So THQ's dead and broken up, and Atari (Infogrames) looks like it's following

[A Black Falcon]

THQ went bankrupt last month, and was sold piece-by-piece at auction over the last day. Here are the results:

Sega agreed to purchase Relic [studio]
Koch Media [European company that owns the console publisher Deep Silver] agreed to purchase Volition [studio] and Metro [game]
Crytek agreed to purchase Homefront [IP and game Homefront 2]
Take 2 agreed purchase Evolve [game] and
Ubisoft agreed to purchase [THQ] Montreal and South Park [game]
We expect these sales to close this week.


Some assets, including our publishing businesses and Vigil, along with some other
intellectual properties are not included in the sale agreements. They will remain part of
the Chapter 11 case. We will make every effort to find appropriate buyers, if possible.

Also, EA seems to have bought the WWE license. Or maybe Take Two (for 2k). No announcement yet.

It's too bad for Vigil (Darksiders), looks like they're dead... kind of surprising, but you never know, obviously. As for other IPs, like the Darksiders name rights, or Red Faction, or such, either they're unwanted, or that news has not been announced yet. I never liked THQ all that much myself, and haven't played too many of their games, but they have been around for a while, and seemed to be getting better (game quality wise) recently... but unfortunately, it seems that they overreached, and it took them down. Too bad, and particularly too bad for Vigil, who joins the very long list of developers who went under this gen.


As for Atari, they're not quite dead yet, but are heading that way; their American branch, Atari USA (once known as GT Interactive, before Infogrames bought them back in the late '90s), declared bankruptcy recently, so that they can separate themselves from their troubled French parent company; apparently the US branch, which is just a publisher and doesn't own game studios itself anymore, actually is profitable, so they don't want to go down with the unprofitable main company. Understandable.

[Great Rumbler]

Some of THQ's best games came out in the last few years of their existence. Oh well, at least most of its important bits managed to find a new home.

[A Black Falcon]

I was skeptical when THQ announced its refocus a couple of years ago, to change from being a kids/licensed games-focused company who also occasionally made some core stuff, to being a core-focused company, and yeah, in the end it didn't work out... as for their games in recent years though, I know I bought that THQ Humble Bundle pack last month, but haven't actually played any of them yet. Now I"m not sure, should I get, say http://www.amazon.com/THQ-Mega-Pack-Down...B00B1GFKCA even though I don't need it now and own half of those games? I mean, I don't have the Warhammer 40k games, and do have at least some interest in them... if those get much pricier (unavailable via DD or something so you have to buy used physical copies) that would be bad. Plus Darksiders 2 is obviously in limbo. But... I don't know, I might pass.

[Dark Jaguar]

I've got something to say. It's better to burn out, than to fade away! I'm glad THQ really turned themselves around in recent years in quality. It's a crying shame that so few people bothered with a lot of their games. Myself included. I was focused on other things though... Anyway, I'm picking stuff up now. Here's hoping Darksiders can get saved. I mean, the whole "feel" of that series is very death metal, and sometimes I think the creators aren't quite self aware enough of exactly what their characters look like and take themselves just a bit too seriously, but it's good fun.

Saints Row suffered the indignity of not being Grand Theft Auto, and for that it must pay the ultimate price, unfortunately. That's a shame, because Saints Row realizes just how ridiculous the storyline of a Grand Theft Auto is, and Rockstar still thinks they are making a video game version of The Godfather (where one guy can take on the entire army, because realism).

I'm glad I picked up that bundle back when. I heard it sold shockingly well for THQ, making them a lot of money, but it appears it wasn't enough to save them. That said, if they had to split it up, I hope whatever company makes things like the video game versions of all those Disney Channel sitcoms is the first to die. The shows aren't funny, and the games are lame. I don't need to play them or find reviews either. If even one of those was actually good, it would light up the internet with shock and awe and recommendations. The biggest reference I've seen instead is Penny Arcade "recommending" it as a bulk purchase for Child's Play, which, I dunno, is generous and the games themselves are really cheap so a lot can be bought, but at some point, maybe sick and dying kids might like GOOD games being donated to them, ya know?

[Great Rumbler]

Saints Row games actually sold pretty well, far better than just about any other open world game not named Grand Theft Auto.

I'm glad I picked up that bundle back when. I heard it sold shockingly well for THQ, making them a lot of money, but it appears it wasn't enough to save them.

It made them a few million dollars. In order to be saved, they would have needed a few HUNDRED million dollars.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, and Darksiders 2 sold well too -- 2.4 million is good numbers. The problem is that the game was just so crazy expensive to develop that it lost money overall... yeah, budgets really have gone crazy. The game was apparently over $70 million or something.

[Dark Jaguar]

It is no wonder so many indie games look like 16 bit or 8 bit games. It's not a style choice, or rather, not JUST a style choice, it's a style choice that lets them vastly save on development time. To think though, back in the 16 bit days, those games actually did cost a pretty penny and a long time to develop though...

Something's gotta give at some point. The graphics technology at our disposal has outpaced our ability to reliably develop games that use it well and do it fairly cheap and quickly.

I do wonder just how much time goes into the task of making textures though. The artists probably spend a vast amount on that, more so even than the models.