru]

Sad sad news =(

THQ were willing to take risks on new IPs and it's a shame that helped them towards their path of self destruction.

I really hope everyone effected by this lands on their feet. =/

 

[Speedymanic]

NOOOOOOOOOOO! :'(

And I hate to be 'that guy' but what happens to the future DLC releases for The Third? After all, a number of people (myself included) bought the season pass on the promise of three plus DLC packs.

 

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

Yeah... this isnt a merger so if their titles were to be split up... I would love for these companies to look at the following franchises:


Take Two / 2K Sports: WWE & UFC licenses

The bidding war between 2K and EA (and maybe Acti, Sega ) over those two licenses will go down in history.

NOOOOOOOOOOO! :'(

And I hate to be 'that guy' but what happens to the future DLC releases for The Third? After all, a number of people (myself included) bought the season pass on the promise of three plus DLC packs.

For the short term (2012) it should be business as usual, best stay away from their season passes from now on though.

Microsoft would be the one profiting the most from their franchises. They have a lot of good stuff. Mismanaged, but good stuff.

And it would give them lot's of exclusives for the first year of the Nextbox.

 

[Frankfurt]

Microsoft would be the one profiting the most from their franchises. They have a lot of good stuff. Mismanaged, but good stuff.

 

[Nirolak]

NOOOOOOOOOOO! :'(

And I hate to be 'that guy' but what happens to the future DLC releases for The Third? After all, a number of people (myself included) bought the season pass on the promise of three plus DLC packs.

They're not going out of business tomorrow, so you should be fine.

This will be a long process.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Damn. Well in the "silver-linings" column, there's a good chance we'll see a Going Out of Business sale on Steam.

 

[Sneaky Gato]

so I would say that they already are in the risky business of videogames, but now they depend on somebody else.

This on one hand shields you from their failures, and on the other hand makes you dependant to a third party. They were lucky enough find a studio who could exploit well their IP/lore ... so now they would have the opportunity to ensure that such studio can keep working, and even reduce the costs for producing such games (if it is an internal studio, less risks concerning contracts, licence agreements etc for example.).

If they have the money it could be a good opportunity. How often you get the opportunity to buy out a good business partner for what could be a "cheap" deal. I would think about it for sure. Again, if they have the liquidity .

I'm not sure if GW would be up for it. If you look at their financial sheets the last three years have seen no increase in their profits (or decrease) which would be fine if that was it. The problem is that GW has gone to increasing lengths to increase efficiency and to cut costs such as investing in resin tech to free themselves from the volatile metal market, several price increase, reducing the staffing of their stores to two man operations, and the like. And they are only maintaining the status quo. On the other hand their two most profitable sections of the company right now are its publishing arm and the royalties it receives from the games. And as has been stated they are control freaks when it comes to their IP so they may buy up Relic. I doubt it though. This is a huge problem for GW nonetheless so I wonder what they will do.

 

[Infinite Justice]

Not at all. All three of these companies already have full slates of releases and have actually cut down on new IPs and iterations on their medium-sized franchises (see Nirolak's commentary on EA going from a 70-game publisher to a 25-game publisher.) All of THQ's assets are essentially redundancies for any of these publishers; they'd wind up firing most of the staff and sitting on most of the IPs, which would be a huge waste of money even at these bargain basement prices. The best two candidates I've seen mentioned in the thread are WB and Square-Enix.

WB has a relatively strong business going but their slate of titles is pretty thin (MK, FEAR, and Batman being their only big releases at the moment), which means they're well-positioned to take on 4-5 new major franchises and work them into their rotation. They're also the arm of a major conglomerate, so they can afford to take on a bunch of ongoing projects at once and spend the time to correctly curate and cull them without running into the same kind of cashflow issues THQ did.

Square-Enix has redefined itself as a primarily Western publisher thanks to its purchase of Eidos, but it still only has about 4-5 viable franchises in its current state, covering a very narrow genre range. Absorbing THQ would give SE a successful open-world franchise as well as teams who work in strategy and 3D action, and a nearly-finished MMO they can ship. There'd be basically no redundancy (in terms of product niches) between Eidos and THQ here, Square-Enix has already demonstrated a (kind of remarkable) ability to smoothly incorporate a Western publisher's operations into their fold, and it'd help SE achieve their goal of entering the upper echelons of Western publishers.

Past those two I'm not thinking of anyone else who'd have good reason to buy the whole package, but I might be forgetting someone, and there are a lot of people who could easily buy up the individual studios one by one -- Vigil, Volition, and Relic should all be worthwhile at the kinds of prices they'll be offered at.

I agree with this post and i would lean towards WB due to them needing some more IP. Imagine having the next good Sandbox game after GTA.

 

[Stumpokapow]

So what was the proximate cause here? I mean, I know there's been a lot of financial problems long brewing, but was the final straw the uDraw PS360 stuff?

 

[KevinCow]

This sucks for fans of a lot of the IPs that were under THQ, but I never had interest in any of them except for Darksiders. So as long as Vigil can continue to find a publisher for any Darksiders games, I'm good.

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?