THQ Officially Dissolving as Bankruptcy Auction Yields Multiple Buyers [UPDATEDx2]

@Video_Game_King said:

Well, @Alex, at least you can rest assured with the knowledge that nobody was willing to pay a lot for the rights to Homefront, at least compared to everything else at the auction.

Yet somebody DID pay money for Homefront but nobody wants Vigil or Darksiders. That's just crazy

Sega getting CoH is horrid for communications with media. They still live in this mindset, that only the mainstream should be allowed to portray the games they publish. Which doesn't mesh well with how Relic used to do things, they loved interviews, showing off builds and allowing people to show-off the game they were working on. They understood how these types of press were free advertising and made their sales go up. Also, it's a bit sad that we'll probably no-longer see any of the Graphics Card deals, with my AMD card I got CoH and Saint's Row for free, even though I've probably bought about 12 copies of SR3 for myself, friends and family who have all loved it.

@Abendlaender said:

@Video_Game_King said:

Well, @Alex, at least you can rest assured with the knowledge that nobody was willing to pay a lot for the rights to Homefront, at least compared to everything else at the auction.

Yet somebody DID pay money for Homefront but nobody wants Vigil or Darksiders. That's just crazy

That's because Crytek was already developing Homefront 2. It's basically just them saying, "hey don't throw out all the work we've already done."

26 melons for Relic? Wowzers.

22 for Volition seems appropriate, but I'm not sure about these Koch cats.

@jayjonesjunior said:

@Rincewind said:

Sega is going to ruin COH

Sega has Total War and it is great.

Seriously. Between the Total War franchise and Universe at War, (hey, I liked it) Sega is a great home for strategy devs.

I wonder if Activision owns the Homeworld IP. I'd love to see Sega try and get a new game in that franchise out. @_@

@Shortbreadtom said:

@wumbo3000: Strap it on.

Exactly.

@DrX25: What I am thinking is WWE may try to make their own video game next time.

Kind of a sad end to the THQ saga, but we all saw this coming. Hopefully the publishers who acquired these franchises will do right by them but only time will tell. I'm especially concerned about Deep Silver buying Volition; Dead Island was decent but it was clearly rushed and had a lot of issues, and if they treat Saint's Row like that I'm going to be fucking pissed. That company doesn't have a great track record in my mind and I would hate for them to fuck up something as great as Saint's Row.

So Volition, maker of solid and polished fun games and their best title are now owned by the major of potentially fun, but incredibly janky half-assed games. I hope I'm proved wrong, but I'm given to think even UBI would have been a better home.

I wonder how it's going to affect Triple H's hair.

@alibson said:

People flipping out about Deep Silver publishing a game where you smack people on the head with a giant pink dildo.

The hypocrisy is strong with these ones.

To be fair, a giant pink dildo is much more life-affirming than a butchered female torso statue.

Yep, this is definitely a video game related discussion.

@DrDarkStryfe said:

Now that the dust has settled, man, one of the big third party publishers is dead. This is much larger than what happened with 38 Studios, and there are a lot of people that are losing their job today because of a leadership group that did a terrible job forecasting what to sell in this industry. None of this is on Rubin, he jumped on the sinking ship well after it was too late.

This industry needs a massive amount of transparency to survive.

What does transparency have to do with making good or bad business decisions? Would THQ not have invested in uDraw if it were more transparent?

Deep Silver might not have a sterling pedigree, but they did make the X games. Imagine seeing another Freespace game?!

For WWE:

Well, nothing official. Officially, nothing was said publicly, for a variety of reasons regarding the WWE video game license, although it will be very soon.

There is a deal in place but all the paperwork hasn't been completed. It is not with EA.

How the hell has nobody put a bid on Vigil Games at all? Are investors actually THAT scared of championing the Darksiders franchise?

Darksiders 1 was a pretty good home-run hit, and while Darksiders 2 didn't garner the same kind of acclaim, what is it about Vigil Games that is essentially turning it into kryptonite?

So excited (about these new publishers getting former THQ franchises), so scared (about these new publishers getting former THQ franchises).

It really is sad too, and pretty shocking, for THQ to just be gone. Too many gaming companies have ended these last few years.

Tough to read it as cold hard facts.

People flipping out about Deep Silver publishing a game where you smack people on the head with a giant pink dildo.

The hypocrisy is strong with these ones.

As long as Volition still gets to do what they want with Saint's Row...it's all good. Also, Sega picking up Relic is great as they also have the Total War studio.

Wait, someone took Homefront but Vigil Games gets left behind? WTF.

So happy that Relic is going to Sega! After Rome 2 and COH 2 are released, I'd like to see Sega get Relic involved with CA's Warhammer fantasy game. Also, who da thunk that Sega would soon become one of the biggest strategy publishers out there? 

For every other developer, I wish they are in good hands at their new homes. Ubisoft will probably get a whole lot of promotion for Stick of Truth. Koch Media better do justice with the Saint Row's Brand and Metro. Looking forward to see where the other IP's and developers go.

kinda worried about Vigil, really want the Darksiders franchise to continue.

Awesome that Relic went to SEGA. I feel like they will do well at the company that lets Total War happen.

Also LOL at Homefront being worth $500k.

@mrpandaman: Yes, Sega/Creative Assembly bought the rights to WH Fantasy recently and are probably going to start working on a Warhammer total war game after Rome 2

Really sad to hear about the death of THQ. In seemed like when they first announced bankruptcy last December that there may have been a way out. Not anymore it seems.

The Kock purchasing Volition and Saints Row is pretty left-field, mainly becuase I didn't know who the Koch Group. There's also something morbidly hilarious about Crytek picking up Homefront for $500k, I dunno. Also, since when do Sega have the money to go around buying big studios?

For WWE:

Well, nothing official. Officially, nothing was said publicly, for a variety of reasons regarding the WWE video game license, although it will be very soon.

There is a deal in place but all the paperwork hasn't been completed. It is not with EA.

Also of note is the fact that Patrice Desilets, the former Assassin's Creed creative director who left Ubisoft to pursue new opportunities at THQ, is now back with his former publisher for at least the moment.

Must suck to be him...

@Milkman: F4W and, before that, they were saying that they were negotiating with a prominent sports game publisher, so if it's not EA then it's 2K.

Didn't Patrick mention last podcast that Metro franchise is owned by 4A games? Guess it wasn't then. This along with the Southpark sale is weird, considering THQ is not supposed to actually own anything but distribution rights to these 2. It would be interesting if someone did some investigating work to clarify these 2 IPs situations. Like what are the actual rights/contracts.

Good to know that Relic and Volition found homes without having to disband and will likely not be separated from their franchises.

Too bad about Darksiders. Which reminds me, there is still 1 DLC due for the season pass, wonder what's the fate of that now as some people paid for the whole package (even as mediocre as it turned out to be)

@Rincewind: I don't know if I agree, the two best RTS developers active today is Relic and The Total War guys, I'm thinking Sega will let Relic do what Relic do, and best case scenario the two studios collaborate to make the ultimate RTS...Total Warhammer....IM IN!!!

Did Sega get the Warhammer 40k licence too?

This is way more depressing than I expected. These prices are low and going to much smaller homes than I thought, those of which are even being bought. Damn.

can i buy vigil?

@CornBREDX said:

As much as it sucks, Darksiders was a middle of the road game. Ya, it has it's charm (Darksiders 2 is one of my favorite games last year) but not many people bought either one. Currently everybody is trying to position themselves for next gen and I suspect this is why no one (at least right now) cares about Vigil. Hopefully they can get in with somebody, but I don't know who could be a good fit that would be in the market for another development team. I'm not trying to be mean, I do like their work and believe they have passion as developers, but they have a long road ahead of them.

I agree with you 100%, but let's put this into perspective.

Someone bought Homefront for 500k.

HOMEFRONT.

I really like the Total War games published by SEGA but that game needed a new engine for the battles. I really like what they did with the Civ elements to the game, but I found myself more excited to be outside the battle managing my cities than actually battling.

Koch buying Saints Row is okay. They're a huge player in Europe. Google tells me they are distributing DmC for Capcom in Europe so there's that. They probably got huge reserves from all that distribution money. Also Koch Media has nothing to do with Koch brothers in the US, it's a German company. Fun fact, Koch Media has the spaghetti western publishing market cornered in Europe so they might be just the right kind of group to take over Saints Row.

@Enai said:

Total War isn't that bad...

I think you meant "Total War is excellent."

Glad to see Sega picking up Relic, they've left CA to their own devices and created some incredible Total War games.

Between CA and Relic, Sega will be a real powerhouse in the PC RTS market.

I was going to make a goof about Koch media buying Saints Row so that they could get rid of those bikini torsos with Saints Row 4 collector's editions, but then I got real sad and depressed.

I am not sure how I feel about SEGA with Relic.

Also of note is the fact that Patrice Desilets, the former Assassin's Creed creative director who left Ubisoft to pursue new opportunities at THQ, is now back with his former publisher for at least the moment.

Must suck to be him...

@Milkman said:

@Barrock said:

For WWE:

Well, nothing official. Officially, nothing was said publicly, for a variety of reasons regarding the WWE video game license, although it will be very soon.

There is a deal in place but all the paperwork hasn't been completed. It is not with EA.

Where's that quote from?

Wrestling Observer.

As DrX said, it's probably 2K.

@heatDrive88 said:

@CornBREDX said:

As much as it sucks, Darksiders was a middle of the road game. Ya, it has it's charm (Darksiders 2 is one of my favorite games last year) but not many people bought either one. Currently everybody is trying to position themselves for next gen and I suspect this is why no one (at least right now) cares about Vigil. Hopefully they can get in with somebody, but I don't know who could be a good fit that would be in the market for another development team. I'm not trying to be mean, I do like their work and believe they have passion as developers, but they have a long road ahead of them.

I agree with you 100%, but let's put this into perspective.

Someone bought Homefront for 500k.

HOMEFRONT.

Homefront sold over a million copies. Sure it had a big marketing campaign but that's cheap.

@Pr1mus: as I understand it Games Workshop really like to work with Relic, so I'm sure one way or another Relic will continue to make 40K games. When they where sold I think the license returned to GW so they will need to re-sign a contract with Sega-Relic.

Wow, just wow. I have to wonder if this is just the beginning of a shift and decline in the industry. Yeah we all knew this would happen, but with new consoles coming out who knows what could happen. Crazy how just a few years ago the industry was in a boom and games like Skyrim could sell 17 million copies.

Now Homefront is getting bought out before Vigil. Crazyness.

Feels weird seeing this THQ thing coming to an end. Finally go to playing the original Darksiders. Great game so far. Probably gonna move to Darksiders II right after I'm done. Here's hoping the series gets finished somehow.

I am happy all round with who has acquired what. It shall be interesting how Koch deals with the Saints Row developers and visa versa. I hope Virgil go somewhere cool. I could see WB Games getting them

@Milkman said:

@Aete said:

Also of note is the fact that Patrice Desilets, the former Assassin's Creed creative director who left Ubisoft to pursue new opportunities at THQ, is now back with his former publisher for at least the moment.

Must suck to be him...

It must suck to get bought by the company you used to work for.

Since it's also happened to Jeff Green, that should be a concept page.

Sega running Relic? Hrrrmm... I will stay cautiously optimistic for the time being...

PS - And no bids for Vigil? What? Darksiders better not be dying, I absolutely loved both of em.

@Milkman said:

@Aete said:

Also of note is the fact that Patrice Desilets, the former Assassin's Creed creative director who left Ubisoft to pursue new opportunities at THQ, is now back with his former publisher for at least the moment.

Must suck to be him...

It must suck to get bought by the company you used to work for.

Jeff Green would also like to say something.

@Aete said:

Also of note is the fact that Patrice Desilets, the former Assassin's Creed creative director who left Ubisoft to pursue new opportunities at THQ, is now back with his former publisher for at least the moment.

Must suck to be him...

It's like Jeff Green all over again. Left EA, went to Popcap, Popcap bought by EA, Jeff Green back with EA again.