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.
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.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
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!
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.
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.
I feel they're a darkhorse, but they have stated that they don't like to buy studios they haven't worked with yet.
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.
Would Games Workshop even want to get into the risky videogame business?
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.
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.
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.
First Midway, now this.and so dies gaming's traditional middle class.
show's over folks.
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 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.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.
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.
How big/rich is Zenimax? Would they have any interest in picking up any of the studios?
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.
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".
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.
How big/rich is Zenimax? Would they have any interest in picking up any of the studios?
So, who is going to end up with Relic? Who'll buy the rights to Saint's Row?
These are the big questions!!!
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
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.
Microsoft would be the one profiting the most from their franchises. They have a lot of good stuff. Mismanaged, but good stuff.
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.
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 .
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.
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.