THQ: Goodbye to Danny Bilson, Hello to Jason Rubin

Danny Bilson, we hardly knew ye. THQ has just announced Bilson, who headed its "core" games division, is leaving the company, and has appointed industry veteran Jason Rubin as president of THQ.

Yep, that Jason Rubin.

Rubin co-founded Naughty Dog and was there when the studio created Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, and the studio’s most revered but surprisingly forgotten Way of the Warrior.

“The recent transformation of THQ into a creator of wholly-owned IP has placed it in a perfect position to leverage future trends in the game business,” said Rubin in the press release.

That’s...pretty crazy.

That’s a Thing

Hope that helps THQ's situation.

oh hi

so way of the warrior 2?

Wait... What?

I got to speak with Danny a few times. Very nice guy, but I can't say that extends to his ability to lead... not that you can necessarily pin the fall of THQ or the "core" games division's shortcomings on him.

Ugh. Business jargon. It's says so little that it might as well be the sounds of dogs barking excitedly.

Good for them and Mr. Rubin. I am quite curious how this works out for them. There's too many politics when it comes to companies like these and its nice to see someone straight from the trenches now running the show.

So how does this affect Monkey Gods? I want my goddamn new version of Snood.

Strap it on?

This seems like as good a time as any to say the first few Crash Bandicoots were fucking amazing.

Interesting, hopefully this will yield positive results.

So, where did Danny Bilson go? Has the position at THQ been vacant for a long time? Did he quit or was he fired?

Edit: I re-read the first paragraph, I didn't see where it said he left, my bad.

Shits bout to get crazy!

So will the next THQ game will be a Cart Racer?

Lateral move?

Huh, that's pretty cool.

Oh jeez.

Wasn't Bilson the one executive at THQ who wasn't screwing things up? It was the recent success of their "core games" division that's the only reason the company didn't go under with the uDraw, wasn't it?

Well that was unexpected, I hope Mr.Rubin can help THQ.

As long as we still get Saint's Row 4, everything will be ok.

interesting i guess? isn't THQ still in trouble?

You know what would be hilarious? If THQ brought in the 38 studio's team.

This is utterly baffling.

i'm getting a strong Wayne's World vibe from the picture of Rubin.

What?

Well, lets hope he is successful. I want more Saints Row the Third: Part Deux.

Gotta love the PlayStation Underground screenshot. ;)

I heart the pic of Jason Rubin. It's as though he's saying, "Wait. I'M running THQ?"

@Cogzwell said:

You know what would be hilarious? If THQ brought in the 38 studio's team.

Funny, considering 38 Studios bought Big Huge Games from them xD

WHAT? That's crazy, that's like giving the key's away to a car that's on fire, while driving, into a river, over Niagara falls.

@Dagbiker said:

So will the next THQ game will be a Cart Racer?

Saint's Road.

...

I'll be here all week, folks!

I actually never figured out why THQ was in the shits in the first place. I feel like they publish a ton of really great games.. Are they just messing up completely on the business front or something? I mean.. They've arguably released the best RTS games of the past decade (CoH and the DoW series), and they have lots of.... actually, scratch that. Did a wiki search for all the games they've published... I see now why they're kinda boned.. Jesus..

If anyone can pull THQ out of the shit its Rubin.

Why would anyone want to get involved with THQ now...

THIS CAN ONLY MEAN GOOD THINGS.

Wait...what? Man, THQ is a weird company. Love 'em, but they just have weird stuff always surrounding them.

Well that seems cool. Rubin left Naughty Dog and games proper to try to champion developers above publishers right? It'll be a great opportunity to see how he can put some of his ideas in action from the role of the decision maker.

edit: Here's Rubin's DICE 2004 speech about how developers need more recognition.

Was he ever a fan of Red Faction? Hope hope.

kaboom

@cassus said:

I actually never figured out why THQ was in the shits in the first place. I feel like they publish a ton of really great games.. Are they just messing up completely on the business front or something? I mean.. They've arguably released the best RTS games of the past decade (CoH and the DoW series), and they have lots of.... actually, scratch that. Did a wiki search for all the games they've published... I see now why they're kinda boned.. Jesus..

Kinect this! Where you Kinect with your kinect while you Kinect, get it get it?! BUY OUR GAMES. -Sincerely Ubisoft.

Rob Zombie: The Game

I liked Bilson but I hope this guy gets THQ out of any bother, he certainly has some fine games in his credits anyway.

Thats uhh...hmm...

I like Rubin from the interviews and whatnot I've seen of him. Hopefully he can help?

@Cogzwell: That's like jumping from the Titanic into a life raft that has holes in it.

“The recent transformation of THQ into a creator of wholly-owned IP has placed it in a perfect position to leverage future trends in the game business,” said Rubin in the press release.

Has anyone ever released a more neutral statement than this? It's like saying you can get cooked food at a restaurant.

THQ's failing involve many different aspects and certainly not all of their fortunes can be pinned on Danny Bilson (he had nothing to do with the uDraw for example) but there's no doubt he spent a lot of THQ's money backing projects like Homefront and he's the guy who turned away Respawn Entertainment and let them end up at EA because he refused to let Respawn keep their IP. I'm guessing THQ's still kicking themselves over the loss of that deal. Curious if Rubin can help turn their fortunes around, it looks like they've got some potentially good things in the pipeline.

Good for them.

Very interesting news. Hopefully a game developer like Mr. Rubin can greenlight some good games for THQ to make.

Hopefully he still has a job this time next year.

Jason Rubin. AKA the real life Nathan Drake.