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South Park, Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Light Delayed

And the company doesn't sound like it's in very good financial shape, either.

THQ said it's delaying its upcoming slate to focus on polish required to remaining competitive.
THQ said it's delaying its upcoming slate to focus on polish required to remaining competitive.

THQ’s fiscal 2013 second quarter call today was not filled with much joy, and the company was quick to end it.

Firstly, South Park: The Stick of Truth was scheduled for March 5, 2013, but it’s now scheduled for “early fiscal 2014,” which means sometime after March 31, 2013. Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light are now both scheduled for vague releases in March, though presumably before the fiscal year is up on March 31.

Darksiders II was released to a decent amount of fanfare in August, but it hasn’t translated into stellar sales, with THQ characterizing the sequel as having underperformed.

The company also refused to issue any financial guidance for the future, and cancelled the traditional Q&A session with analysts and investors at the end of the call. THQ basically hung up the phone, but alluded to the publisher continuing to have money flow problems as it continues its painful transition.

It doesn’t seem like things are going to get any easier at THQ anytime soon.

Patrick Klepek on Google+

131 Comments

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Humanity

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Edited By Humanity

Whats even more depressing is how were hanging hopes that this creative developer will get pulled out of their financial woes by a yearly, iterative wrestling game.

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mbr2

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Edited By mbr2

I'm not worried about 4A not getting funding. If THQ crashes and burns then I could see someone like 1C picking them up.

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Smokey_Earhole

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Edited By Smokey_Earhole

Not to shill the competition here, but there is a wonderful article on Polygon detailing the demise of Kaos Studios that also talks about THQ and their role in the chaos (sorry) surrounding Homefront.

Seriously it's a really great read.

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henriksultan

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Edited By henriksultan

>_< this sucks, I truly hope for things to turn around for THQ! Already bought CoH2 and im freaking jizzing my pants while thinking about it and waiting....

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kagato

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Edited By kagato

A damn shame, i loved Darksiders II and Saints Row was one of my top played games, i hope things pick up for them as id hate to see them go out of business.

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BoOzak

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Edited By BoOzak

I hope that Warhammer 40k RPG is still happening... but I doubt it. ;(

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KaneRobot

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Edited By KaneRobot

Basically "hanging up the phone" and refusing to answer questions is fucking bush league. Have a little regard for whatever few shareholders you have left. Pricks.

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hermes

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Edited By hermes

Really? Darksiders 2 "underperformed"

That is some bad news. Other than that and Saints Row, I don't think THQ has any IP that has potential to let them off the hook. At best, all the others can recoup the cost of production.

In a related comment: Isn't THQ overselling their games? I remember Homefront and Saints Row 3 advertising being everywhere when they released. Kind of odd coming from a company with such financial problems...

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jasondesante

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Edited By jasondesante

i really hope the south park game is actually fun.

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Ravenlight

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Edited By Ravenlight

Based on the Polygon article about the development of Homefront that Patrick linked in another article, I wonder if these delayed games are suffering from further management problems.

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WinterSnowblind

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Edited By WinterSnowblind

@machinerebel said:

My mind is fucking blown here: Someone is actually giving Obsidian MORE time to finish a game. WHAT.

Not necessarily. Alpha Protocol was hit by some pretty big delays, but the publisher only did that to avoid a busy season, Obsidian weren't actually given any more time to work on the game.

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Mumrik

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Edited By Mumrik

@Funkydupe said:

DICKTITS!

Sounds like another word for genital warts.

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Ravelle

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Edited By Ravelle

The whole fiscal year thing always confuses me.

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Zero1

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Edited By Zero1

I hope South Park is a good game , I'm looking forward to playing it.

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Spiritof

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Edited By Spiritof

Thanks, Romney.

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thehideousshrew

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Edited By thehideousshrew

I ama little dismayed at these delays, but moreso at the ever increasing layoffs we've been seeing in the industry. I hope this doesn't foreshadow studio closures. Creative people need jobs.

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KlUMZeE

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Edited By KlUMZeE

Man, that sucks that Darksiders 2 didn't do well, and I really hope that THQ can keep themselves afloat; they've been publishing some really interesting game over the past few years and it would be tragic if they shut down and those IPs (Saint's Row, Darksiders) wind up abandoned with no one to fund them.

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myslead

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Edited By myslead

buy more art tablets for xbox360

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FakeKisser

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Edited By FakeKisser

This is sad, because THQ is putting out some quality stuff, now, and I do believe in Jason Rubin's vision for the company (less releases but better quality).

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Laiv162560asse

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Edited By Laiv162560asse

I feel like this is a weird world we live in, where a sequel to a B-tier game that sold around a million can sell well over a million, despite a crowded release schedule, and still be deemed to have "underperformed". This says a lot more about corporate mismanagement and bloated development/marketing budgets, than it does about the video games market IMO.

If it's true that DS2 needed to sell 2 million in this time frame just to break even, I dunno wtf THQ were playing at. Better, bigger games released around the same time haven't even performed that well, yet they haven't heralded the end of their respective companies either. Let's face it, this is all about Udraw.

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Diablos1125

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Edited By Diablos1125

Hang in there THQ!! >.<

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lazerbot

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Edited By lazerbot

Damn, I was really looking forward to playing The Stick of Truth. I hope they can get it finished in time, and if they can't I hope the game gets moved to another studio so they can finish it.

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Uberjannie

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Edited By Uberjannie

@Mumrik said:

@Funkydupe said:

DICKTITS!

Sounds like another word for genital warts.

You never played Bulletstorm?

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ripelivejam

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Edited By ripelivejam

feel bad for not picking up darksiders now, but i've spent a bit too much on games recently and can't justify it atm. i'll try to pick it up in the coming months. hope they pull through!

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Throat

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Edited By Throat

God damn it, wanted that south park game.

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zaccheus

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Edited By zaccheus

@lazerbot said:

Damn, I was really looking forward to playing The Stick of Truth. I hope they can get it finished in time, and if they can't I hope the game gets moved to another studio so they can finish it.

Obsidian is not owned by THQ, so if THQ goes down the publishing rights are hopefully sold to some other publisher and Obsidian gets to finish it.

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lazerbot

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Edited By lazerbot

@Zaccheus: I hate to see people lose their jobs, so I hope THQ doesn't fold, but at least its good to know that Obsidian could theoretically finish the game.

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Jodski

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Edited By Jodski

I think that South Park is still popular enough to be a big enough success to keep THQ floating for a little while; at least until SR4 is ready to ship (fingers crossed).

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metalmoog

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Edited By metalmoog

THQ are one of those devs that I wouldn't miss if they folded. After countless WWE games with massive amounts of lag and generally unplayable online multiplayer with no fixes made in any subsequent versions THQ is a terrible developer IMO. You can only go so long dropping mediocre products before sales are impacted massively.

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Edited By MrKlorox

I wonder what kind of trouble Metro is running into. THQ's previous CEO dude was talking it up like it was the saving throw for the company last year, then Rubin came and started talking-up Darksiders2 like it was going the be the big one instead. Do they keep seeing what the rest of the set-piece corridor shooters do (MoH/CoD) and alter their plans in order to separate themselves further from those games each time?