THQ files for bankruptcy

The big thing with the new generation of console isn't the hardware its 100% the business around it.

If anything, all this stuff with tons of developers leaving AAA and flocking to mobile/social is a blessing. It's making it so old school mentality is moving out so a new generation of developers can move in. We've been experiencing all the benefits of this first hand at IllFonic and I've been in plenty of meetings with publishers, investors, lawyers and agents who all talk about this. Most of the stuff we do is all behind close doors because it's all crazy experimental getting ready for the new generation. The bottom line is, there is going to be lots of money to be made with the new generation. That means the demand for developers is going to skyrocket. All these developers that are leaving AAA are just leaving an opening for the next generation.

but yes, we signed with THQ right before the uDraw incident happen. We saw THQ crumble before our very eyes very soon after. There are only 2 or 3 people out of maybe 50 people we worked with still at THQ. I used to deal with THQ daily... from their marketing, technical, executive, testing, usability testing, and localization departments... now i only talk to them if i need more Steam Keys. They've either all abandoned ship or got laid off. Luckily, we paid for all of development for Nexuiz so it doesn't affect us. Unfortunately, the fact that we went through 5 marketing directors made the PR and Marketing for Nexuiz fumble into obscurity. The funny thing is, Machinima was the other partner on Nexuiz too (but they're laying off with growing pains, different kind of lay-off). Luckily Nexuiz was a success, so we're able to avoid the collapse of THQ almost entirely... minus a few other "who knows" that we still don't even know.

We could tell immediately what was wrong with it. The biggest problem with console development (on the business side) is dealing with policies that are from like 2005 and shit. It's terrible. XBLA games cannot be marketing or treated like box games because of they who cannot be named wont go against policies erected years ago. The new consoles, and a new way of thinking, is needed. The cost of games, the time it takes to make them, the costs of hardware, etc. isn't going to really matter. The consumer demand will be there, so the money will definitely be there. It's just bad practices in bureaucracy. And yes, most of that comes from producers. The wave of "Scrum" bullshit put a bunch of talentless asshats in charge of many studios that don't know dick about another persons job.

Nothing like news like this before switching on to a THQ project

So yeah...how's Homefront 2 coming along?

Great, although I only get to look down on it from my lofty position working on C3

Heh when we heard you guys in the UK were working on Homefront 2 we were like for you guys (only because of the state of THQ)...you guys saved our asses on Nexuiz great coding team there.

I loved THQ as a publisher, they atleast tried to do different kind of games and took risks to bring innovation to the table. We still be getting Company of Heroes and Homefront 2 is from Crytek. So that's a good news. They needed one anchoring game franchise which would have hold them together.

Interesting :

http://www.justpushstart.com/2012/12/ubisof…ember_198317839

NOOOOOOO!!! NOT UBISOFT!!!

Looks like their assets will be auctioned off seperately (studios, games, licenses). I hope it all goes well!

And please, no one fuck with CoH2 and Metro: Last Light.

Quote from Puddy

Looks like their assets will be auctioned off seperately (studios, games, licenses). I hope it all goes well!

Wouldn't in this way to be possible for a studio to buy-back its own property? Probably too costy but i mean, the possibility would be there.

I also thought about that (was actually inspired by the show Mad Men where something similar happens). And yeah, it's probably too costly for it to happen but it would be awesome.

Crytek signs up for Homefront 2 in shock deal

Quote

THQ has announced that the next game in its Homefront franchise will be developed by FPS veterans Crytek.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/319598/crytek-…-in-shock-deal/

Nope.avi

Quote from blackdog

Wouldn't in this way to be possible for a studio to buy-back its own property? Probably too costy but i mean, the possibility would be there.

yep, we're going to try to buy back the license. not for much though. lol. i'll put $5 on it.

I really hope we don't see some IP's getting picked up but not the studios behind them

The only studio I care about (no offence Kedhrin) is Relic and THQ's predicament troubles me a lot. I'll doubt it would have an impact on Company of Heroes 2 (luckily) but what about Dawn of War 3 and the Warhammer 40K license? Please don't let this fall into the hands of EA.

Because let's be honest. They certainly tried to change, but you can still count the studios they haven't ruined on one hand. Dice is the only one that seems to thrive under EA. Even the mighty Bioware is crumbling (if you believe the stories).

I always liked THQ as a publisher. I thought they were original. Bringing us games that weren't necessarily mainstream. Even though I don't care for most of them, that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate what they brought to the table as a publisher. I'll miss them.

We aren't owned by THQ and they don't own anything of ours, they just have rights to a license for a period of time... they didn't pay for development either, we did, so no offense taken

Quote from Kedhrin

We aren't owned by THQ and they don't own anything of ours, they just have rights to a license for a period of time... they didn't pay for development either, we did, so no offense taken

Really? This publishing business is so fucking dodgy and weird man.

Yeah it's different across the board... we prefer to raise our own money though, that way we keep our IPs and can do whatever we want without anyone telling us what to do (to a point). Publishers love those kinds of deals but you also lead yourself to getting fucked too. if they aren't heavily invested and don't own something big (like the IP), they usually don't really try that hard on the project. But its the way the publishing industry is going. Publishers prefer to have internal studios and external studios fund their projects themselves.

THQ helped us with marketing, localization, distribution, ratings and most importantly.. seats on consoles (including Steam). Machinima was our other marketing partner. But everything else was all up to us... other than the shitty xbox release forced out because of House Party and the shitty PC release because of the pending Diablo 3 release marketing thought would "shut down press for months"... meh.

I'm curious to see what's going to happen if Ubisoft acquires all of THQ's assets (including the license to Homefront): is Crytek going to drop the project or Ubisoft give it to a different studio OR will they work together again after all this time? Find out on the next episode of "Videogames: Serious Business".