News

THQ finally dissolved, UbiSoft claims South Park: The Stick of Truth
Posted: 24.01.2013 04:36 by JonahFalcon Comments: 12
After 24 years, starting as a shell company called "Trinity Acquisition Corporation", til LJN turned it into THQ (Toy Head Quarters) to house recent acquisition Broderbund, THQ is no more, having finally been dissolved and its assets auctioned off.

The sale of assets is not official yet, and currently being presented to US Bankruptcy Court. The auctioned properties include Relic (and the Company of Heroes franchise), which was won by Sega ($26.6M), with Zenimax Media, which owns Bethesda Softworks, as the backup bidder with $26.3M. UbiSoft was the sole bidder for South Park: The Stick of Truth ($3.2M) and THQ Montreal (including 1666 and Underdog) for $2.5M.

Koch Media won the bid for Volition and the Saints Row franchise for $22.3M (Ubisoft was the backup bidder with a mere $5.4M) as well as the Metro series (including the upcoming Metro: Last Light) for $5.8M, which UbiSoft also bid for for $5.1M. Crytek got the Homefront franchise for a bargain $544K - it'll be interesting to see what the Crysis developer does with the John Milius property.

All of the rest of THQ's staff will be laid off, with a token staff remaining at the THQ headquarters to assist with the transition.

CEO Brian Farrell and president Jason Rubin wrote in a statement, "While the company will cease to exist, we are heartened that the majority of our studios and games will continue under new ownership.We were hoping that the entire company would remain intact, but we expect to hear good news from each of the separate entities that will be operating as part of new organizations.

"For those THQ employees who are part of entities that are not included in the sale, we are confident that the talent you have displayed as part of THQ will be recognized as you take the next steps in your career."

Let us know what you think.
Source: GameSpot

Comments

By Kiam99 (SI Veteran Member) on Jan 24, 2013
Kiam99
Sad news indeed
By danfreeman (SI Core) on Jan 24, 2013
danfreeman
Oh crap,ubi got the stick of truth,south park fans you are screwed.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Jan 24, 2013
nocutius
At least the game is basically finished, I hope they hold back with any weird DRM.

I honestly thought that THQ would be able to survive with all those great games just about to be released. I wonder why they weren't able to get any loans to get them trough the last six months.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Jan 24, 2013
FoolWolf
Sad to see THQ go, they were actually one of my favourite companies in the end.
I believe that SEGA is by far the lesser evil, if not even a good home for Relic. With all the Warhammer licenses in one place - that could spell a great future for WH with two such good studios working on these titles!

For me personally, I really got sad reading that UbiSoft would get South Park, The Stick of truth. I simply won't send money to a company that have so utterly helped fragmenting the PC market and blatantly showed a loathing towards the PC crowd. Their stupid online DRM schemes may not be in affact, but you still have to have their Ubicrap to check your games - even if you buy them via STEAM etc. I don't want more company specific logins. STEAM was a big choice once. Now you have EA, Ubisoft and whatnots.
Enough is enough. It simply doesn't add anything of value for me as an end user. I like my STEAM list of friends and if I go to EA, I would like to have that list - but bugger me is I'm going to setup the same crap for every account...

No thank you.(In whiney Cartman voice) Screw you Ubisoft - I'm staying at home playing something else...
By HenoKutus (SI Core) on Jan 24, 2013
HenoKutus
Another great company gone,a damn shame,hope the other companies will surprise and impress us with Homefront 2 and Saints 4!
By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Jan 24, 2013
Chosen_One
What bout Homeworld? And I am quite sure that Aussies just messed up with management, their product were sold pretty well. Less Ferrari buys more injecting to business.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Jan 24, 2013
JonahFalcon
Sega owns Creative Assembly (Total War series). Company of Heroes fits in.
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Jan 24, 2013
djole381
A sad day for gaming :(
By YouriRevenn (SI Veteran Member) on Jan 24, 2013
YouriRevenn
This is soo sad :/
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 24, 2013
herodotus
In these new caretaker hands the franchises will hopefully prosper, particularly such spectacular flops as "Homefront" now under Crytek (a company I am becoming less and less sure of though).
And "caretakers" are what they, until the new Publishers earn the right to call the titles their own.
I've seen Publishers come and go over time, and not since the demise of both Microprose (bought out by Hasbro) and Dynamix/Sierra has there been such lamenting. At least however, the IP's that died with those Developers/Publishers look likely to live on and live strong, unless they're ditched for lack of resources (or ideas) at a latter stage.

As for Ubisoft, I understand the reticence as they are far more console-focused than anyone else (save Activision, Microsoft, EA...Hell, the list goes on). However, I don't have a problem with UPlay, Origin, or GFWL for that matter - by themselves. I do have problem when Steam stick their own DRM on top them though. Usually ends in tears at some point.
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Jan 25, 2013
SiyaenSokol
This is quite heartbreaking news. I love THQ and it saddens me to see that their days are over.
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Jan 26, 2013
unsilviu
Here's hoping the other employees will be hired by other companies...