THQ: IPs Auctioned. Current Developments: Homeworld has gone to Gearbox

[Patticus]

Taken from Gaf:

Source - https://twitter.com/...454172239409152

 

@PeterSkerritt they cancelled all of their 2014

[eXtaticus]

Eggsy's List:

• Acclaim

• THQ

• EA

• Activision

Two down, two to go...

Edited January 15, 2012 by eXtaticus

[Badnik Mechanic]

Is anyone even slightly suprised by this? THQ have not exactly released anything too amazing lately other than Saints Row 3.

Red Faction Battlegrounds bombed because they tried to market a new IP as a red faction game, didn't fool anyone. Red Faction: Armageddon totally destroyed the series (quite literally, it was that bad they cancelled all future Red Faction products).

They had some kind of war shooter out not long ago didn't they which also bombed because it was so short and not very good?

U-Draw has also totally bombed (at least on the PS360 it has).

I just really hope that someone picks up Red Faction and gives it the game it deserves since THQ totally borked what was an amazing series... I'm sure that someone will pick up their WWE games and give them the same old same old.

[Patticus]

What's all that supposed to mean? Are you implying they're, what, no good? THQ is excellent; they own Relic (Company of Heroes, Dawn of War), Vigil (Darksiders, Warhammer 40K MMO), Volition (Red Faction, Saint's Row, Guilermo Del Torro's upcoming game 'InSANE') and they set up a huge studio in Canada run by Patrice Désilets (formerly at Ubisoft). They're publisher for the outstanding Metro games, Yuke's UFC games, the recently announced South Park game from Obsidian which I know some here are looking forward to, I also think they're publishing Itagaki's new game, as well as having published some of Double Fine's recent digital releases.

[Nix]

So does this mean we're not getting another Darksiders game after 2?

...Fuck.

[Patticus]

So does this mean we're not getting another Darksiders game after 2?

...Fuck.

[Jeffhog]

If THQ dies, I will forever remember them for their involvement in all 5 Sonic GBA games and nothing more.

The rest of their stuff is crap shovelware. o3o

I'm kidding.

[Badnik Mechanic]

What's all that supposed to mean? Are you implying they're, what, no good?

It means exactly what I said it does, they've managed to destroy one of their biggest assets in a short period of time, put huge levels of investment into a war game thats barely a few hours long and has a boring multiplayer mode as well as some kind of tablet drawing device which nobody wanted.

If you keep doing that over the course of a year then you're going to be in trouble, which it looks like they are.

[Snatcher2047]

I hope so. Maybe then someone else can make a decent (non-Madden pattern of same game, different roster) WWE videogame.

[Patticus]

It means exactly what I said it does, they've managed to destroy one of their biggest assets in a short period of time, put huge levels of investment into a war game thats barely a few hours long and has a boring multiplayer mode as well as some kind of tablet drawing device which nobody wanted.

If you keep doing that over the course of a year then you're going to be in trouble, which it looks like they are.

Multiple ill-judged attempts to boost market share can indeed result in abject failure, as Sega's ineptitude during the mid-1990s, and Acclaim's in the mid-2000s can attest. That does not however invalidate all their good work in ensuring the continuation of great series' like Darksiders, Metro, Saints Row, UFC, Warhammer et al. Mark my words, the industry will be far poorer if its studios are sold off and their series' ran into the ground.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Patticus

[Carbo]

Considering how much of a supernatural flop Homefront was last year, perhaps the biggest flop that year had, this doesn't surprise me too much.

That said it's a bit disappointing if they do go down. They housed some pretty great franchises and I'll always respect them for actually publishing Conker's Bad Fur Day in Europe, even if it didn't take off too well.

[PaddyFancy]

No more Saint's Row? Unless someone decides to take up the mantle.

But then thats what THQ did when Acclaim went bust Juiced was released. Would it be a laugh if THQ gave Saints Row to Rockstar?

Edited January 15, 2012 by Major Ziggy

[Silencer226]

No more Saint's Row? Unless someone decides to take up the mantle.

But then thats what THQ did when Acclaim went bust Juiced was released. Would it be a laugh if THQ gave Saints Row to Rockstar?

I'd actually hate that because they'd probably make it all serious and shit.

[Dummy Bear]

No more Saint's Row? Unless someone decides to take up the mantle.

But then thats what THQ did when Acclaim went bust Juiced was released. Would it be a laugh if THQ gave Saints Row to Rockstar?

They'd probably just make potshots at Saint Row characters in their games like Transformers does to Go-Bots when Hasbo bought them.

[Candescence]

Relic (Company of Heroes, Dawn of War),

Hey, hey, don't forget Homeworld. THQ acquired the licence from Sierra before the latter got swallowed up by Activision. There's been rumors of a Homeworld 3 for a while, if this whole mess is true and a new Homeworld game is one of the casualties... FUCK.

I don't care for Dawn of War, I just want another Homeworld, damn it.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Masaru Daimon

[TheGerkuman]

I reckon many of those companies will be floated for other publishers to work with. It'll only be panic time if the companies get dismantled, and that isn't terribly likely.

[Commissar Hurricane]

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/16/thq-denies-rumors-about-cancellation-of-its-2014-lineup/

Something a bit interesting.

[Patticus]

http://www.joystiq.c...ts-2014-lineup/

Something a bit interesting.

My relief is positively palpable! I do feel somewhat foolish for being taken in by all this, but as long as favourites like Darksiders, Warhammer and Metro are on safe ground I'm happy.

[Big Boss (legendsneverdie)]

If THQ dies, I will forever remember them for their involvement in all 5 Sonic GBA games and nothing more.

The rest of their stuff is crap shovelware. o3o

I'm kidding.

THQ worked on The GBA Sonic Games?

[Milo]

THQ worked on The GBA Sonic Games?

As far as I know they only worked on Sonic Battle.

[Patticus]

As far as I know they only worked on Sonic Battle.

Wikipedia attributes to THQ the publication of Sonic Advance 1, 2, 3, Sonic Battle, Sonic Pinball Party and, in Canada, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I wouldn't have posted this, had it not been for last night I took a look at joystiq and noticed a bit of THQ news regarding losses, then I thought 'I'm sure there was a similar story yesterday,' I then looked into it and discovered that theres nearly been a daily news story about events going on at THQ...

....So.... I was going to post this last night, then SSMB had a bit of a wobbly and couldn't access any topics... decided to put it off for today... so when I came to post it now, just went on joystiq again to find the bits of info... and I discovered that there was another story about THQ's slowly sinking ship!

Since the last post in this topic, the following has happened...

An ex THQ employee wrote a letter to members of THQ's board of directors and the media totally slating the management of the company and pointing holes in it's opperations.

THQ makes redundancies.

THQ shuts down it's Japan office and makes redundancies in Australia.

THQ's stock got de-listed from the Nasdaq stock exchange as the value of it's shares dropped below $1.

THQ Announces it's intentions to move away from kids licenses.

THQ makes more people redundant... nearly 240 people including Mark DeLoura VP of tech.

THQ announces it's CEO will take a 50% pay cut! It's entire board of directors are also taking pay cuts.

Yesterday, THQ announces that U-Draw is more or less dead, no more units will be put into production. (You'll find out why in the next link).

THQ announces a $56 million loss in Q3 of 2011.

All of this has happened in the last 2 and a half weeks! This isn't a yearly long bit of news, all of these announcements about the losses, the redundancies, wage cuts (and I bet the wage cuts will also be affecting everyone in the company in some way).

CEO Brian Farrell in that last link attempts to pus the blame squarely on U-Draw despite poor reception of both Red Faction: Armageddon and Homefront.

"Revenues were lower by about $100 million," Farrell explained. "We've got 1.4 million [uDraw units] still in inventory we haven't sold that we planned on selling." He estimated about $80 million of the lost revenue was from units the company didn't sell, and the other $20 million was from lowering the price of what they did sell. He concluded on the topic, "We would have doubled the profitability in the quarter were it not for uDraw."

---Brian Farrell

Wow, 1.4 million U-draw tablets just sitting in a warehouse that they've not sold... incredible. I suspect they'll start digging up a pit next to Atari's ET to bury them all in soon.

Whilst it's not as drastic as the company cancelling all it's games and effectively going out of business... does this sound like a company sound like it's got many more years left in the tank at the rate it's going?

[Phos]

I hope Devil's Third makes it out and the Saints Row franchise ends up OK.

[Patticus]

Well, it still sounds like it has a few years left in it, even if they aren't many. That should give them time to ensure the safety of our favourite THQ franchises.

[Candescence]

Actually, it's UDraw HD that's bombing in sales, not the Wii version, which I presume was doing more than well enough to warrant a 360/PS3 version. A bit of a difference, there!