THQ possibly done

[DJ]

Re: THQ possibly done

I hope all those that have lost their job find gainful employment somewhere soon. Layoffs suck.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: THQ possibly done

I hope it's not WWE wanting Yukes to continue to make the game so that it doesn't miss this year when 2k wants to have its own team make the game.

My one thought is that WWE wants a game out this year and with Take Two it doesn't give them much time. So Yukes might be contracted to release WWE 14 this Fall and then next year Take Two would release WWE 15 since they would of had 1.5+ years of dev time on their engine.

[Cyros]

Re: THQ possibly done

Crytek Scoops Up Ex-Vigil Staff for Austin Studio

[Goffs]

Re: THQ possibly done

Crytek Scoops Up Ex-Vigil Staff for Austin Studio

I'm happy that they were able to land on there feet quickly but I would love it if Crytek would pick up the Darksiders series.

The Darksiders property has yet to go up for auction. Technically, Crytek (or another company) could still pick it up.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: THQ possibly done

I'm happy that they were able to land on there feet quickly but I would love it if Crytek would pick up the Darksiders series.

Rumors has it that Platinum might be trying to scoop up the IP.

[goh]

Re: THQ possibly done

Big article here: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/the-c...-story/0110180

I'll just copy the SR bit,was wondering why the bid was so high over Ubisoft...

THE BATTLE FOR SAINTS ROW
Koch Media winning Saints Row and its developer Volition was a big surprise. Outside of its home turf in Germany, the firm isn’t well-known amongst gamers. 2011’s Dead Island has been by far its most successful title, although it has published a number of niche and territory-specific products around Europe.

Volition and Saints Row was seen as the crown jewels in THQ’s crown. Ubisoft, EA and Warner Bros – three of the biggest names in entertainment – were amongst the names eyeing the company. Koch's only advantage was that it had worked with THQ over the last six months as its Italian and Spanish distributor.

But Koch Media’s bid of £22.3m won through. In fact, it looked like the studio had overpaid, with Ubisoft only offering $5.175m. But Kundratitz explains that wasn’t the case. In fact Koch had been drawn into a bidding war.

“The reports about Ubisoft’s bid and our bid and the big discrepancy is not entirely the true picture,” he says.

“Our opening bid for Volition and Saints Row was $20.5m and we ended up getting it for £22.3m. So we did not succeed with the first bid. There was Clearlake that bid against us in the last round of the process, and they bid quite heavily against us. So it’s quite clear that the price we ended up paying was not inflated as well. The same applied to the Metro bid. We started with $4.5m and ended with $5.8m, so we had a lively bid procedure, and we were the happy winner.”

Saints Row is a significant IP for Koch Media. But the studio is arguably the biggest gain, giving the publisher access to talent and technology it didn’t have before.

“We have always been fans of Saints Row,” says Kundratitz.

“We love the over-the-top, shooter-based, sandbox concept. We just felt that the studio has a proven track record. They are famous for their open world tech, very strong studio tech. They are just overall, for a publisher that does not have that many internal studios, an ideal studio to get involved in. When we did the due diligence, we found they had very strong management there. From many angles you are looking at it, from the IP angle, from the management angle, from the tech angle, it all makes sense to us.”

Koch Media found itself in hot water with the press last month following its controversial pre-order bonus for the next Dead Island, which included a mutilated female torso sculpture. The publisher regrets the bonus, but in many ways it shows that Koch – and its publishing label Deep Silver – could be well suited to Saints Row, which has itself attracted its own controversy.

“We place no value for being controversial,” explains Kundratitz. “Sometimes you can’t avoid it and sometimes if a brand is an extraordinary brand and has its specialities, then we don’t shy away from communicating those. We are certainly not known for holding back. And we will follow that through with Saints Row.”

The other part of Koch Media’s bid saw it pick up Metro, a game that is already finished.

“Metro has a gamer audience that we know quite well,” says Kundratiz.

“In the past we have published Stalker, and Stalker and Metro has many commonalities. And it was obviously not such a difficult decision with a game more or less finished and to be launched straight away.”

[mestevo]

Re: THQ possibly done

More news about destinations for some properties coming.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/190954/The_final_bids_on_THQs_remaining_properties_are_in.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Auction for the remaining IP (including Darksiders, Red Faction, Homeworld) has concluded as of 4/15, we'll know the results as late as next month. We know the former Homeworld team lost their IP to another bidder and they've refunded their kickstarter effort.

[mestevo]

Re: THQ possibly done

More news to come, Gearbox has outed themselves as winner of the Homeworld IP though.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/22/gearbox-software-wins-auction-for-homeworld/

Gearbox posted this on its online forum today: “Gearbox Software has prevailed as the highest bidder in the acquisition of the Homeworld franchise from THQ. Brian Martel, Gearbox Software’s Chief Creative Officer, has great love and respect for Relic’s brilliant, fun and innovative game and personally spearheaded the acquisition.”
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/22/ge...0ZQl1U7j2f4.99

Apparently there were 17 bids for the remaining IPs/licenses.

[Cyros]

Re: THQ possibly done

Hopefully Crytek Austin got Darksiders.

[mestevo]

From ign:

Nordic Games purchased the rights to Darksiders, Red Faction and MX vs. ATV, as well as rights to THQ’s other owned software (Destroy All Humans!, Summoner and more) and licensed software (Marvel Super Hero Squad, Supreme Commander and more) for $4.9 million in total.

As announced*earlier today, Borderlands 2 developer Gearbox Software purchased the rights to the Homeworld franchise, and THQ has now disclosed that the purchase price was $1.35 million.

The rights to Drawn to Life and Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter were purchased by 505 Games for $300,000.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

[LambertandHam]

Re: THQ possibly done

From ign:

Nordic Games purchased the rights to Darksiders, Red Faction and MX vs. ATV, as well as rights to THQ’s other owned software (Destroy All Humans!, Summoner and more) and licensed software (Marvel Super Hero Squad, Supreme Commander and more) for $4.9 million in total.

As announced*earlier today, Borderlands 2 developer Gearbox Software purchased the rights to the Homeworld franchise, and THQ has now disclosed that the purchase price was $1.35 million.

The rights to Drawn to Life and Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter were purchased by 505 Games for $300,000.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

Not a lot of confidence in "Nordic Games", considering what they've put out in the past.

[mestevo]

Re: THQ possibly done

Interplay bought the Freespace IP for $7500.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/6/4403602/interplay-repurchases-freespace-ip-thq-volition

[goh]

Re: THQ possibly done

Nordic currently owns Darksiders, Red Faction and MX vs. ATV, as well as rights to THQ’s other owned software (for example, Destroy All Humans!) and licensed software (for example, Marvel Super Hero Squad). Pollice admitted THQ squandered some of the talent that worked on these properties after the publisher grew too large, and some particularly bad decisions were made with the Red Faction IP post Red Faction: Guerrilla. As a result, Nordic is prioritizing Red Faction below Darksiders (the studio's first priority), MX vs. ATV (second) and Titan Quest (third.) It's not all doom and gloom for Red Faction fans, however: according to Pollice, Nordic is in talks with former Volition members and is still evaluating what to do with the franchise. Take that as you will.

Pollice offered Darksiders fans a little bit more clarification, although the news isn't particularly positive: because "a certain core" of Darksiders' development team has moved on to Crytek, it's likely we won't see another Darksiders game for a few years.

So what's next from Nordic? Pollice said that we'll be seeing MX vs. ATV and Titan Quest sooner than we might have expected, claiming fan fervor for MX vs. ATV in particular has influenced some of this decision.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/08/26/nordic-games-another-darksiders-years-away-red-factions-future-is-uncertain

On a side note I was shocked to see they pulled the exact same bullcrap with SR 4 that was done with SR 3. I thought that was all on THQ sinking but the popular cheats were left out again and there's a giant pile of on disc DLC.