Xbox 360 THQ's Assets Sold at Auction to Various other Publishers

[pstep]

All of THQ's game assets were auctioned off the the highest bidder. The maker of games such as: Saints Row, Company of Heroes, Homefront and the Warhammer Series has finally been sold. In my opinion there are some big winners in the list of buyers.

According to an article on Forbes.com

For most of the THQ studios, a buyer was found, pending confirmation today (UPDATE: Judge Walrath has granted the motion to approve):

• Relic Entertainment (Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War) went to Sega for $26.6 million , with Zenimax Media (owners of id Software and Bethesda) kept as reserve after bidding .3 million less.
• Evolve, the new property from Turtle Rock Studios (co-creators of Left 4 Dead) was purchased by Take-Two Interactive, for a long time THQ’s closest competitor in the second tier of US publishers, for $10.894 million. Turtle Rock had perhaps hoped to escape notice, as their game was in its early stages, and had put in a $250,000 bid for the property themselves.
• The Homefront IP – based on John Milius’ concept of a United States under occupation – was purchased by Crytek, whose UK division had ben contracted to produce Homefront 2. The $544,218 fee seems low for a banner IP, but Homefront‘s underperformance in the market would have affected the cost: one is buying an IP, but also a considerable marketing challenge.
• Publishing rights for South Park: The Stick of Truth,which is preparing for launch on March 5, was purchased by Ubisoft for $3,265,306
• THQ Montreal – the first organically-grown (rather than acquired) THQ studio in North America, and its largest, was also purchased by Ubisoft, which already has a significant presence in Montreal. With no titles in the works, this can be seen as an opportunity to acquire a lot of talent relatively cheaply at $2.5 million.

The German media group Koch Media (no relation to the Libertarian brothers) arguably captured THQ’s crown jewels, with Volition, Inc, producers of the successful Saints Row franchise, picked up for $22.2 million, and publishing rights for the Metro intellectual property. Metro: Last Light,scheduled for release this year, is the sequel to the critically acclaimed and surprisingly successful shooter Metro 2033 by the Ukrainian studio 4A games.

Here is to hoping Saints Row doesn't get butchered by Koch Media. Whoever they are???

- me

 

[BigBigFan]

Wow, what a fall from grace after being the darling child of the industry.

Greed, lack of ingenuity and.. greed. Borrowing to maintain the status Quo was a bad management decision.

I like Saints row, they'd better not mess it up!

 

[DiamondCardz]

Koch Media bought Volition, Inc? I do hope that this doesn't affect the Saints Row series...I've been loving it so far and I would hate it if the Saints Row series went downhill. It's one of the most fun game series I have ever played, and if Saints Row was to be ruined, it would be the equivalent of the Xbox Community losing it's prized game.