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THQ fires THQ San Diego, buries news during E3

M

Memles

Member
Jibber Hack said:
Jason Rubin pulls an Iraqi general mind trick this morning on Spike. Everything's normal, perfectly fine. We'll get rid of a few games...
Click to expand...

I dunno, he was obviously spinning in a few key ways (and Keighley could have done a hell of a lot more to push him on this kind of situation), but his pragmatic approach in that interview perfectly meshes with this business decision.

What specific franchises was Rubin referring to?
Click to expand...

He was incredibly vague, basically saying "We're not going Indie, and we're still going to make occasional AAA-titles, but expect us to try to find a new business model somewhere in between." I have no clue what exactly that will mean to the company long-term, but it was definitely pushing a "creativity" approach more than a licensed one.
 
D

Dram

Member
saint's row
darksiders
homefront
Company of Heroes
de blob!
Destroy All Humans!
Red Faction
Supreme Commander
Tak and the Power of Juju
Titan Quest


I think that's it
 
2

2 Slice Toaster

Member
THQ decides to hold off issuing decided layoffs until after E3.

News leaks during E3 anyhow.

"How horrible of THQ, employees had to find out about layoffs from Twitter, FFS"

Its a completely childish notion that companies that have already made these decisions should hold off on them until some psychologically "appropriate" time. All you do is run the risk of having it leak and having to deal with the fallout.

Why wouldn't you want to know as soon as possible anyway? It costs your employees valuable time they could use to get their life in order, making future plans, etc. What if any of those affected had job opportunities they were aware of during E3 that they didn't pursue because they assumed they still had employment with THQ?
 
J

Jamie OD

Member
Sad to see this happen. I hope a lot of the guys are given an opportunity for EA's UFC game.

As for THQ and the WWE licensce, WWE 12 is the best selling WWE game in years. I think THQ will try to hold onto that series for a little while longer.
 
GraveRobberX

GraveRobberX

Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
I think Jason said they'll be doubling down on the good titles

Darksiders II was being flashed on screen while he was talking about it

Also I think the Metro team is on thin ice the way Jason was talking, "I need to go see them, they do good work, but I want them to work on more mainstream ideas/works etc."

I think more THQ devs are gonna get axed, and some of the talent will get absorbed into 3-5 dev houses and THQ starts running that way

If EA/Activision are behemoths, Ubi's/SE's/Cacpcom are the middle pack, I think THQ want to to be that little publisher that could and work it's way up, but has to drop dead weight to ascend back up
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
I'm not sure why people are blaming THQ. They sold the license, they aren't working on a new game in the series anymore, they have serious financial problems and need to try everything to save the company... Wasn't pretty much a given that someone was going to lose his job in the process?

Anyway, after hearing Jason RUbin yesterday I think they are planning and working in a very wise and smart way. They could even actually save the company.
 
G

Gintamen

Member
2 Slice Toaster said:
THQ decides to hold off issuing decided layoffs until after E3.

News leaks during E3 anyhow.

"How horrible of THQ, employees had to find out about layoffs from Twitter, FFS"

Its a completely childish notion that companies that have already made these decisions should hold off on them until some psychologically "appropriate" time. All you do is run the risk of having it leak and having to deal with the fallout.

Why wouldn't you want to know as soon as possible anyway? It costs your employees valuable time they could use to get their life in order, making future plans, etc. What if any of those affected had job opportunities they were aware of during E3 that they didn't pursue because they assumed they still had employment with THQ?
Click to expand...
This.

It's bad news and timing, but it's a business so they will just try to work as profitable as possible. It's not like the rest of the gaming world would act much different.
 
S

Stop It

Perfectly able to grasp the inherent value of the fishing game.
Gintamen said:
This.

It's bad news and timing, but it's a business so they will just try to work as profitable as possible. It's not like the rest of the gaming world would act much different.
Click to expand...

Indeed.

Bad timing, but it's a logical step, alas. EA buy the rights to UFC so a studio that makes UFC games is suddenly redundant, this was closure was going to happen whether it was during E3 or afterwards.

Sucks for the devs involved and I hope they can find employment ASAP, as always decisions made from above always hurt those who have no say in that decision.
 
B

bjork

Member
I know a guy that worked on All-Stars, but he left the team awhile ago and is working elsewhere now. Kinda feel good for his having dodged this bullet, but from what I could tell, he thought highly of the San Diego team. Sucks for those guys, I hope they get on elsewhere soon.
 
S

Saty

Member
Maybe deserves it's own thread:
Though the Ultimate Fighting Franchise games appeared to be one of THQ's few successes, the company says it sold the brand's exclusive license to Electronic Arts because it failed to break even on the latest release.

THQ management told Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter that UFC Undisputed 3, which released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation in February, fell short of hitting its break-even point of 2 million copies sold.
Click to expand...
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/172036/THQ_sold_UFC_license_after_failing_to_break_even_on_it.php
 
U

ultim8p00

Banned
I-hate-u said:
Is there any hope for Itagaki's game at this point?
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The people Itagaki and co. were relying on for engine tech went out of business. THQ helped them build a new engine but they ran out of money to publish the game, so now they are trying to find a new publisher.
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
2-3 million copies of the game developed by US/UK/Canada studio = break even confirmed.

sad
 
CamHostage

CamHostage

Member
Yeah, this sucks, but the second I saw Dana White step out on EA's stage, I realized, "Oh, of course."

UFC's gone, and there'd be little hope for them doing an action-oriented wrestling spin-off since THQ disappeared its own WWE Brawl game by Blue Tongue a while back. So even though talent like this could have possibly been repurposed (it's not like fighter designers can only design fighters) in a healthy company, THQ is not in the position right now.
 
E

echoshifting

Banned
remnant said:
A million copies on 2 platforms that have a large install base. Not exactly crazy.
Click to expand...

2 million copies across both platforms is a better way of putting it. And yeah...it's crazy, because that's their break even point, and they couldn't even hit that, let alone the point where the game is a modest financial success. How is that financial strategy even remotely rational?

Consider that this game was the third most popular title during its launch month, and it was still such a failure that its numbers contributed to the death of the developer.
 
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