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Rumor: THQ Cancels Their 2014 Line-Up & MMO, Looking For Buyers [Up: THQ Responds]
- Thread starter V_Ben
- Start date
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
I'm one of the two guys that liked The Outfit. It reminded me of Team Buddies. I would love to see a DoW inspired take on the action strategy formula.
That was just one of their ideas. I'm not joking. (It looked worse in motion)
That's not really the issue here, if every game you make just breaks even, you'll be at perpetual risk. Because when one game bombs, you'll have no cash in the bank to dampen the losses.
That's probably what happened to THQ, their game were decent success but never made enough money to protect the company from a big failure.
GarthVaderUK
Banned
I can't see Games Workshop buying Relic, they're having success with farming out their IP at the moment but I don't think they'd want to take the risk of spending big on a video game developer and developing their own video games.
Ken Masters
Banned
finally, WWE games that won't be shit
but sorry for the people losing their jobs
but sorry for the people losing their jobs
THQ's problem is that they were directly going up against EA, Take2, Ubisoft and Activision with their approach. They weren't really the 'masters' of anything. So Saints Row always had GTA looming over it, Homefront didn't come close to COD and you can fill out the rest. They had a noble goal that was impossible to reach. Especially when you don't have enough money left to market your 'AAA' games.
kunonabi
Member
pretty much my feelings.
Neuromancer
Member
But they put marketing behind their games like they were AAA games. Homefront in particular comes to mind. Wonder if that was part of their problem in the long run.
AlphaTwo00
Member
Yup.
A hindsight discussion: If they didn't try to go for the top tier, what would have been the alternative? I'm not sure if they had much of a choice. I'm also wondering who else is in this mid-tier? Personally, I look at Ubi and think they also sort of fit the bill.
jim-jam bongs
Member
Most assuredly, yes. Homefront sold just shy of a million copies but was a financial disaster because of the marketing budget, if you're failing at a million sales the failure started at the budget stage.
MadOdorMachine
No additional functions
This really sucks. If they are cancelling their 2014 line-up we should still get Devil's Third, Darksiders 2, Homefront 2, Metro 2033, etc. right? Those are all due before 2014.
Sounds like anything being designed for next generation or more than two years out was cancelled, so presumably the games you mentioned will be OK.
Oh wow, i forgot about that whole lawsuit between Ubisoft and THQ over whether or not Patrice was poached, what the extent of his no-compete was, etc. I wonder if he's got his old boss at Ubi on speed dial?
BrokenEchelon
Banned
Just Dance 2 and 3 were two of the 10 best selling titles last year in the US. We're talking CoD numbers here.
They're not mid-tier.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
I dunno why people are being so pessimistic. They might just be looking for investment from the east like Codemasters for all we know.
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
I would think so, yes.
legacyzero
Banned
SolidSnakex
Member
Those games were AAA titles. AAA only describes games that have really high budgets. Homefront had a budget between 35 and 50 million dollars. Just to put that in to perspective, Uncharted games cost $20 million to produce.
AlphaTwo00
Member
Crap, keep on forgetting the Just Dance machine. Right. Disregard my statement.
I feel the same.
I can see it going to SE, Eidos. I appreciate what they have done with DE:HR and it seems to me the devs are well threated. Also a good RTS team would be a good acquisition for them I think.
They should have re-tooled themselves as PC-centric publisher. THQ was being squeezed out of the console market pace in the process of this gen. Apart from Saint's Row, their games didn't gain traction.
Relic - DOW\COH\Homeworld for PC
Warhammer MMO
Bring back Red Faction taking use of current PC hardware.
Stick with WWE\UFC games on console + Saint's Row.
Relic - DOW\COH\Homeworld for PC
Warhammer MMO
Bring back Red Faction taking use of current PC hardware.
Stick with WWE\UFC games on console + Saint's Row.
Yep... that'd be the only thing I could see them being interested in acquiring unless Iwata decides to get really aggressive. Probably will be lots of companies bidding if it gets to that point though.
Their stock went below $1 a share and no one was interested. It's actually 66 cents a share right now with a market cap of 45 million. To put this in other words, you can probably buy ALL of THQ for less than what MS paid for Rare back in the day.
They also have Assassin's Creed which is of the most successful new IP this gen. Very consistent sales and usually higher than most games not named GTA, CoD or Mario.
Broder Salsa
Banned
Wow this really sucks. One of my favorite publishers.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
Just a note folks, none of this is confirmed.
Anticitizen One
Banned
I believe it though their stock has been in the toilet for years and they don't really have a major franchise that they can cling onto (like Midway had Mortal Kombat). It's actually impressive that they managed to stay in business this long.
GillianSeed79
Member
I still have nightmares about WCW Mayhem, so hopefully someone else besides EA picks up the WWE license unless EA lets AKI do it.
HarryDemeanor
Member
Sucks to hear about people losing their jobs. I wonder who's going to pick up the WWE license.
Cygnus X-1
Member
Nintendo is not in the position to buy anything if you ask me. They're busy trying to finish this FY with minimizing losses and then start to make profits again.
Acidote
Member
Who's left able to buy them? ZeniMax and that's it?
EA Sports has come a long way. EA Canada (NHL, FIFA, Skate, Fight Night) has been a top developer the last few years. The MMA games is pretty good, but lack the UFC star power.
2K Sports is day & night between NBA (best sports series going in my opinion) and MLB.
They have 6 billion dollars in the bank and no debt. It'd cost them, like what, 70 million to buy all the outstanding shares of THQ?
Hot Coldman
Banned
Warner Bros: you know what to do.
Tribes of Trusty
Member
THQ, I salute you.
I'll always remember you bringing Conker's Bad Fur Day in Europe.
I'll always remember you bringing Conker's Bad Fur Day in Europe.
Lol. Spandex vs Darksiders 2.
Ubisoft was the third biggest publisher worldwide in 2009. Square-Enix might have taken their spot with the Eidos deal, but I wouldn't call them mid-tier. Mid-tier is probably Namco Bandai, Tecmo Koei, Warner Bros, SEGA, THQ and Take Two with top-tier being Activision, EA, Ubisoft and Square-Enix.
Elginer
Member
Seriously, Microsoft needs to pick up Vigil and Relic. Those are two fantastic fucking devs right there.
Volition is also awesome as hell. Sadly this means that Del Toro project will never get done, damn that burns my ass. I even enjoyed last years Red Faction, it wasn't as good as the open world one but it was a fun game and best of all the PC version was rock solid.
Proelite
Member
Seriously, Microsoft needs to pick up Vigil and Relic. Those are two fantastic fucking devs right there.
Volition is also awesome as hell. Sadly this means that Del Toro project will never get done, damn that burns my ass. I even enjoyed last years Red Faction, it wasn't as good as the open world one but it was a fun game and best of all the PC version was rock solid.
MS picking up Relic? Fuck that. They'll have Relic making RTS games for Kinect only, and them shutting them down like Ensemble after the games don't sell.
EA is a good choice. They have a pedigree for focusing on PC only RTSes, and Generals 2 is looking pretty good.