Excellent write up Alex, I will mourn the loss of Vigil by attempting to finish Darksiders.

That Vanilla Ice thing!

@Missacre said:

This is good news indeed. I'm glad Sega got Company of Heroes. It's a perfect fit for them. I'm also REALLY happy that Activision, EA or Ubisoft didn't get Saints Row or Metro. Who knows how much they would've butchered them. I especially have my eye on you, EA.

Oh yeah, cause EA's WAAAAAAAY worse than Activison. Totally, for sure. The internet's insane EA witchunt is absurd.

@DoctorWelch:

I couldn't agree more.

I'm happy somebody at GB is still caring about articles that go beyond Patrick's hipster circlejerking about exuberantly political crap.

@Pinmonkey said:

@Missacre said:

This is good news indeed. I'm glad Sega got Company of Heroes. It's a perfect fit for them. I'm also REALLY happy that Activision, EA or Ubisoft didn't get Saints Row or Metro. Who knows how much they would've butchered them. I especially have my eye on you, EA.

Oh yeah, cause EA's WAAAAAAAY worse than Activison. Totally, for sure. The internet's insane EA witchunt is absurd.

Uh, YEAAAHHH. This "witchhunt" is justified, though, seeing as how EA is pretty evil. If you don't believe me, read some of the stories yourself.

Great read!

This was a good article. Keep up the great writing, Alex!

This is how you write a feature

Alex, never stop <3

A fitting eulogy for THQ.

Good stuff Alex.

Great read, much better than a lot of stuff I've seen around here lately. It is depressing that no one has snatched Vigil up. I always thought they were capable of great things. They're still a pretty young studio, and I'd love to see someone buy them and finally let them blossom. It would be such wasted potential if they weren't.

@pw2566ch said:

@thefncrow said:

@pw2566ch said:

@LordAndrew said:

@pw2566ch said:

I'm curious as to if Double Fine were to purchase their own games from this auction.

Double Fine already owns the rights to their games.

They don't own the rights to Costume Quest or Stacking. It was mentioned in one of the Giant Bombcasts.

From my understanding, Double Fine owns the IP to both Costume Quest and Stacking. What they were supposedly interested in from the THQ sale was to buy back the distribution rights that THQ had as the publisher for Costume Quest and Stacking on 360/PS3.

That actually sounds about right. Because if they lose the distribution rights, wouldn't that mean that the game can't be sold on PS3 and 360?

I've also been wondering about this.

But I also wonder if publishing and distribution stuff is part of the rest of sales that will happen at a later date, and that's why there hasn't been any mention of it anywhere after the initial stuff. And even after that a judge would have to approve the sales.

It's somewhat confusing.

Keep firing those guns, Navarro, for this was very worth reading. Thanks for the effort.

Good read!

I'd love to see them change the engine for these games. You can trace some move animations back to Smackdown 1 for PSX. But realistically they probably can't start from scratch unless WWE is willing to wait more than a year for the next game.

Best written article I've seen here. Interesting and funny.

@Krabonq said:

@DoctorWelch:

I couldn't agree more.

I'm happy somebody at GB is still caring about articles that go beyond Patrick's hipster circlejerking about exuberantly political crap.

Maybe you'd be more at home on the Fox News forums.

Great article!! Bonus points for the Boogie Nights reference.

@Curufinwe said:

@Krabonq said:

@DoctorWelch:

I couldn't agree more.

I'm happy somebody at GB is still caring about articles that go beyond Patrick's hipster circlejerking about exuberantly political crap.

Maybe you'd be more at home on the Fox News forums.

No, he wants less political crap.

Nice article, Alex.

I'm glad most of these studios seem to have been picked up/stay in business.

Loved the article Alex, keep it up !

Forgot to mention how much I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for writing this Alex.

@fisk0 said:

@ArtisanBreads said:

Long view, the Relic to SEGA thing is so funny, saying it makes sense.

It totally does just crazy what SEGA has become. Couldn't be happier. They now own the two best strategy devs.

@fisk0 said:

@Alex: Do you have any idea what'll happen to the Darksiders franchise if nobody buys the IP or Vigil on the cheap? As there are neither a publisher or a developer associated with the game, I assume it'll be pulled off Steam, PSN and Xbox Live - but would they go the full on Too Human route with delisting the game entirely from the services (got the impression that happened with Too Human from the Unprofessional Friday livestream)? What does happen to the IP if nobody bids for it, would it get in the hands of an insurance company or something like that, like what happened with System Shock, and would somebody be able to make a bid for the IP long after the auctions if it remains unsold, or would it end up in some legal limbo?

Someone will buy it. Just for the reasons you say, to make money off it on Steam if nothing else.

If Vigil are disbanded, would the new owners automatically get the rights to keep publishing the original games, or just to keep doing new games under the IP? Seems like when Sir-Tech closed down and an Japanese publisher got the Wizardry rights, they still didn't get the rights to republish Wizardry 1-8, only to make their own Wizardry games?

It all depends on the deal and who ends up getting what. The sad fact is that anything is possible and the property could end up anywhere. Someone could easily swoop in and grab Darksiders for cheap; it could just as easily play out that one company ends up with the rights to the first two games and another gets the rights to future games. Or it could go System Shock and the rights could end up with an insurance company who doesn't understand what they own.

Great read. Thanks for this Alex!

I'm really enjoying these weekly articles, Alex. Keep it up!

And I really hope this isn't the end of Red Faction, Darksiders, and the unreleased Dark Millenium. Common, buyers!

@Missacre said:

@Pinmonkey said:

@Missacre said:

This is good news indeed. I'm glad Sega got Company of Heroes. It's a perfect fit for them. I'm also REALLY happy that Activision, EA or Ubisoft didn't get Saints Row or Metro. Who knows how much they would've butchered them. I especially have my eye on you, EA.

Oh yeah, cause EA's WAAAAAAAY worse than Activison. Totally, for sure. The internet's insane EA witchunt is absurd.

Uh, YEAAAHHH. This "witchhunt" is justified, though, seeing as how EA is pretty evil. If you don't believe me, read some of the stories yourself.

Video games are serious business. EA has mass murdered people, killed babies, and drowned kittens.

Great article Alex. It's definitely a shame that due to mismanagement so many studios are effected, hopefully the remaining few find good homes to continue making great games into the future.

I was a believer like you Alex - to the point where I purchased a bunch of THQ stock.

Yeah, that was a bad idea.

Alex, you absolutely killed it on this piece. Outstanding job breaking down all of this.

@insanejedi said:

@Missacre said:

@Pinmonkey said:

@Missacre said:

This is good news indeed. I'm glad Sega got Company of Heroes. It's a perfect fit for them. I'm also REALLY happy that Activision, EA or Ubisoft didn't get Saints Row or Metro. Who knows how much they would've butchered them. I especially have my eye on you, EA.

Oh yeah, cause EA's WAAAAAAAY worse than Activison. Totally, for sure. The internet's insane EA witchunt is absurd.

Uh, YEAAAHHH. This "witchhunt" is justified, though, seeing as how EA is pretty evil. If you don't believe me, read some of the stories yourself.

Video games are serious business. EA has mass murdered people, killed babies, and drowned kittens.

Actually the murdered people one is right. I know you were being oh-so-clever with that sarcasm, but at least that one is true.

@insanejedi said:

@Missacre said:

@Pinmonkey said:

@Missacre said:

This is good news indeed. I'm glad Sega got Company of Heroes. It's a perfect fit for them. I'm also REALLY happy that Activision, EA or Ubisoft didn't get Saints Row or Metro. Who knows how much they would've butchered them. I especially have my eye on you, EA.

Oh yeah, cause EA's WAAAAAAAY worse than Activison. Totally, for sure. The internet's insane EA witchunt is absurd.

Uh, YEAAAHHH. This "witchhunt" is justified, though, seeing as how EA is pretty evil. If you don't believe me, read some of the stories yourself.

Video games are serious business. EA has mass murdered people, killed babies, and drowned kittens.

Worst company in America, remember. They didn't illegally foreclose on peoples houses, but man, when they put in the pre-order bonus for a light machine gun in Battlefield 3 that shit was crossing the fucking line.

Amazing article Alex.

For the most part all these studios/IP's seem to have found fitting homes. I guess time will tell though.

Why nobody is mentioning this:

http://www.giantbomb.com/homeworld/62-307/

Would be great if Relic could come back to it, i wonder if SEGA owns this IP now.

Received a job offer from THQ Montreal last summer.. That would make me a Ubisoft employee now. The whole thing is just weird, still very good for all those employees not loosing their job.

@insanejedi: @Pinmonkey:

Wow, you guys are some real assholes. I make ONE comment about EA, and the white knight brigade comes to the rescue. Real classy, you guys. Real classy.

I hope Vigil can remain together under a new publisher, it's a shame Darksiders just isn't a big selling franchise in a market that just doesn't seem to support anything that's not AAA or social.

That was probably the best article I've ever read by Alex. It was a very insightful read, and yet it's heartbreaking to know that THQ is dead.

@MeatSim said:

For the most part all these studios/IP's seem to have found fitting homes. I guess time will tell though.

At the very least, I know Sega's gonna do a good job with Company of Heroes. It fits right in with the whole strategy angle Sega's going with right now. Shogun 2 is still pretty damn amazing, so I wholeheartedly trust them to not fuck it up.

My grade for this article: A+

Alex is killing it. Glad to see a solid feature in the news feed.

I just hope Saint's Row 4 is more like Saint's Row 2. You could really tell THQ was stretching the budget with how padded The Third was.

Thanks, Alex.

Anybody want to kickstart an initiative to buy de Blob? Think about it. It can't be that expensive.

@Roger778 said:

That was probably the best article I've ever read by Alex.

I agree, actually. I usually have a hard time reading Alex articles because of the tone, but this one was straightforward and informative, with just a dash of that Alex bite. I wish he could bring the same level of basic respect he has for THQ to all of the subjects of his news stories.

@BSw: 1. New Consoles, opportunity for a new direction.

2. Disney is a large media company that has yet to run a successful videogame company. EA would be more of a larger multimedia acquisition.

3. Disney would own all of EA's IP. While not as popular as Star Wars or Marvel, it does have value. Movies, TV, Books, Comics, Licensing, etc.

4. Origin. While it is not as popular as Steam, Origin could be a portal for Disney to deliver games, tv and movies.

5. Publishing, Disney/EA would become one of the strongest publishers out there. Disney loves to own something rather than pay a company to do something. There is a strong possibility that Disney will be buying Hasbro for the same reasons. They want to make their own toys. 100% of all profits.

6. EA's value is not what it was 5 years ago. They are strong but not as strong. Would benefit from Disney in just a PR notion.

@endaround: Totally agree. Although the new Crytek news is promising. Much of what the sale was seems to be what games would be the quickest to do. It is possible that that asking price for Vigil and Darksiders was just too high.

It's really sad to realize THQ is actually gone. I too thought something was going to save them. They've been one of my favorite developers of late, and they really put their heart and soul into many of their games. Of course, there were many games from them that didn't have quite as much effort, but still.

Even after the auction and everything, I still for some reason felt like there was a shred of THQ left. This article was great in showing me the reality of the situation, and where it might lead.

Excellent stuff Alex. So far this new feature for you has been great.

Another excellent article Alex, loving these in comparison to.. other news articles.

This is the kind of insightful, well-written article that Patrick Klepek doesn't have the capability to write, but will insist on trying to emulate.