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

Is sega leaving homeworld?

@Phished0ne said:

Am i the only one that thinks Crytek could make a Homefront game work?

People need to stop freaking about the Deep Silver thing. Deep Silver didnt buy Volition, their parent company did. Likely they will hose Volition as a new "label" under the Kotch umbrella. I doubt they will steer Volition away from making Saints Row, considering the two names are synonymous. Koch does good business and im sure they will give Volition they funding they need.

No you are not alone. The idea is sound the execution just sucks. I'm interested to see what Crytek does.

And yeah, Koch Media is strangely a possibly great outcome. They will probably fund Volition and leave them the hell alone. At least we know they won't be pushing to annualized or work on CoD map packs. This is one of the better outcomes.

People's reactions are fucking dumb.. where are they coming from? My only concern is how Call of Juarez went with the last game but that could have just been Deep Silver's idea.

@shades846 said:

is koch media owned by the those right wing billionaire brothers that set up that PAC?

Different Koch, the company in question is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_International which was created by an Austrian dude named Koch.

The company you are think of is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries

The amount of people mis-interpreting Deep Silver buying Saints Row is astounding. DEEP SILVER DON'T OWN SHIT. KOCH MEDIA OWNS IT.

Crytek went downhill ever since crysis 2 so buying homefront will be even be more like COD now since there games are all flash and no substance just like a Micheal Bay movie.As for Koch media buying saints row and metro as long as they do good pc ports I'm fine with it.

Crytek got Homefront dirt cheap.

It's a sad, sad day in some regards.

HA what a hilarious turn of events,

i only saw that due to patrice, how he left ubisoft and now hes back.

hopefully hes gets treated well like how giantbomb got treated when reuniting with gamespot

Sega buying Relic seemed like the best case scenario. Hope everything works out.

People surprised about Vigil shouldn't be. The developers might have proved their worth, but their value is only as good as their IPs, and Darksiders proved it's value (or lack thereof) with its sequel.

You know, instead of buying a house, maybe I should have bought Homefront instead. Press X to make surprising financial decisions.

OFFICIAL: WWE LICENCE GOES TO 2K

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/23/wwe-video-game-license-to-be-acquired-by-take-two?utm_campaign=ign+main+twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

@Demoskinos said:

The amount of people mis-interpreting Deep Silver buying Saints Row is astounding. DEEP SILVER DON'T OWN SHIT. KOCH MEDIA OWNS IT.

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous at this point.

Just saw this Looks like the WWE license is in fact going to TakeTwo, not EA.

I would not be adverse to buying a special edition of Saints Row 4 with a purple dildo in the package.

OFFICIAL: WWE LICENCE GOES TO 2K

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/23/wwe-video-game-license-to-be-acquired-by-take-two?utm_campaign=ign+main+twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

@Redbullet685 said:

Just saw this Looks like the WWE license is in fact going to TakeTwo, not EA.

Is that an oh-snap? Because it feels a bit oh-snap.

Oh, snap.

@Redbullet685 said:

Just saw this Looks like the WWE license is in fact going to TakeTwo, not EA.

Interesting... who the hell will develop this game?

Glad someone else is getting a shot though.

Sega got relic?! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

@big_jon said:

Sega got relic?! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. This is probably the best possible outcome.

I've been throwing it out there since THQ was going under as a dream and I can't believe it actually worked out.

Speaking as a german I can't imagine what has gotten into Koch Media to pay this kind of money for a US-based studio. Looking at their homepage, they have a history of developing stupid shovelware and niche simulators and publishing some bigger titles in the EU (most notably Square RPGs). I can't see them financing development of AAA-games and managing a studio on the other side of the Atlantic ocean will probably prove to be a great challenge for them (I fear too great).

I have to say, it seems Volition (and it maybe Vigil as well) truly got fucked today. I highly doubt their talent will stay after they finish the next Saint's Row. Bummer.

@Demoskinos said:

OFFICIAL: WWE LICENCE GOES TO 2K

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/23/wwe-video-game-license-to-be-acquired-by-take-two?utm_campaign=ign+main+twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

That series is in dire need of some new blood; Yuke's has been doing it for way too long.

@Ravenlight said:

@Alex said:

• $500k Homefront (Crytek)

This is the real tragedy here. Knock off one zero and the k and maybe you'd have a decent price.

Imagine what Crytek (a solid company) could do with that property...

I feel that Saints Row and Metro will be left to their own devices with Koch

As long as it's still Relic holding the license for Warhammer 40.000, I'm not too worried.

Someone needs to pick up Vigil though. They might not be a sure-thing developer, but I honestly thought they had potential with their Darksiders franchise, not to mention the Warhammer 40.000 game (former MMO) they were developing.

Sad day for THQ though :/

Relic must be linked to the Warhammer 40k Licence them selves with no other studio allowed to make 40k games. That explains why Space marine clearly used art assets made by Vigil games but was "relic made" .

Not to put socks in any of you company of heros fans mouths but when Dawn of War 2 copyed the Company of Heroes model it was seen as a resonable failure and turned into basicaly a SC2 custom map spin off last stand beacuse people hated the COH style game play in it so much compared to the original Dawn of War. that 26million is mostly for the Warhammer 40k franchise i bet... not Company of Heroes (well a little bit)

Vigil where working on effectivly the SpaceMarine 2 (but it was called Dark Melenium online) but that was a joint effort between them and Relic. with saga spending that much on Relic... i think if they where smart they would pick up all the vigil guys left as well.. seeing as they well... ... where working on warhammer 40k..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a57TYwNhjaQ

Mind you Games Workshop the owners of the Warhammer 40k Ip did show a promo for a new game made by a nun of the above publishers or developers but it was for a spin of board game for 40k space hulk and mabye was outside any iP rules?

All i know is that Saga being able to make both fantasy Warhammmer and 40k games now could do some pretty cool stuff. For example the next White Dwarf magazine should list models that if built in diferent ways can be used in eather 40k or Fantasy warhammer saga could do some really nifty art asset sharing and even mabye make a new "warhammer" engine for relic and creative assembly to use.. and potential base 2 RTS games on it and pick up the scraps of that MMO.

The potential for Saga to make a huge come around and pick up in blizzards slack is huge right now.

Mind you Blizzard just released the Best trailer ever made for SC2s first expansion yesterday.... i wonder why

I wish Take-Two would have gotten Saints Row. :(

What happened to the rights to Homeworld that THQ bought from Vivendi / Sierra?

@Poki3: I believe Relic owns it, although I cannot say for sure. In any event I'd wager that it would've gone with them to Sega.

what about mx vs atv?

Sega and Relic... TOTAL WARHAMMER!

Sega has a really positive relationship with The Creative Assembly, the makers of the Total War series, one of basically financing the studio and "letting them do their thing", so I'm glad it was they who picked up Relic since the publisher has shown it knows how to deal with a great RTS-maker.

No wonder Crytek bought Homefront, its a bargain basement price.

Good to hear that Volition didn't go to either EA or Activision. At least Koch Media shouldn't tell them what to do in there game.

The Wrestling Thread is confirming that WWE's license has been picked up by 2K, anyone know if Yukes was left behind?

Really surprised nobody wanted Vigil Games. Darksiders 1&2 were pretty great.

so we're finally gonna get a ww2: total war:? or a Homeworld 3 with up close and personal action?

I've never heard of Koch Media and they came out of nowhere with over 28 million dollars for Volition and Saints Row as well as Metro. I saw Crytek going after Homefront since they were already making a sequel.

What's with all the people who think you pronounce the German word Koch as coke? Dear me.

@mrpandaman said:

@Vuud said:

Glad Relic has gone to SEGA, they rescued Creative Assembly from the hell that is Activision and it's been good times.

But who exactly owns the rights to make 40k games? I thought it was THQ, or is it Relic?

I believe Games Workshop (and likes to) works directly with Relic, so I think the 40k license would with Relic, even if THQ did have the license.

Doesn't Sega own the Warhammer fantasy also? I know EA only has the MMO license for WH fantasy, but think of CA and Relic working to create a WH fantasy RTS.

Yeah, Sega and Creatively Assembly announced in December that they had signed a "multi-title licensing deal with Games Workshop® to create videogames based in the Warhammer® universe of fantasy battles". Buying Relic was probably a smart move as it consolidates the 40k and Fantasy licences.

Pretty interested to see what CA will do with the fantasy licence considering their pedigree for strategy games.

@AlexW00d said:

What's with all the people who think you pronounce the German word Koch as coke? Dear me.

In an effort to not sound dumb, Americans will go out on a limb assuming pronunciations.

And then sound dumb.

$71.3 million in total. So ends THQ. I am not surprised but still saddened by this news. May all the former THQ employees land another job, quickly.

@Shensai said:

I feel that Saints Row and Metro will be left to their own devices with Koch

They're two big brands for them, previously all they had was Dead Island, the Anno games, weird German strategy things and snooker games.

They seem a decent smaller publisher.

I'm really sad right now, I jumped on the THQ bandwagon 2 years ago for their hardcore games and now they are gone. RIP THQ

Thank you Alex I was very curious about all this, glad nothing seems to scare me.

I'm not particularly pleased that Koch got Volition. Deep Silver's marketing tactics have always been poor to middling, beyond that, their games are less than stellar. I like Dead Island, but it's not in the same league as Metro or Saints Row.

Hopefully Volition will get to keep its current staff, I'd hate to see Saints Row being developed by Deep Silver.

Beyond that, WHAT THE FUCK. Really sad to see THQ go the way of the dodo given the quality stuff they've been releasing over the last few years.

RIP Saint's Row

There's no way deep silver won't dick up that entire project.

Now that we've seen the amounts on the winning bids:

South Park - It's clear that (as thought) Viacom is funding the development, and (now) Ubisoft is just getting the publishing cut. That said, Ubi must expect sales in the 4+ million copy range to get back in the black; I'm not sure how realistic that is (then again, it could work well on iOS eventually).

Metro - This is half publishing cut, half buying the studio. I wonder if we'll see some discord on the direction of their next game.

Homefront - This is Crytek just paying to take back the rights on the work they've done so far. I expect them to change the branding, self develop, and publish through someone like EA Partners.

THQ Montreal - $2.5 Mil for two games indicates that they aren't very far along, and Ubi is probably just fishing for next-gen tech or studios to add to the Assassin's Creed Borg collective.

Evolve - $11 Mil for a game no one has any real info about? Either the title is nearly finished or looks extremely promising.

Volition - On paper, Koch REALLY overpaid. $22.3 Mil for the studio/IP, when the next game is probably 18+ months out and (especially if limited to next gen) will have a hard time topping SR 3's sales? Koch must be really bullish on the brand.

@Seedofpower: EA already has the UFC license, if anything they got in early.

CHAMPAIGN — Koch Media was the winning bidder for Volition Inc., the Champaign-based video game studio, according to court documents filed Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The European company, which owns the Deep Silver video studio in Larkspur, Calif., bid $22,312,925 for the assets of Volition, best known for creating the "Saints Row" line of video games.

Koch Media easily outbid Ubisoft, which entered a $5.4 million bid for Volition.

Volition's general manager, Dan Cermak, who was in Delaware for the auction, said it appears the studio will remain in Champaign and the future looks "very positive" for Volition under Koch Media.

"I haven't had a chance to sit down with (Koch officials) except for a few moments, and they were very positive," Cermak said in an email shortly after the bid results were released.

"They love Saints Row and are very happy to own its creator," he said, adding that "Volition is not moving."

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/courts-police-and-fire/2013-01-23/updated-volition-chief-sees-very-positive-future.html

So all you "RIP SAINTS ROW" people should probably relax and see how this turns out.

@Tom_Shaw said:

Volition - On paper, Koch REALLY overpaid. $22.3 Mil for the studio/IP, when the next game is probably 18+ months out and (especially if limited to next gen) will have a hard time topping SR 3's sales? Koch must be really bullish on the brand.

This is also a great point for those who are hating on the move... the next bid was $5 million. Koch shows some serious optimism bidding that much more and shows that they probably don't want to go in there fucking it up.