Keth Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 Yesterday THQ was officially sold off, broken apart through different companies. Here's a breakdown of who got what. It's worth noting that all of these sales are pending approval from U.S. bankruptcy court and nothing is finalized yet. A hearing is currently underway in Delaware. SEGA has agreed to purchase Relic, developer of Company of Heroes 2 and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. Koch Media (owner of Dead Island publisher Deep Silver) has agreed to purchase Saints Row developer Volition as well as the publishing rights to the Metro franchise. (Update: According to a statement issued by Koch, "Deep Silver, Koch Media’s international publishing powerhouse, will lead all further development and marketing on the Saints Row and Metro franchises." The statement added that "Koch Media and Deep Silver will roll out future plans for each franchise in the coming months.") Crytek, who is currently developing Homefront 2, has purchased the rights to the Homefront franchise. Take-Two (parent company of 2K and Rockstar) has agreed to purchase Turtle Rock Studios’ project codenamed Evolve. (Update: While Take Two was initially rumored to have acquired Darksiders publisher Vigil, it has since been revealed that this isn't the case) Ubisoft has purchased the rights to publish South Park: The Stick of Truth as well as THQ Montreal, the current developer of Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Desilets’ project codenamed 1666. (Update: Ubisoft has confirmed the purchase, noting in a statement that "THQ Montreal will join Ubisoft’s development teams." Ubisoft also says that South Park: The Stick of Truth "is scheduled for release in calendar 2013.") According to Distressed Debt Investing, Ubisoft paid $3.2 million for South Park and $2.5 million for THQ Montreal, Koch Media paid $5.8 million for Metro and $22.3 million for Volition and Crytek paid $500,000 for Homefront. No bids were placed for Vigil. Polygon reports that SEGA bid $26.6 million for Relic, and a second-place bid came from Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media, who offered $26.3 million. The site also reports that Take-Two paid $10.8 million for Evolve, with a second place bid for $250,000 coming from Turtle Rock itself. Many THQ employees, meanwhile, report having lost their jobs via social networks. Assets including Darksiders studio Vigil and have not been acquired. The future home of the WWE franchise has yet to be disclosed, though IGN sources suggest Take-Two will purchase the license. Letter from CEO Brian Farrel To All THQ Employees: We now have the answers we've been seeking through our financial restructuring and Chapter 11 case. While much will be written, here are the facts of the bids and auction that occurred t: Yesterday morning, we received a competing bid for the operating business, along with Clearlake's offer, and numerous offers for separate assets. During an auction process that lasted over 22 hours, the final conclusion was that the separate-asset bids would net more than a single buyer for the majority of the company. Shortly, we will, present the results to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which must concur with our assessment. The proposed sales of multiple assets is as follows : Sega agreed to purchase Relic Koch Media agreed to purchase Volition and Metro Crytek agreed to purchase Homefront Take 2 agreed purchase Evolve and Ubisoft agreed to purchase Montreal and South Park 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. What this means for employees We expect that most employees of the entities included in the sale will be offered employment by the new owners. However, we cannot say what these owners may intend, and there will likely be some positions that will not be needed under the new ownership. You should receive notice this week or early next week if the new owners intend to extend employment to you. Please note that the terms of your new employment, including pay and benefits, may be different from the current terms of your employment with THQ. If you are an employee of an entity that is not included in the sale, we regret that your position will end. A small number of our headquarters staff will continue to be employed by THQ beyond January 25 to assist with the transition. THQ has sufficient resources to pay these employees for work going forward, and we will be contacting these employees immediately to ensure their continued employment during this transition period. We are requesting the ability to offer certain severance pay to minimize disruption for employees of non-included entities as they determine the next steps in their careers. We know you will have many questions about this news. We'll be meeting tomorrow when we return to talk through this announcement and to answer any questions you have. You will receive a benefits fact sheet and FAQs with answers to some questions that may be on your mind. Please review these materials closely. A personal note The work that you all have done as part of the THQ family is imaginative, creative, artistic and highly valued by our loyal gamers. We are proud of what we have accomplished despite today's outcome. It has been our privilege to work alongside the entire THQ team. 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. Thank you all for your dedication and for sharing your talent with the THQ team. We wish you the best of luck and hope you will keep in touch. Sincerely, Brian Farrell Chief Executive Officer Jason Rubin President The last part makes it even more sad. Pretty disappointed nobody snatched up Vigil/Darksiders, and real surprised that WWE wasn't grabbed right away. Hopefully Take-Two would grab them. Could be a worse place for those titles to be. Would hope for Ubisoft, but looks like that won't happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the division of joy Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 Had a feeling this would happen after they went the humble bundle route. Seemingly 2k are going for the WWE titles, which is going down well with some of my wrestling game fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrizzle Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Item #1 - Relic - Developer of the Company of Heroes titles and Warhammer 40k titles, includes all assets for Company of Heroes but NOT Warhammer 40kWinning bidder: SEGA Winning bid: $26.6 million Back-up bidder: Zenimax Media Back-up bid: $26.3 million Item # 2 - Montreal - Developer of the upcoming 1666 and Underdog Winning bidder: Ubisoft Winning bid: $2.5 million Back-up bidder: None Item # 3 - Evolve - Upcoming game being developed by Turtle Rock Winning bidder: Take-Two Interactive Software Winning bid: $10.894 million Back-up bidder: Turtle Rock Studios Back-up Bid: $250,000 Item # 4 - Volition - Developer of the Saint's Row franchise, includes all assets for Saints Row Winning bidder: Koch Media GmbH (Parent company of Deep Silver, the Dead Island developer) Winning bid: $22,312,925 Back-up bidder: Ubisoft Back-up bid: $5.4 million Item #5 - Homefront - All assets related to Homefront and Homefront 2 Winning bidder: Crytek Winning bid: $544,218 Back-up bidder: None Item #6 - Metro - All assets related to Metro 2033 and Metro 2034 Winning bidder: Koch Media Winning bid: $5,877,551 Back-up bidder: Ubisoft Back-up bid: $5.175 million Item #7 - South Park - All assets related to South Park: The Stick of Truth Winning bidder: Ubisoft Winning bid: $3,265,306 Back-up bidder: None Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Visitant Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Yeah we're setting up to record this weeks show right now and we're gonna be talking all about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 good call, bindy - don't forget to mention Sega's acquisition of Relic, pretty smart move given how profitable their PC end has been...also i remember seeing platinum talk about picking up Virgil but they've had a few suitors last i saw RIP guys - i remember the 16-bit era where they weren't my favorite, but at least delivered better than Acclaim & the other franchise whores...which is to say, some wrestling & other titles would be a fun rental, whereas most Simpsons, South Park etc games would disappoint 90% of the time. i personally thought they stepped up their catalog this last gen, but it might've been too little, too late. always sad to see a company with such a lengthy history guy, here's to hoping these guys find work soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 For me they'll always be the company that put out those two really shitty Twisted Metal games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keth Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 Article talking about Vigil and possible reasons it didn't get bought. As it turns out, the lack of interest shown in Vigil may have had nothing to do with the quality of the studio, as much as the timing of the sale. Speaking to Game Informer, THQ’s president Jason Rubin touched on the difficulties with finding a home for Vigil. “Having just finished a product, Vigil was farthest from release of their next game, and we were not able to garner any interest from buyers, despite a herculean effort. Additionally, they were working on a new IP, which meant even more risk for a buyer.” Essentially, many of the bidders weren’t just buying up a development studio, but also their games which, for the most part, were well into development. Relic were preparing for Company of Heroes 2′s launch and Volition were well into development on the next Saints Row. Darksiders 2 released at the end of last August, giving the team less time to gear up and launch into development of their next project. That project was codenamed Crawler, and it sounds like the team were extremely excited about the direction it was heading. In an emotional post to NeoGAF, made from an empty studio, Vigil’s lead combat designer Ben Cureton wrote, “I knew, without a shadow of the doubt, that the project we were working on (Codenamed: Crawler) was going to blow people away. In fact, it DID blow people away. We did, in TWO months, what many companies haven’t done in a year. The pride of knowing that no one was doing anything like us was so satisfying, it kept us coming to work and giving 100% every single day, even through the dark times.” Unfortunately funding a studio’s development, marketing and staff costs for an untested new IP appears to be a risk that bidders involved in the THQ auction found too great. The situation likely wasn’t helped by Darksider’s 2 financial performance, which THQ’s sales projections, taken from the first day motions, put at a loss. The studio may have closed, but the Darksiders property, along with Vigil’s staff, have attracted some interest. Platinum Games’ JP Kellams tweeted at Dearksiders 2′s lead designer, asking him, and other staff members, to get in touch if they were interested in working with the Bayonetta developer. And Platinum’s head Atsushi Inaba also tweeted his interest in picking up the franchise at the upcoming auction, saying (translated by Kotaku), “In THQ’s studio and IP selling off auction, Darksiders is unsold? [We] wanna buy it…on the cheap…” I think it could be pretty sweet if Platinum got a hold of this. Real disappointing to see that a new IP is reason for not buying too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrizzle Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 Crytek Opens Studio in Austin, TX, Hires 35 ex-Vigil Staffers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keth Posted January 30, 2013 Author Share Posted January 30, 2013 Or maybe even a new Timesplitters game. Now this would be awesome. If Darksiders 3 does happen, it will at least look fucking awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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