I really hate to be a dick, but a few years ago I worked at THQ for about two weeks, realized just how completely incompetent they are, and quit.

Also, fuck LA traffic.

But, I do feel bad for anyone losing their jobs. As well as anyone that lives in LA.

I find it hard to feel sorry for a company that risked it all and failed. That's business. If there was no risk, we would all be the millionaire owners of large corporations. That said, what will suck is if they eventually go under entirely and there's less competition and diversity.

I think those words probably sound like a broken record in this recession.

My other worry with this is the forceful buckling down on tried and true franchises... of which THQ doesn't have many in the first place. That can quickly lead to poorly iterative games rushed to market. Again. unfortunately the reality of business, sure... but I don't have to like it. I'm genuinely interested in the future of Saints Row, probably as much as Grand Theft Auto at this point.

ouch comes to mind

Camon company of heroes 2... Company of heroes 2... COMPANY OF HEROES 2!!!!! Also, WTF is a udraw?

My Niece and Nephew love the uDraw on the Wii.

I can see how it would sell on that family orientated console, but it was never going to sell to the more hardcore PS3/360 market. Those households probably have a Wii as well as one of the big two so if they were at all interested they probably bought the Wii version.

These are dark times for THQ.

Looking at the bullet points, it seems like THQ learned their lesson and are focusing more on Saints Row, Darksiders, Metro and Relic's games. Instead of expecting the Warhammer 40k Online game, uDraw and Homefront to be large successful franchises.

So if THQ gets through these rough times, I think they'll end out stronger and more focused of what we as the "hardcore" (ugh...) gamers want.

I'm gonna be honest, I'll buy one of those dumb uDraw tablets the moment they go on clearance for $20. Just because I find peripheral gaming fascinating. Hell, I bought into the Guitar Hero/Rock Band fad a couple years late but enjoyed it all the same, so why not this dinky little tablet thing?

Hey Mr. CEO, why don´t you explain to me how you lost a hundred million dollars on fucking gimmicky shit that nobody asked for, yet still earn 300,000 dollars/are employed?

If I would ever fuck up like that, I would be fucking ashamed to take any money whatsoever for it. Go kill yourself. Honestly.

This sounds a lot more positive than a lot of other things that have been said about THQ lately, but I guess that may just be the facts of earning calls (especially ones as grim as these) needing to have a positive spin.

Either way, I think THQ has been making a lot of bold moves, and several of their games have deserved to sell better than they did.

*shrug* I'll continue recommending people to pick up SR:3, Space Marine, etc. Also, pst, I don't think Red Faction: Armaggeddon was as bad as some people are making it out to be.

@Jimbo said:

@Mumrik said:

@alternate said:

Homefront ultimately shipped nearly 3 million copies, and sold 1 million in its first week.

What? How? Why? Who was running out and buying this day one?

People who were knocked senseless by the massive advertising budget. I wonder if this isn't one of those cases where a sequel sells significantly less.

To be fair it was quite an appealing premise in theory. It wasn't until word got out that it was kinda shitty that everybody lose interest.

Was Homefront the one were explosives and what not were supposed to be centered around the character?

If so, did that actually happen in the game and with fluidity, or was it, force the player this way and show an explosion?

Also, over estimating sales by that much, then from what I've seen having no marketing, that's a crazy business plan.

uDraw, uLose :/

@Swoxx said:

uDraw, uLose :/

but uWin, with that comment.

@alternate: People were REALLY hopeful for Homefront. There was a huge amount of buzz for the few months before launch....and even after some people really liked parts of the game. The game really average (around 7 to 7.5), so it really wasn't a terrible game.

@Ineedaname said:

@Swoxx said:

uDraw, uLose :/

but uWin, with that comment.

I think we're all winners here.

@Ineedaname said:

@Jimbo said:

@Mumrik said:

@alternate said:

Homefront ultimately shipped nearly 3 million copies, and sold 1 million in its first week.

What? How? Why? Who was running out and buying this day one?

People who were knocked senseless by the massive advertising budget. I wonder if this isn't one of those cases where a sequel sells significantly less.

To be fair it was quite an appealing premise in theory. It wasn't until word got out that it was kinda shitty that everybody lose interest.

Was Homefront the one were explosives and what not were supposed to be centered around the character?

If so, did that actually happen in the game and with fluidity, or was it, force the player this way and show an explosion?

Also, over estimating sales by that much, then from what I've seen having no marketing, that's a crazy business plan.

Yeah I think it was Homefront that was supposed to have that. I haven't played it, so I don't know how it turned out.

I have high hopes for Darksiders 2 and I want Relic to keep making the Warhammer games. So I'm hoping THQ will be ok.

They need a VP of Common Sense. Going big on uDraw for PS360 was madness.

Regarding the screenshot: Is the roll of toilet paper supposed to represent anything?

Its unbelievable that this guy took the company from $30 a share to $0.67 and he still has a job. Shareholders need to sort that shit out.

They should have went the Ubisoft route and started chucking out dance games...though I hate Just Dance to the core due to how shitty the dances are (has Party Rock Anthem minus the SHUFFLE... only a guy dancing with a ridiculous haircut) but it sells really well. uDraw seemed like a very good product but i reckon the demographic (kids and the parents who buy the products) tend to gravitate more towards party games that the adults themselves could also enjoy. I'm disappointed that it didn't prove successful and it only led to people getting laid off. Hope they find jobs soon.

@InertiaXr said:

@qawsed said:

CEO Brian J. Farrell earned $2.5 million last year and he has received $22 million in stock options.

They lost 55 million in the 3rd quarter of their Fiscal 2012 year, irritation hatred of people that make more than you (his $2.5mil in cash) and attempting to imply that his salary has any bearing at all on the financials of the company doesn't do anything except show that you still have a junior high/maybe high school level knowledge (which in the U.S., would be literally nothing) of finances and economics.

Well their board of directors must have a junior high level of finance knowledge too, because they just halved his salary.

THQ has had some great games but definitely spending the wrong amount of time/money spent on the wrong game promotion as the article points out so hopefully they learn from it to better promote their games.

“Unfortunately, we were wrong,”

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Damn, I almost forgot that Patrice left Ubi. I bet he's having second thoughts about that decision

Does anyone else think it's funny that they are refocusing on quality unlicensed games? THQ for most of their existence has been just pushing out licensed shovelware games; this year they put out 5 AAA titles, more than they ever had before and this is the year they find themselves in deep financial trouble(it's been building up for a while, but this year was the worst). It's crazy that SR3 sold so well and had such little impact on their financials; you'd think that such a big hit on a relatively small publisher would have made a noticeable dent.

Hopefully it will work for them, I do like the games that they are putting out now.

THQ Inc. (THQI)

-NasdaqGS

0.570.19(25.00%)1:19PM EST

Ouch

The positives? Relic is still going to be working on RTS games, Darksiders 2 is getting a bigger push, Metro Last Light is getting a bigger push and more polish, and Volition will focus on Saint's Row. FUCK YEAH!

Those are pretty much all the things, excluding a new good Red Faction, that I care about THQ doing in the next few years. While unfortunate, I'm glad they seem to be learning from uDraw and realizing the strengths of the company.

NOTHING CAN STOP THE SAINTS ROW.

@Tuffgong said:

The positives? Relic is still going to be working on RTS games, Darksiders 2 is getting a bigger push, Metro Last Light is getting a bigger push and more polish, and Volition will focus on Saint's Row. FUCK YEAH!

Those are pretty much all the things, excluding a new good Red Faction, that I care about THQ doing in the next few years. While unfortunate, I'm glad they seem to be learning from uDraw and realizing the strengths of the company.

Great comment, I feel exactly the same way. I love THQ games, I buy and care about most of their franchises. I consider myself a THQ consumer and I intend to stay with them, especially as long as Relic is alive. Also being a Warhammer 40k fan helps alot!

Hang in there, THQ!

Man, Homefront sold 3 million copies, that is awful.

Company of Heroes 2, let's do this!

Whatever Relic is making next, it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll be buying it, whether it's more Warhammer 40k, CoH 2, Homeworld, or something new. I never finished Metro 2033, but I do like me some pretty graphics, so I'll probably check out Last Light as well. I would be sort of bummed if the whole company collapsed, but I can't imagine the important franchises would die off completely even if it did.

@Village_Guy said:

Looking at the bullet points, it seems like THQ learned their lesson and are focusing more on Saints Row, Darksiders, Metro and Relic's games. Instead of expecting the Warhammer 40k Online game, uDraw and Homefront to be large successful franchises.

So if THQ gets through these rough times, I think they'll end out stronger and more focused of what we as the "hardcore" (ugh...) gamers want.

While I do love Red Faction, Relic's Warhammer games, and Metro 2033, and liked Darksiders and would probably like Saints Row, which is kind of stuck in my backlog right now, I would personally prefer it if they kept on trying out new IP's, at some point even Saints Row will grow stale - maybe even sooner than expected considering the reception the latest DLC got, but as they kind of said themselves, maybe they should have more realistic expectations, and also more realistic budgets for their games in the future. I got the impression that they were really, really overspending on Homefront, which while I haven't finished it yet seems like a rather decent if generic modern military shooter. I spent quite a few hours in it's multiplayer mode, seemed like it combined the elements of the big two modern military shooter franchises quite well, though of course you might have expected a bit more innovation from the guys behind Battlefield 2.

Was Space Marine profitable?

"Confidence was misplaced on uDraw, but it was a catalyst to 'evaluate our business from top to bottom.'"

Relic. RTS. Relic. RTS.

Please be Homeworld 3. I don't care how, just make it happen.

As for Patrice Désilets next game...

Assassin's Draw.

Kickstarter nao!

@Tebbit said:

Relic. RTS. Relic. RTS.

Please be Homeworld 3. I don't care how, just make it happen.

I would buy Homeworld 3 twice.

To all the people who regard the failure of udraw on the 360 as patently obvious: you realize you can make money in the stock market by betting against companies? Short selling. I've never done it, but then again I don't have the gift for prescience (strangely exercised here after the fact...) that you all seem to.

So basically their uDraw hardware tanked, so now they plan on whoring out every single IP they own, including Darksiders and Metro? It sounds like the higher ups at THQ have no fucking clue what they're doing. I hope great development teams like Volition and Relic find a decent home when the company inevitably files bankruptcy like what happened with Midway.

Translation: Downsize and loss of jobs, less games, more expensive marketing that would pay for numerous people's salary that will no longer work at the company.

Ah well sometimes a company needs to experience a heavy loss in order to become truly great again/at all, let's hope this's the case for THQ.

I actually really like THQ. Sure hope they survive.

This is the first time I have ever heard of UDraw. Marketing probably helps to sell stuff.

I'm totally going to buy a uDraw when they cost 15 dollars

I really hope things get better for them. For reasons I can't comprehend, they've found a special place in my heart, and I really want them to be doing alright.

@Karlif: Same Here I have no idea what that is!

After they thought Udraw would sell I think they deserve to go under. Morons.

@Karlif said:

This is the first time I have ever heard of UDraw. Marketing probably helps to sell stuff.

Same here, I have no idea what it is.

This is a sad-ass article.

Darksiders 2 is not going to be the 'main event' they want it to be. If they're pinning their hopes on that they're just making the same mistakes all over again (expecting 'quite good' AAA games to sell gangbusters). It's gonna be stuck in the ~1-2 million bracket like Dead Space, hamstrung by the fact that the first game in the franchise just didn't sell well enough.