JehutyRunner
Banned
Jason Rubin interview on Game Informer. Great, but sad, read.
Link.
Link.
On taking personal responsibility said:All of the titles in the portfolio now have the potential to be the great games they should have been. And now that the THQ auction is over, I can also say that the majority of them have found homes and will ultimately reach their intended audience, the core gamer.
Unfortunately, the financial bottom dropped out on THQ before we got to see the fruits of our labor, and I spent the rest of my time at THQ trying to fix non-game issues.
To be clear, I am not claiming that everything I did was successful or that my time at THQ was without failings. I failed to find Vigil a home. Having just finished a product, Vigil was farthest from release of their next game, and we were not able to garner any interest from buyers, despite a herculean effort. Additionally, they were working on a new IP, which meant even more risk for a buyer.
And of course, unfortunately THQ’s non-development personnel are out of work as of the end of this week; this was a casualty of the court’s decision to allow piecemeal sale of assets.
As I type this, I cannot think of anything that I could have done to change the outcome. But I can tell you that I will spend a lot of sleepless nights thinking about what I could have changed. Even if I can’t figure out what I could have changed, I accept those results as failure. I am not dodging that responsibility.
And I would encourage the press, before they judge anybody at THQ, or the process, to reach out to a number of employees and ask them if what I have said above is true. I believe they will corroborate my views.
Can mid-sized publishers survive said:I believe that in the near future, digital distribution and alternate business models will bring a greater percentage of dollars spent on games back to the publisher/developer. Based on that change, in a few years, a THQ would be able to survive, and larger publishers will be even more profitable. But the next few years of transition are going to be incredibly challenging for all AAA game companies.
Vigil's new IP said:Asking me which title is my favorite is like asking a father to name his favorite child. And of course I can’t comment on the new owners.
But I will say this: The price that the teams and products “went for” at auction seem to me to have no bearing on the underlying value. If someone tries to judge the quality of the products by the price paid for them they are doing themselves no favor.
The best example of this is Vigil’s title, codenamed Crawler. When the teams got together recently to show each other their titles, Crawler dropped the most jaws. It is a fantastic idea, and truly unique. The fact that nobody bid for the team and title is a travesty. It makes no sense to me. If I weren’t barred from bidding as an insider, I would have been there with my checkbook. I’m sure that’s little consolation to the team, but that’s a fact.
When the new legacy IPs will be auctioned said:There will be a separate process to sell off the back catalog and IP. That process will take place in the coming weeks.