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

[Remy]

This is presuming relic still holds the warhammer licence, and that it didn't go under with THQ.

[Candescence]

You'd think Sega would take the 40k license with it, since, if I recall, it also has the regular Warhammer license as well, though I might be mistaken.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Here is the latest 'new's but more like rumors.

 

Franchises

Saints Row - Koch Media had highest bid, most publisher interest

Darksiders - No concrete information, some publisher interest
 

Red Faction - No concrete information, some publisher interest
 

Company of Heroes - SEGA had highest bid, EA was interested as well, rumours say SEGA already bought it
 

Evolve (Turtle Rock IP) - No concrete information, rumour says Koch Media bought it
 

Homefront - No concrete information, rumour says Crytek (who is developing the sequel) bought rights

Studios

Volition - No concrete information, will most likely be sold together with Saints Row franchise
 

Relic - SEGA had highest bid, rumour says they bought it
 

Vigil - No concrete information
 

THQ Montreal - No concrete information

Franchises not up for sale

Metro

Licenses not up for sale

WWE
 

Warhammer 40k
 

God knows.

South Park - THQ wants to sell, South Park Studios is apparently saying no, serious business. Rumour says Ubisoft bought publishing rights.

[Patticus]

The Warhammer 40k licence will presumably revert back to Games Workshop. With Relic possibly going to Sega, which already has the Warhammer Fantasy licence (in Creative Assembly's good hands), hopefully its higher-ups will see sense and make sure Relic under Sega can continue to produce outstanding 40k games (if they want to, anyway).

[Tracker_TD]

Supposedly, Vigil is now dead. Darksiders has gone to Take-Two.

And Deep Silver now have Volition Inc. and Saints Row, apparently.

 

This is all supposedly though.

 

EDIT:

Letter to employees-SEGA have indeed bought Relic. Ubisoft have South Park.

 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=46809869&postcount=2352

Edited January 23, 2013 by Tracker_TD

[Patticus]

According to GAF

 

- Ubisoft acquires South Park: Stick of Truth and THQ Montreal
- Take2 acquires Turtle Rock's project
- Cruel acquires Homefront
- Sega acquires Relic
- Koch Media acquires Volition
- EA acquired WWE license last week

 

Really happy with Relic's acquisition by Sega. Not sure what to think about Turtle Rock - who are they and what do they make? Ubisoft nabbing THQ Montreal... er... what did they make again? South Park will be in good hands with them though. What other properties does Koch Media own? EA in sports game franchise acquisition shocker. What is Cruel?

[Carbo]

Turtle Rock Studios made the original Left 4 Dead back when they were a Valve subsidiary. They went independent afterwards.

Koch Media does Dead Island and Risen.

[Stacy]

A glad none of the majors grabbed Saints Rows. I just hope they keep the same staff that worked on the other 3 games. Problem is are they going to get same level of promotion they did when they were at THQ and budget.  

Edited January 23, 2013 by BW199148

[Tracker_TD]

Turtle Rock Studios made the original Left 4 Dead back when they were a Valve subsidiary. They went independent afterwards.

Koch Media does Dead Island and Risen.

 

I thought Deep Silver did Dead Island?

[Carbo]

I thought Deep Silver did Dead Island?

Deep Silver is Koch Media's video game label.

[Tracker_TD]

Deep Silver is Koch Media's video game label.

Oh. Whoopsie, my bad.

 

Anyway... suffice to say, it's sad to see Vigil go. They clearly had plenty of talent amongst their ranks, and it's sad enough seeing yet another game company go.

[Patticus]

I hope that enough of Vigil's talent lands wherever the Darksiders franchise now resides. I doubt future games in the series will feel the same if they don't.

[Dr. Homem]

We knew this was going to end like this, but it's still really sad.

 

Edited January 23, 2013 by Dr. Homem

[Dr. Homem]

Here's the amount given for each IP: (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/23/thq-assets-divided/)

 

$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)

[Tracker_TD]

And now I'm hearing that SEGA almost lost the Relic bid by £30,000.

 

To Bethedsa.

 

Holy shit. If anything, I'm more surprised a company that was supposedly in 'financial turmoil' managed to beat the developers behind Skyrim and the Elder Scrolls in general of all things.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Tracker_TD

[Dr. Homem]

And now I'm hearing that SEGA almost lost the Relic bid by £30,000.

 

To Bethedsa.

 

Holy shit. If anything, I'm more surprised a company that was supposedly in 'financial turmoil' managed to beat the developers behind Skyrim and the Elder Scrolls in general of all things.

I'm glad they didn't get it. While I do like the games of the developer Bethesda, the publisher Bethesda-Zenimax is a pretty agressive and greedy company.

 

But regardless of what you think of any of the bidders - Relic needed a home and SEGA needed profitable properties. It'll be a good partnership for both of them.

[Carbo]

Bethesda probably didn't put much stake into it since they're busy with other more time-consuming "triple A of the year" titles and stomping GameBryo's "quality" to shame.

Sega's Total War series is one of their few series that's actually been raking in the profits so they'll presumably continue that trend now that they have Relic.

[Tracker_TD]

http://www.thesangreal.net/gafpics/results.pdf

 

Court documents with official sales results.

 

$26.6 million for Relic, as mentioned above.

 

EDIT: Just noticed this was in the above Joystiq article, whoopsie.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Tracker_TD

[Dr. Homem]

I find it hilarious that Patrice Désilets leaves Ubisoft, then goes work at THQ Montreal, then Ubisoft buys THQ Montreal, putting him back in the company he left.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Dr. Homem

[Pikawil]

Darksiders dies the most indignified death while stinking Homefront survives. I hate all of you.

Meanwhile, in Relic's cafetaria...

Edited January 24, 2013 by Pikawil

[Conando]

Wait, Vigil went down with the ship? D:

[Remy]

My name is Ben Cureton, and I was the Lead Combat Designer at Vigil Games. I'm sitting at my desk among... what appears to be a warzone. The walls look bare. It's quiet.

The seats are empty.

We've all been on edge for the past couple months... and more so, the last couple weeks. I mean, I'm sure you can imagine what it's like to wonder if you will have a job tomorrow. Most of us here joked about it just to keep the mood light, but we all knew what could happen. Now I look around and I realize... it did happen.

Am I sad? Well yea. I've been in this industry for 20 years. Seriously. Two decades. I've been laid off more than once. It sucks every time. But am I sad I don't have a job? Not really... I'm sure I'll get another one eventually. I'm sad because it won't be THIS job. It won't be at Vigil. That's why I'm sad. The people I waged war with are no longer together. The people that I bled with, vented with, argued with (often times LOUDLY), and kicked back with... these people will never be together again in the same combination.

Not that it was perfect. But what is perfect? Did I like coming to work? Yes. Was I proud of the work that I did? Yes. More importantly, was I proud of the work that WE did? Absolutely. 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% every single day, even through the dark times.

... so 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. Why? Did we do something wrong? Were we not good enough? Were we not worth 'anything?' Imagine that.

Vigil was filled with people that I would put up against the best in the industry. People that made my work better, people that made me a better designer, and people that made me a better person. And now they are gone.

Their seats are empty.

It's OK, though. I guess this post makes it sound a bit melodramatic. Seriously... if you work in the video game industry you have to be resilient. Doing what you love often comes with a price - anyone who has been around for a while can tell you that. Today, that price has been paid. That being said, I'd still never dissuade anyone from following their dreams if their dream is to make video games. While it's not as romantic as it sounds, it's sure a hell of a lot of fun.

So don't cry for the people at Vigil. We made games for game players. I have no Horror stories from working here... only Honor stories. Through both praise and critiques alike, our goal was always to make a product as if we, ourselves, were the end-user. We may have gotten pushed and pulled in certain directions by forces out of our control, we were always in it to make games for game players. And that's what we did.

I can only hope that those spared from the other companies remain employed long into the future. There is not much worse than false hope, and these people deserve to continue making great games. You may not know their names, but they exist, and they bleed, sweat, and cry for your entertainment. I mean that honestly, with no negativity. They do it... no, WE do it... because we want you to have a good time.

In closing, I can only say thank you to the fans of Vigil games. 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 &2... and you are the reason we will continue to make games.

And with that... my seat is empty.


Ben Cureton
Lead Combat Designer
Vigil Games


P.S. This is no place for a horse.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=46817540&postcount=325

[sonfan1984]

And now I'm hearing that SEGA almost lost the Relic bid by £30,000.

 

To Bethedsa.

 

Holy shit. If anything, I'm more surprised a company that was supposedly in 'financial turmoil' managed to beat the developers behind Skyrim and the Elder Scrolls in general of all things.

 

 

I'm suprised, too. I'd thought Sega is almost broke. How can they afford that?

[Pikawil]

I'm suprised, too. I'd thought Sega is almost broke. How can they afford that?

Apparently, according to NeoGAF, the parent mothership that is Sega Sammy has money to burn thanks to the money printer that is pachinko (seriously, compare their finances to other big publishers'); it was just the software division that was bleeding money, hence why many people thought Sega was broke. Edited January 24, 2013 by Pikawil

[Dobkeratops]

Goddamn. My condolences to all of Vigil's members and here's hoping they can land a job soon.

 

At least the rest of the studios ended somewhere (in some cases on a much better position, that SEGA acquisition looks promising).

Edited January 24, 2013 by Dobkeratops