Wednesday, January 23, 2013

THQ Officially Disbands


         After months of financial struggles, THQ annouced in a letter today to its employees today that the company is officially being dissolved. The company's game franchises, and the studios that make them, are being singled off and sold to various bidders from across the gaming world, including Ubisoft and Take-two, among others. In the letter obtained by Kotaku, the future of the Darksiders Francise and it's developer, Virgil Games, was left unkown. The document, written by CEO Brian Farrell and president Jason Rubin, stated that "We will make every effort to find appropriate buyers, if possible."
         The document went to state that while most employees will likely be offered a new position under the  new management, some positions might be eliminated. All employees of a company not included in the sale will have their employment eliminated entirely.  An official announcement from the company is expected in the near future, once approval has been granted from the courts and company lawyers.

Here are the details of the proposed sale:

Relic Entertainment and Company of Heroes franchise
Winning bid: $26.6 million - Sega Corporation
Backup bidder: $26.3 million - Zenimax Media


THQ Montreal, including 1666 and Underdog
Winning bid: $2.5 million - Ubisoft
Backup bidder: None


Evolve aka Metamorphosis
Winning bid: $10.894 million - Take-Two Interactive
Backup bidder: $250,000 - Turtle Rock Studios, Inc.


Volition and Saints Row franchise
Winning bid: $22.3 million - Koch Media
Backup bidder: $5.4 million - Ubisoft

Homefront franchise
Winning bid: $544,218 - Crytek
Backup bidder: None


Metro franchise
Winning bid: $5,877,551 - Koch Media
Backup bidder: $5.175 million - Ubisoft


South Park: The Stick of Truth
Winning bid: $3,265,306 - Ubisoft
Backup bidder: None

        THQ was first founded as THQ Inc in Calabasas Cal., in 1990 as a toy manufacturer. It acquired Brøderbund's video game devision in the late summer of 1990, and released it's first game the next year. Also in 1991, the company was acquired by Trinity Acquistion Corp. By 1994, the company had exited the toy business to focus exclusively on the video game market. 
       After introducing a new logo in 2000, THQ went on to produce many reconigible franchises through out the decade, including Red Faction, MX v. ATV, Saints Row, Company of Heroes, Darksiders, and Destroy All Humans! However, by the end of decade signs of hard times began to emerge as the global economy went to recession and several of the company's key products failed to create commercial success among negative reception from consumers and critics.  In spring of 2011 company shares suffered a 26% drop after its game Homefront was timidly received, and several months later the company dropped its once-popular Red Faction series after negativity over the series latest entry. In the final weeks of 2012, the company announced it was entering chapter 11 bankruptcy.
 

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