Future of THQ is in question...

ccesarano wrote:

Are you talking more along the line of Shadow Complex?

I don't have an Xbox so I've never played it, but yeah, I think so.

ccesarano wrote:

That's partly because most everyone I heard talk about it were basically "What the f*ck? This game can't do everything I ever imagined possible including giving me a blowjob while feeding me ham and cheese sammiches? What a f*cking rip off!

For the record, if THQ did put out a game that could do all of the above, a) I would buy it, and b) they probably would still be in financial straights.

...but the BLT and TLC DLC packs would make enough money to have them break even for a month or two.

Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium is no longer an MMO.

At first blush, that seems both good and bad for THQ. Good because they won't be shouldering the costs of a failed MMO after launch. Bad because it's cost them an awful lot to develop an MMO that will instead be sold as a single-player game.

Not to mention the 100+ employees that have now been sacked as they won't be needing as many people working on the game.

Personally, I think it's a smart move. The MMO market has been cluttered for a while now, and especially now that so many companies are going free-to-play. To try and compete with both WoW AND ToR is...not the best of ideas.

As well this is just an announcement.. it doesn't really tell us what we should expect.. is it going to be essentially Space Marine 2? or somehow more like BF3 but in the WH40K universe

Hmm.. that actually sounds kinda cool.. especially if there are Titans!

My big question is this is an MMO that's been in development since Vigil was formed I think so that's like 2005. How are they going to take an MMO game that was probably a long way finished and re-purpose it as single player? It sounds like it would require a huge overhaul of most of the gameplay systems and I imagine that would take a lot of money and time, neither of which THQ has. But I guess the math was done somewhere. They still have a slate of some high-profile AAA releases this year, I hope that combined with them having written off the uDraw means they can dig themselves out of this hole. The AAA business needs more competition and it seems to be getting less and less every day. I wonder if it's possible though with THQ still largely being run by the people who got them in this hole to behin with.

How are they going to take an MMO game that was probably a long way finished and re-purpose it as single player?

I expect that it will play like a lot of the recent games that have been pitched/slagged as "offline MMOs." Games like Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Quest IX, Kingdoms of Amalur, etc. Lots of kill X sidequests, lots of level or item grinding, lots of systems for switching classes and builds and the like.

Since MMOs tend to be designed for solo/small group play outside of raid dungeons, it seems like you'd have to retool less than it might at first appear.

Amalur started as an MMO, actually, so probably along those lines.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
How are they going to take an MMO game that was probably a long way finished and re-purpose it as single player?

I expect that it will play like a lot of the recent games that have been pitched/slagged as "offline MMOs." Games like Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Quest IX, Kingdoms of Amalur, etc. Lots of kill X sidequests, lots of level or item grinding, lots of systems for switching classes and builds and the like.

Since MMOs tend to be designed for solo/small group play outside of raid dungeons, it seems like you'd have to retool less than it might at first appear.

This actually sounds like great news for me. I loved those games and putting one in the 40K universe sounds fantastic.

ccesarano wrote:

Amalur started as an MMO, actually, so probably along those lines.

I've seen this a few times and wonder why? Amalur was always a single player ARPG. It was just canceled by the original Publisher and 38 Studios swooped in and bought the developer and all the rights to the project. 38 funded Big Huge Games (the original developer) to then complete Amalur.

38 Studios has a seperate team and MMO project that has been in development for quite some time that is completely seperate project.

Not that he needs me to agree with him, but yes, Guru is correct.

Huh, I read that they were originally doing TWO MMO's, and Amalur was shifted to single player while the other MMO is still under development. Maybe I read wrong?

EDIT: Sometimes this industry is really cool.

I be happier with a Space Marine sequel over an MMO.

ccesarano wrote:

Huh, I read that they were originally doing TWO MMO's, and Amalur was shifted to single player while the other MMO is still under development. Maybe I read wrong?

EDIT: Sometimes this industry is really cool.

Derek is hiring!!!

Passed off their low-budget publishing/distribution to another company and fired a European exec that's been with the company for 12 years.

I don't know if I've ever seen a company in the industry fight this strongly to stay in the game, but I really hope they manage it.

Danny Bilson and Dave Davis are stepping down. Farrell still CEO.

Not sure if that's good or not :\

EDIT: Also, reverse stock split pending to avoid NASDAQ de-listing.

Danny was passionate about games. Don't know if he was good at his position, though.

Yeah, THQ's problems can hardly all be blamed on Bilson (from what I understand, uDraw was Farrell's baby, I don't understand why he's still there) but things like Homefront happened on his watch and apparently, THQ had the chance to lock up Respawn Entertainment and turned them away because they refused to let the developer keep the IP. They basically handed them to EA on a silver platter. Curious how much better Rubin can run things but since he still has to work under Farrell who ultimately captained the ship into the iceberg it's hit, we'll have to see I guess.

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/...

THQ stated that EA obtained the publishing rights for an "undisclosed cash payment."
juv3nal wrote:

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/...

THQ stated that EA obtained the publishing rights for an "undisclosed cash payment."

Ha Ha Holy sh*t! Blood must be pouring out of Dana White's eyes right now.

Meanwhile, THQ Chooses Today of All Days to Fire Employees, Close Studio.

Apparently trying to bury the news in the E3 clamor, they just handed everyone in the San Diego studio their walking papers.

Malor wrote:

Meanwhile, THQ Chooses Today of All Days to Fire Employees, Close Studio.

Apparently trying to bury the news in the E3 clamor, they just handed everyone in the San Diego studio their walking papers.

Well it's part and parcel of selling on the UFC rights, innit? From what I gather, the San Diego studio was primarily responsible for the UFC titles.

It would have been nice if that studio could have been passed to EA so those folks could have kept their jobs, but I guess EA was already fine doing that stuff with their own people or something.

I really wish THQ had been able to promote Last Light in one of the main conferences. The game is a motherf*cking graphics powerhouse.

EA's not so bad when they take a hands-off approach. Hopefully they won't pull a BioWare this time.

ccesarano wrote:

It would have been nice if that studio could have been passed to EA so those folks could have kept their jobs, but I guess EA was already fine doing that stuff with their own people or something.

Apparently THQ is trying to get most that studio's staff employed by EA to develop their UFC title. EA didn't want the studio but they might take the people at least. It looks like THQ just found out like a few days ago that they were losing the UFC license. Even though they probably got a paltry amount of money from the deal, that's a real blow to them as UFC was basically the only yearly cash cow they had left. I've gotta' say, there was something funny about Dana White being up there singing EA's praises given some of the absolute sh*t he was talking about them just a couple years ago. Amazing how much buckets of money can sway one's opinion.

I was curious about that, actually. UFC was making them a lot of cash. I was wondering why THQ would give it up.

Damn. That's just getting screwed over. I guess UFC saw THQ's money problems and decided to pull out, and EA saw an opportunity? I dunno.

ccesarano wrote:

I was curious about that, actually. UFC was making them a lot of cash. I was wondering why THQ would give it up.

Damn. That's just getting screwed over. I guess UFC saw THQ's money problems and decided to pull out, and EA saw an opportunity? I dunno.

If what PA said is true, they might not have had a choice as EA made a better offer to UFC. It's UFC's license to decide who gets to use it, not THQ's.

Scratched wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

I was curious about that, actually. UFC was making them a lot of cash. I was wondering why THQ would give it up.

Damn. That's just getting screwed over. I guess UFC saw THQ's money problems and decided to pull out, and EA saw an opportunity? I dunno.

If what PA said is true, they might not have had a choice as EA made a better offer to UFC. It's UFC's license to decide who gets to use it, not THQ's.

And if EA paid THQ money to hand over the license, it was probably to buy out the contract early. Dana White probably isn't pleased with THQ's state and didn't want to run the risk of the next UFC game not coming out because their publishing partner went under. So they went "here's some money, give it to EA" and THQ who desperately needs the cash went "OK fine." In the end, it's probably a sh*t deal for THQ but given that I'm really excited for their upcoming releases, I hope this gives them more of a chance to get them out.