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

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?

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.

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).

@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.

@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.

God damn it, wanted that south park game.

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!

@Mumrik said:

@Funkydupe said:

DICKTITS!

Sounds like another word for genital warts.

You never played Bulletstorm?

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.

Hang in there THQ!! >.<

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.

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).

buy more art tablets for xbox360

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.

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.

Thanks, Romney.

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

The whole fiscal year thing always confuses me.

@Funkydupe said:

DICKTITS!

Sounds like another word for genital warts.

@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.

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.

i really hope the south park game is actually fun.

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...

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.

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

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.

>_< 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....

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.

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

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.

Man, this is just going to be fucking Midway all over again, isn't it? I don't think I have another slow, painful publisher death in me. :(

Feel like WWE 13 is good enough that I hope it helps them out a bit.

Here's hoping WWE '13 picks up the slack, in the meantime.

As long as the South Park game gets released, I'm happy. Though CoH2 making it would be nice, too.

Man this really sucks for THQ and anyone involved with the studio :(. I really hope that South Park game is released and turns out good, I'm very excited for it.

@crusader8463 said:

Boooo. I got both COH 2 and SP pre-ordered. Wonder if I will get a refund if they get canned.

Unless you found the shadiest retailer in the world (like you paid already for a copy from a Russian website you found via Craigslist), I would not worry all that much about it.

The southpark delay looks particularly bad, as that is probably the most mass-appeal thing they had on the horizon. Metro may have been neat, but its still action survival horror. It is to bad that this occurs as THQ has been releasing good titles; hopefully they manage to turn things around or at least sell the full studios outright instead of letting them get broken apart. So far (with places like 38) it seems like the larger publishers are at least recognizing the value of purchasing a whole team.

Really hope this doesn't fuck over Relic, want Dawn of War 3 so bad.

THQ and Square Enix are both in trouble, and I've always thought they were the most consumer friendly big publishers. So unfair.

This is too bad. I have a feeling South Park will sell a shitload of copies, as long as they don't continue to delay it and people forget about it.

Fuck, I need that South Park game now...

Company of Heroes 2 will be coming out.

Maybe not under THQ as publisher, but mark my words, we will be playing that game next year.

Hope, people!

I haven't started the Metro series but it isn't fun watching a publishers with great IP's such as these begin to go downhill like this.

I really liked Darksiders. All Darksiders 2 coverage went to show that it's got basically nothing to do with the first one and went pretty much in the opposite direction of where I'd have wanted it to go. Maybe I'll pick it up in a steam sale when it's < 10€.. but even that is a big maybe.

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

According to VGChartz, combines sales on 360, PS3 and PC for Darksiders 2 so far is about half a million dollars. Now, they're not super accurate, but I'm certain that, yeah, that title is nowhere near selling all the 1.4 million units it shipped.

Darksiders 2 went up against some stiff competition. Sleeping Dogs, Transformers 2, Last Story... and then XCOM and Dishonored came out shortly thereafter. The first game came out in January, against practically nothing. This one... this one had it's work cut out for it. And THQ, despite a strong ad campaign in my opinion, with some decent ads, is no Electronic Arts, Ubi Soft or Activision. Best Buy wasn't talking up Darksiders 2. Nor was Wal-Mart. Gamestop wasn't talking it up, either. Now, I loathe those stupid machinima ads Gamestop runs, but I'm certain that stupid, mainstream gamers are pretty much ONLY informed by whatever Gamestop tells them to buy every season. Which is why only the same 4-5 annualized franchises seem to sell well every year. It's depressing.

Hopefully DS2 moves briskly over the next few weeks. Like for Christmas? That's when I'll pick it up (hoping for some good Black Friday deals). Or maybe the Nintendo Wii U version will sell pretty well. I'm sure this game deserves a bump in sales.

Hang in there THQ. Building a franchise takes a lot of support. Look at Sony; they've been taking a beating for supporting games like Infamous and Modnation Racers. But it's the right thing to do, so long as the game is good.

This doesn't sound good. Metro better be released soon.

Bums me out that Darksiders 2 didn't do better. It is a fun game.

Curse you to hell uDraw.

@WarlockEngineerMoreDakka said:

@Talis12 said:

THQ makes solid games.. wtf happened?

Not enough people buying em- that simple.

Even if this isn't the end of THQ, unless there's a quick sudden turn in fortune it's pretty much guaranteed to be the end for the Darksiders franchise. THQ openly stated the game needed to sell over 2 million to break even, and they would only openly consider Darksiders 3 if it made it past 3-4 million.

Last I checked, Darksiders 2 has sold over 1 million- but is probably not going to break 2 million fast enough. (It wasn't a complete flop, but it wasn't the success THQ was banking on)

Though who knows- maybe holiday sales will somehow save em. (Probably not :\ )

As said the under performing Darksiders 2 hurt them, but I thought what really dug them under was the uDraw tablet on 360 and PS3 and how it really failed pretty badly to sell on those consoles when it really did well on the Wii.