RIP THQ: Assets to be sold off “title by title”, EA confirmed as interested bidder
By Tim Colwill on January 8, 2013 at 11:15 am
Sad news for THQ this morning as news breaks that the company’s assets will be auctioned off on a “title by title” basis to interested parties come January 22.
Those interested parties are now known to include EA, which has completed on-site visits of major THQ operations. Warner Bros. is also known to be in the running, following the weekend’s news that a judge had ruled the current bankruptcy operation was seemingly designed to thwart other non-Clearlake bidders rather than actually being in the best financial interests of THQ’s creditors.
As such, all parties have now agreed to a title-by-title auction — which may mean that different interested parties end up with different IPs.
Source: Develop
Bilson: “I do not know what happened after I left” – former THQ boss speaks
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are ca-all-ing, etc
EA to publish a new MOBA by the name of ‘Dawngate’
Whatever THAT is.
EA dropping online passes from all future titles
That was unexpected.
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Nooo!
hopefully the buyers actually do something with the IP they purchase.
Get ready for Origin Exclusive titles such as: Company of Heroes 2, South Park: The sitck of truth & Metro Last light. Coming to Origin… ONLY
I just hope they don’t purchase the properties only to have them sitting around. It is unlikely with many of the games to be coming out very soon. However if these games don’t perform for their new buyers I can see IP’s being boxed.
THQ were one of my favourite publishers. I love and own probably 9 out of every 10 games they have release for PC. This just sucks.
EA? DO NOT WANT!
Same goes for Ubisoft.
Quick, Valve, save some of the good titles from sitting in a corner of dust!
Someone please please please pickup the homeworld license
This!
I also wanna see Metro released so hopefully that gets picked up by a good developer!
NOO!
Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.
Relic better be safe, with CoH 2 coming out and all.
sad news indeed
I have NO IDEA why people hate Origin so much yet drool all over Steam. They’re exactly the same thing. DRM.
Doom.
Goodbye Metro & Saints Row
One DRM is owned by EA, the other is owned by Valve.
What will happen to the Studios? To be honest all I care about is Relic and Homeworld IP staying together where ever they go.
Worst news ever today. :( That judge is full of derp. A lot of publishers deserve to go under but not THQ. All of their franchises are most likely dead now. I was really looking forward to many of them like a hopeful Darksiders 3 and Dawn of War 3. As it is *if* we get them now they’ll either be full of DRM or meh games at best that probably won’t have the love and care the respective series used to have.
Speaking of DoW what’s going to happen to the War40k license? Relic losing it is like the worst thing ever. :’(
Exactly It’s the fact EA is involved that makes Origin worse than Steam. They just don’t have a good public image.
Hope Bethesda picks up Metro
Anyone want to pool money together and get gon to buy the homeworld license? :)
Why can’t EA be broke!? I mean, what economic model allows a shit company to buy out a champion?
I’ll turn over cars and burn things if EA gets their hands on any decent IPs.
I dunno, I think people put way too much faith in Valve. It’ll get people burned in the end.
It’s not Origin so much (although that does play a part). It’s EA’s known track record for shutting down online services for titles that aren’t even 2 years old.
http://games.on.net/2013/01/ea-to-ring-in-the-new-year-with-online-service-shutdowns/
palzer0,
That and lack of modding support, DLC spam, outrageous prices and so on
come on, they shut down a bunch of online services to mostly sport games from 2 yrs ago, its no big deal. for instance, they still have moh aa servers going. its not all bad. 2 yr old sport games dont need servers! who wants to play nba (for instance) or fifa as something more relevant, with team lists from 2 yrs ago? nobody. its not a thing in the slightest to knock their servers offline.
trex0321
Just because YOU don’t play them, doesn’t mean nobody does. I for one still play NBA Jam and those servers got closed down.
But still, what of all these games people have tied to their Steam accounts, which Valve can close at any time and leave you without pretty much any recourse because they are based overseas? If it happened to you you’d be singing a different tune!
If EA get the games, then I guess Valve will feel the hurt, as the games move from Steam to Origin. Good reason for Valve to step up and secure content.
I get free downloads for Steam, Origin is bad for my download limit. So yes I will support Steam over EA/Origin.
I just want Saints Row 4 D:
In my experience people seem willing to excuse this as an unlikely “what-if” rather than stand on principle. Personally I cannot feel comfortable about the concept of perpetually renting software (which is basically what Steam’s all about) and don’t want to see people get used to the idea such that it becomes the norm, but it seems to be the way things are headed these days.
As for THQ, sad news indeed.
It’s not just sport games though. EA’s also taken the servers for Hasbro Family Game Night offline on XBLA and PSN. Board games are supposed to be perfect for online multiplayer but I can’t play them online even if I bought them with my own MSP because of EA’s decision.
Also, Valve are more trustworthy than EA. Remember the clause EA had in their TOS that allowed them to delete your games if you didn’t log in for 2 years?
Mark my words. If EA get hold of any of THQ’s IPs (especially ones with a multiplayer component), you can bet your bottom dollar that they’ll take the servers for the older titles in that IP offline.
Fixed
fasty,
[quote}Just because YOU don’t play them, doesn’t mean nobody does. I for one still play NBA Jam and those servers got closed down.
But still, what of all these games people have tied to their Steam accounts, which Valve can close at any time and leave you without pretty much any recourse because they are based overseas? If it happened to you you’d be singing a different tune![/quote}
someone actually bought nba jam? hell i’ll invite u over to my place and give ya a game if u want to play it that badly. i bought it too, both the 1st disc version and the sequel on xbox live and never found any body to play with.
and your second point, ive read multiple time and still dont understand? valve closing steam? sure, that would upset more than me, it would upsrt around 50 million people! unlike nba jam servers, which upset noone.
Well this is bizare.
How on earth is EA or any other established gaming company a worse pick than some shonky investment house with no gaming experience, who are trying to pick up an entire company in an under-the-table deal obviously to the benefit of thq tools taking bribes and guaranteed positions in the company post-sale, while screwing legit investors who have already been robbed by incompetence of the same thq tools.
You all need to get your priorities straight, this was a good thing.
That the THQ execs would even try this nonsense shows that they are 10x worse than all the ‘evil’ games companies. I for one am glad that the THQ umbrella will be disolved, and hopefully some of the creative goodness might escape piecemeal either as IP or intact development houses minus THQ control.
neodewolf,
I really, really hate it when people deliberately misrepresent a post just because they think they’re smart.
I know you’re going to bring out the “oh but you’ve only licensed the software, you don’t outright own it” line, and I’m aware of that. But if a company went under, there weren’t any activation servers to ensure you could still run that software. You didn’t have to authenticate remotely to ensure (continued) operation of your software. Basically no-one could deny your ability to use the software you paid for, once you had it.
Now they can. Why do you deliberately misrepresent my post like that? This is a serious issue for the future of personal control over what we buy!
Back off EA! Go stomp on some flowers! Leave THQ remains alone!
coatsy22,
Do you really want a company that hires domain squatters to redirect traffic to their own store in charge of Saints Row or Warhammer 40k?