[ALL] THQ Files for Bankruptcy

[PP]

Took them long enough. This has been a long road for them.

 

[EmpireWF]

THQ owes WWE $45 million, Vince is pissed.

 

[JimLeavy59]

http://www.mcvuk.com//news/read/ubisoft-plots-thq-bid/0108645

 

[Diivox]

Company of Heroes was one of the greatest video games of all time. Most Modern day RTS have stolen an idea or 5 from it. Single handedly reinvigorated the WW2 video game. COH2 will get finished and make piles of money.

 

[Realist]

I use to enjoy their wrestling games. Not even sure they make then anymore

 

[ThomasTomasz]

I use to enjoy their wrestling games. Not even sure they make then anymore

They still do.....WWE13 is pretty good, if you're at all interested, give it a shot. It's probably the best game since No Mercy.

 

[JayDizzle]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/08/ea-named-as-potential-buyer-of-thq-assets

Electronic Arts has been named as one of the potential buyers of THQ’s assets. As revealed by Distressed Debt Investing on Twitter, EA is “a potential buyer of certain titles” and “has completed site visits.”

Earlier today it was announced that THQ’s assets will be sold title-by-title on January 22nd. According to DDI, bids are due by 9:00 a.m. Eastern on January 22nd, and the auction will take place at 3:00 p.m. later that day. The auction will allow for bidders to bid on titles or studios.

EA joins WB, who was revealed in court to be among the potential bidders and Ubisoft, who has been rumored to be interested.

I suppose if EA wants a piece of the pie that Rockstar's getting with GTA, they'd look into buying the Volition share of THQ and Saint's Row.

South Park and Metro under EA would at least get distributed as well, if not advertised.

*Same could be said about Ubi.

 

[IamMedellin]

IGN plays What if with THQ's IP's

IGN plays What if with THQ's IP's

What If Sony Bought THQ's portfolio

If the PlayStation brand has a considerable strength over its rivals, it’s in the realm of exclusives. Those exclusives are created by Sony’s 12 fully-owned studios, and they come to both PlayStation 3 and (more recently) PlayStation Vita with regularity, helping to differentiate PlayStation’s ecosystems from its competitors.

Last week, a fellow editor hypothesized where THQ’s studios and licenses will go. With news of THQ’s asset sale hitting this afternoon -– and with a firesale imminent -- we couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if Sony decided to invest in seven of THQ’s licenses, and which Sony studio would be up to the task of continuing the franchise once the hypothetical acquisition occurred.

It's important to note that none of the licenses below are guaranteed or confirmed to up for sale. For now, consider all of this speculation.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/08/what-if-sony-bought-thqs-portfolio


Where Will THQ's Games and Studios Go?
One veteran editor’s opinion on what may become of THQ’s IPs after their bankruptcy.

ORIGINAL STORY: Beleaguered publisher THQ formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy recently, with investment firm Clearlake Capital Group acquiring everything – “all the assets of THQ’s operating business, including THQ’s four owned studios and games in development.” On January 22, the company’s assets (read: game franchises and development studios) will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. So where are they likely to go? Here are some likely scenarios, in our professional industry-watching opinions.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/07/where-will-thqs-games-and-studios-go

While Suckerpunch developing a Darksiders title would be :fap: worthy... Activision buying Saints Row would be :flaccid:

 

[Twigg4075]

South Park and Metro under EA would at least get distributed as well, if not advertised.

Apparently you forgot about Brutal Legend, Shadows of the Damned and Bulletstorm, all games EA didn't market worth a fuck.

 

[padman59]

I'm interested to see where Relic, Volition, and their respective IPs end up going. I don't think I'd like EA to get 4A Games or the Metro franchise. The last thing I want to see is a multiplayer focused Metro game.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Volition is the one I am wondering about. I don't want it to go to EA for them to fuck up, as Saints Row is one of my favorite franchises. I can't believe I am saying this, but I would rather Sony or Microsoft purchase them and essentially make Volition a subsidiary, where they still have full reign to make the game how they want it to be.

 

[JayDizzle]

Apparently you forgot about Brutal Legend, Shadows of the Damned and Bulletstorm, all games EA didn't market worth a fuck.

would at least get distributed as well, if not advertised.

I didn't.

I don't give them credit one way or another (because all of those games you listed are great), but it might have been hard to pitch each of them on a commercial for what they really were.

Brutal Legend, while awesome for being a totally Metal game, also is an RTS after you slog through most of the tutorial.

RTS' (feel free to look it up if I'm wrong) don't sell on console.

Shadows... is tricky because it's a Suda game and he gets a pass due to his name/style of game and the fact that most of his titles don't get the bajillion presses that a Madden or an NCAA might get.

Works for Atlus but not for EA who only did it to themselves because they didn't have enough to sell to make money back on top of not letting anyone know the game was coming out.

Bulletstorm was basically the game before the next Halo came out and it sold more on XBox due to the freebies it got.

Didn't sell enough though.

 

[padman59]

Per Joystiq:

Update: DDinvesting reports THQ auction results:

• $500k Homeland (Crytek)
• $26M for Relic (Sega)
• $2.5M for THQ Montreal (Ubisoft)
• $3.2M for South Park (Ubisoft)
• $11M for Evolve (Take-Two)
• $22.3M for Volition (Koch Media)
• $5.8M for Metro (Koch Media)

 

[IamMedellin]

so Ubisoft got the South Park game...awesome

n who the Fuk is Koch Media?

edit:nvm they Backed Dead Island n that Game of the Year Nominee "Catherine"

 

[JayDizzle]

So Koch/Deep Silver gets Saints Row, Metro and Volition Studios (so arguably Red Faction and Summoner as well)...

Given the recent news of Deep Silver's gaffe with the upcoming Dead Island collector's edition (dead zombie torso with titties), at least we know that the company won't pussyfoot around when it comes to earning that M-Rating.

My only worry is whether or not Volition and the studio behind Metro will stick around to make their games in the future.

 

[IamMedellin]

Vigil Games Lead Combat Designer stands up, says goodbye

Vigil Games Lead Combat Designer Ben Cureton and the rest of the Vigil staff cleaned out the office today, after Vigil was left untouched at THQ's auction. Vigil was shuttered, and as per THQ's letter to employees, everyone working there was laid off. In a post on NeoGAF, Cureton compared the scene in the office to a silent warzone.

"The walls look bare," he wrote. "It's quiet. The seats are empty."

Vigil Games, the studio behind Darksiders 2, was working on something called Crawler, a project we first heard about in THQ's December bankruptcy filing. After two months working on Crawler, Cureton was convinced that it would blow people's minds.

"I knew, without a shadow of the doubt, that the project we were working on (Codenamed: Crawler) was going to blow people away. In fact, it did blow people away. We did, in two months, what many companies haven't done in a year. The pride of knowing that no one was doing anything like us was so satisfying, it kept us coming to work and giving 100 percent every single day, even through the dark times."

Today was one of those dark times. Cureton was taken aback when he didn't find Vigil's name on the list of purchased properties.

"Maybe you can imagine what it feels like when you read the list of who bought what only to discover your name is not on the list," he said. "Why? Did we do something wrong? Were we not good enough? Were we not worth 'anything?' Imagine that."

In the end, Cureton thanked fans of the Darksiders series and promised to continue making games, having already worked in the industry 20 years.

"In closing, I can only say thank you to the fans of Vigil games," Cureton said. "Your support means more than you can imagine. Your feedback (both positive and negative) gave us long-lasting insight that we will all take with us, wherever we may go. You are the reason we made Darksiders 1 and 2... and you are the reason we will continue to make games.

"And with that... my seat is empty."

Damn... thought some1 would pick them up...so does this mean the "Darksiders" IP is in Limbo?

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/23/vigil-games-lead-combat-designer-stands-up-says-goodbye/

 

[JayDizzle]

Damn... thought some1 would pick them up...so does this mean the "Darksiders" IP is in Limbo?

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/23/vigil-games-lead-combat-designer-stands-up-says-goodbye/

Since Vigil wasn't part of the studios up for auction, they're still part of the Chapter 11 process.

Until someone fronts the cash to buy them, they're stuck unless they bail.

 

[SuperKevin]

WWE games are now going to Take 2

 

[IamMedellin]

The Makers of Bayonetta Would Love to Buy The Suddenly-Endangered Darksiders Series

One of the sad and somewhat odd outcomes of today's big auction of top games and studios from game publisher THQ is that no one—not EA, not Activision, not Take Two, not Bethesda, not Ubisoft... no one—made a bid for the action-game series Darksiders and Vigil, the studio that made those games.

Look, even here at Kotaku the Darksiders games aren't uniformly loved. But some of us dig them and we can now share the bittersweet news that some very talented game developers dig them, too.

Here's Atsushi Inaba, the head of Platinum Games, makers of Bayonetta, Vanquish and other cool action titles:

And here's a translation, via our own Brian Ashcraft:

"In THQ studio and IP selling off auction, Darksiders is unsold? [We] wanna buy it...on the cheap..."

Earlier today, some of us half-kidded that Nintendo should have snatched up Vigil. The Darksiders games are, more or less, an M-rated love letter to Zelda (please don't read that the wrong way!). Nintendo obviously didn't go for Vigil. If Platinum did? Or even went just for the series? We're not rooting for people to be out of work, but either result would be fascinating.

We're following up to see what could come of this.

 

[JayDizzle]

Hmm.

So Nintendo would Bayonetta AND the Darksiders franchise plus whatever "Crawler" was from Vigil...

Things are coming up Milhouse for the House of Mario.

...unless Platinum Games loans the studio out to Multi-Platform?

Could they do that?