If you were paying attention to Twitter at all this weekend, amid the deluge of Golden Globes-related live tweeting and the occasional reference to Lana Del Rey on SNL (it really was that bad, you guys), you may or may not have noticed a sudden upswing in mournful discussion regarding publisher THQ and its continued existence. Specifically, the rumors claimed that THQ's upcoming Warhammer MMO project, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online had been cancelled, and that the publisher was in the process of aborting all of its projects currently targeted for 2014.

Considering THQ's recent stock woes--it's been trading at about 66 cents as of last week--the sudden influx of doom and gloom surrounding the company wasn't altogether unbelievable. However, despite all of that, THQ representatives took a break from watching Meryl Streep's acceptance speech to take to the Internet tonight and assure everyone that 2014 is still very much a year in which THQ plans to sell video games, and that no decisions have been made regarding the aforementioned MMO, so please for the love of god stop saying anything about that before the investors wake up on Monday and stomp what's left the company's face into Wall Street's famed "curb of the unprofitable."

"THQ has not cancelled its 2014 line-up, and has not made any decisions regarding the planned MMO. As part of the ongoing review of our business, we have made decisions to ensure that the company is strategically addressing the most attractive markets. As we have previously announced, we have dramatically reduced our commitment to the kids' boxed games sector which leads to a significantly more focused release schedule moving forward. Our slate for calendar 2012 and beyond is focused on high-quality core games and continues to build our digital platform and business. We are excited for our pipeline of original and high-quality content along with our relationships with some of the best talent in the industry."

The rumor originated from the barely navigable Twitter feed of Kevin Dent, the head of the IGDA's "Mobile Special Interest Group," which somehow is a real game industry thing and not the name of a CBS crime drama. Dent stated that Warhammer was canned and that he had heard THQ had gone to the trouble of actually returning the intellectual property of various license-holders in order to start wiping 2014's slate clean.

Somewhere in-between replying to what I can only assume is literally every single person who has tweeted at him today and discussing his plan for a Counter-Strike LAN party this evening, Dent went ahead and backpedaled on all of that, repeating THQ's statement and stating when asked that all his information came from friendly sources inside THQ's various studios, while deftly avoiding every request to explain who those sources were. Because apparently after firebombing what few remaining vestiges of THQ's stock value were left with seemingly incorrect rumors, that would just be, like, wrong, or something. You can read all of his various statements and responses here. Just be forewarned: dude tweets a lot.

Anyway, the point is, THQ is all about releasing core games in 2014, and as far as you know, they're still making a Warhammer MMO, because they haven't stated otherwise--or, at least, haven't clearly stated otherwise. So please, please, please stop telling everyone they're not doing those things, because if the investors hear enough people grumbling about it they will magically appear and gut the company like the goddamned Candyman.

Oh...oh god. We're too late...

If you were paying attention to Twitter at all this weekend, amid the deluge of Golden Globes-related live tweeting and the occasional reference to Lana Del Rey on SNL (it really was that bad, you guys), you may or may not have noticed a sudden upswing in mournful discussion regarding publisher THQ and its continued existence. Specifically, the rumors claimed that THQ's upcoming Warhammer MMO project, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online had been cancelled, and that the publisher was in the process of aborting all of its projects currently targeted for 2014.

Considering THQ's recent stock woes--it's been trading at about 66 cents as of last week--the sudden influx of doom and gloom surrounding the company wasn't altogether unbelievable. However, despite all of that, THQ representatives took a break from watching Meryl Streep's acceptance speech to take to the Internet tonight and assure everyone that 2014 is still very much a year in which THQ plans to sell video games, and that no decisions have been made regarding the aforementioned MMO, so please for the love of god stop saying anything about that before the investors wake up on Monday and stomp what's left the company's face into Wall Street's famed "curb of the unprofitable."

"THQ has not cancelled its 2014 line-up, and has not made any decisions regarding the planned MMO. As part of the ongoing review of our business, we have made decisions to ensure that the company is strategically addressing the most attractive markets. As we have previously announced, we have dramatically reduced our commitment to the kids' boxed games sector which leads to a significantly more focused release schedule moving forward. Our slate for calendar 2012 and beyond is focused on high-quality core games and continues to build our digital platform and business. We are excited for our pipeline of original and high-quality content along with our relationships with some of the best talent in the industry."

The rumor originated from the barely navigable Twitter feed of Kevin Dent, the head of the IGDA's "Mobile Special Interest Group," which somehow is a real game industry thing and not the name of a CBS crime drama. Dent stated that Warhammer was canned and that he had heard THQ had gone to the trouble of actually returning the intellectual property of various license-holders in order to start wiping 2014's slate clean.

Somewhere in-between replying to what I can only assume is literally every single person who has tweeted at him today and discussing his plan for a Counter-Strike LAN party this evening, Dent went ahead and backpedaled on all of that, repeating THQ's statement and stating when asked that all his information came from friendly sources inside THQ's various studios, while deftly avoiding every request to explain who those sources were. Because apparently after firebombing what few remaining vestiges of THQ's stock value were left with seemingly incorrect rumors, that would just be, like, wrong, or something. You can read all of his various statements and responses here. Just be forewarned: dude tweets a lot.

Anyway, the point is, THQ is all about releasing core games in 2014, and as far as you know, they're still making a Warhammer MMO, because they haven't stated otherwise--or, at least, haven't clearly stated otherwise. So please, please, please stop telling everyone they're not doing those things, because if the investors hear enough people grumbling about it they will magically appear and gut the company like the goddamned Candyman.

Oh...oh god. We're too late...

Hm, very interesting how u articulated yes yes, mhm, mhm, smoking my pipe.

Another MMO! Yay?

Alex, it's 1 AM on the east coast. What the fuck are you doing?

This is good news, I hope this means we'll see a sequel to Space Marine at some point.

I don't see why you need to insult Dent.

@Getz said:

Alex, it's 1 AM on the east coast. What the fuck are you doing?

As soon as I saw the image, I totally knew who wrote this.

@yoshimitz707: Who insulted him? All I did was link to his tweets and refer to his twitter account as highly active.

Hehehehe. Awesome Photoshop right there.

wow, THQ is putting out 2,014 games? that's pretty impressive

Hmm... to those spreading the rumors-

@Alex: After giving much of the gaming community a goddamn heart attack by spreading these rumours, I can't say I'd mind if one Alex Navarro slathered on some wit and skull-fucked this guy with insults.

A Candyman reference! Yeah baby!

I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

It's a shame to hear about THQ's ongoing problems. I'm a huge fan of Relic, and Volition's stuff is pretty reliably quality (with the exception of the most recent Red Faction, of course).

@Alex: Awesome coverage considering how late it is over in the east coast! I had a feeling that everything spreading about THQ was really off.

@Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto: I'm sorry, but that image is totally lost on me.

Also, I appreciate you doing work at 1AM, Alex. 'Specially when Candyman is involved.

The Warhammer 40K MMO is the one game that I am looking forward to the most. They must release it!

@Alex said:

@yoshimitz707: Who insulted him? All I did was link to his tweets and refer to his twitter account as highly active.

Dude, you totally outed him as a CS player. That's terrible.

Stupid rumor mills, potentially harming my most anticipated game in existence. Dark Millenium better happen, man.

and the streak of shitty WWE games continues on

I haven't seen SNL in years but holy fucking shit is it in the complete cat shit dept.

Wait. Isn't there ALREADY a Warhammer MMO out? I swear I bought it... =(

@Alex: Thanks for the great work Alex, I've been waiting for confirmation one way or the other on this all day.

@fisher81 said:

and the streak of shitty WWE games continues on

WWE 12 was pretty good.

Candyman... I remember watching this movie thinking it was Beetlejuice back in the day, couldn't sleep alone or look in a mirror for a long time after that. Thanks for bringing back terrifying memories Alex.

Im glad te rumours arent true.

There's no way they would come out and actually say this is true, even if it was. It'd be suicide for their stock price.

There's a warhammer 40k in the works?! That's fucking brilliant!! Also if they wiped every title from 2014 how am I supposed to strap it on?

With a stock price of less than a dollar, I wouldn't be surprised at all if theres some truth to these rumors, even if THQ is denying them at the moment. To me it seems like they're doing damage control at the moment more than anything.

Which one of you tards is picking an e-fight on Alex's twitter over this article?

I really hope the Warhammer 40k MMO turns out good. I love the universe and I might actually get back into MMO's for this one.

Alex is battling it out right now with Kevin on twitter. This Kevin guy sure is a twit.

THIS is the only Candyman you need.

Much ado about nothing.

one would think the WWE MMO would be more real than Warhammer for getting in $$$$ quickly?

@LiquidSwords said:

Which one of you tards is picking an e-fight on Alex's twitter over this article?

Marcus Beer from Invisible Walls podcast on GameTrailers.

Pulling back and focusing on their core games is exactly what they need to do. 

Assuming they're not just doing damage control and are going to go out of business, this'd be a great time to invest in THQ. They have some great IPs and talent over there.

I was hoping they were going to amalgamate some franchises and have Triple H starring as a Space Marine Captain of the Saints Chapter, tasked with invading Mars with his purple-clad gang.

@Xeiphyer said:

Pulling back and focusing on their core games is exactly what they need to do. Assuming they're not just doing damage control and are going to go out of business, this'd be a great time to invest in THQ. They have some great IPs and talent over there.

That is the thing right now, we will not know until it all happens.

They are not doing so well but have some great titles in the works. Focusing on these, getting these out the door rather then likely wasting money and resources on just "ok" games which will likely not make that much money is a good thing.

BUT

IF what maybe going down is indeed true ALL you can do is lie your ass off about this and say it is all bull. Your stock is low as it is and if you want to make an attractive company up for sale, this sort of information so soon will not only lower stock further but will put off potential buyers as as a result.

Some interesting times ahead for them, IT may be the end or it very well may be their time to shine.

Man, I hope I can get hired by THQ like Alex someday.

The one MMO I'm kind of interested in. Mainly because of the heavily established universe.

What movie is that thumbnail from? I can tell that the guy on the left is bill murray, but that's all.

On topic, holy balls! THQ is one of the few publishers I actually really like.

Man, I hope I can get hired by THQ like Alex someday.

@iWonder: It's from Ghostbusters. Go watch it.

Good write-up, glad to hear that THQ is doing all right. They released a handful of really awesome titles last year, even if Homefront was kinda lame.

Thank you Alex for being awesome.

@Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto: Why did you do that? I don't want to see or hear anything about Mirai Nikki, that's poison for me.

Somewhat related, here in the UK it has been impossible to find a copy of Saints Row: The Third for about three weeks now. I spoke with one employee of my local Game, who said it's the same with all THQ games at the moment: they're just not printing enough, possibly owing to the cost.

It's kinda sad that they're doing a lot of awesome stuff with their games and they're in this much trouble (just going by their stock situation).

THQ put out some of the most awesome stuff this gen.

Darksiders? Red Faction: Guerilla? Deadly Creatures? DeBlob? Saints Fucking Row? Warhammer?

I mean sure, even if that were true and they'd have to close up shop, IPs would be sold to other publishers or they would just be absorbed and then these games would be handled by other people but would that wouldn't be the same ...

let's hope things get better for THQ!

Just hope THQ's dev teams make it through this intact, since I'd imagine it'd be very tempting for their top talent to jump ship if they feel things falling apart around them.

How irresponsible of that Dent guy. Specially with a company this vulnerable...

That 40K MMO. I need it so bad. Don't let me down THQ. Also a Space Marine sequel would be pretty rad. Relic done good with the first some polish and improvements would make for a pretty amazing game.