Future of THQ is in question...

Please let Volition and Relic find good homes, please let Volition and Relic find good homes...

Please don't be EA, please don't be EA...

Man, I'm really worried about Relic. Fingers crossed.

Gaaah! That would be the ultimate horrible fallout if the studio closed. I know they could rebuild with most of the same people but it never ends up being the same and the loss of the franchises would really blow.

I am really hoping for DoW3. If I ever won the mega lottery I would seriously consider funding its development or putting 10 million towards hiring a studio to make a knock off of my design.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Please let Volition and Relic find good homes, please let Volition and Relic find good homes...

Please don't be EA, Activision or Ubisoft.

FTFM

Where would you have them go? What AAA studio would be acceptable?

Square Enix?

SallyNasty wrote:

Where would you have them go? What AAA studio would be acceptable?

Valve. I'm not banking on it though.

Relic should go to Valve...

I wonder if Valve will bite off something that big with all the piles of cash they are sitting on?

For what its worth, Valve could totally right the ship for GPG too.

edit: is there any good source for updates on this?

Volition being owned by Square Enix actually doesn't sound too bad a match, actually.

2K would also not be too bad.

fangblackbone wrote:

Relic should go to Valve...

I wonder if Valve will bite off something that big with all the piles of cash they are sitting on?

For what its worth, Valve could totally right the ship for GPG too.

edit: is there any good source for updates on this?

Haven't found anything yet. From what I've read the auction is only open to creditors, so no press allowed.

MeatMan wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Please let Volition and Relic find good homes, please let Volition and Relic find good homes...

Please don't be EA, Activision or Ubisoft.

FTFM

I'd be OK with Ubisoft. They've actually done some good things with some of their past studios acquisitions. Look at Driver San Francisco for an example. I also think Square Enix would be a good home, though they have their own issues these days. Ditto for Take-Two Interactive/2K Games. Warner Bros. would probably be a good fit for Saint's Row, though I don't know what they'd do with an RTS developer. I could see Ubisoft being good for Relic as they do a lot of strategy games but Relic's big question mark is the Warhammer 40K license. A buyout of that studio wouldn't automatically come with the IP, whoever bought them would have to negotiate that with Games Workshop. Company of Heroes would probably be in OK hands under Ubisoft though. EA and Activision would ruin those studios though.

ccesarano wrote:

Volition being owned by Square Enix actually doesn't sound too bad a match, actually.

2K would also not be too bad.

IMAGE(http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/bluefern/bluefern0701/bluefern070100151/691917-rolled-up-newspaper-in-a-closed-fist.jpg)

No, bad gamer, you know what you did wrong. 2k is next.

I'd be OK with Ubisoft.

Seems like Ubi is more about abusing customers than their studios, and since they seem to be backing off on the crazy, that might actually work out pretty well.

Malor wrote:
I'd be OK with Ubisoft.

Seems like Ubi is more about abusing customers than their studios, and since they seem to be backing off on the crazy, that might actually work out pretty well.

Even though they've said that and seem to trying to follow up on that, I don't fully trust them yet.

KingGorilla wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

Volition being owned by Square Enix actually doesn't sound too bad a match, actually.

2K would also not be too bad.

IMAGE(http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/bluefern/bluefern0701/bluefern070100151/691917-rolled-up-newspaper-in-a-closed-fist.jpg)

No, bad gamer, you know what you did wrong. 2k is next.

Actually, I meant Vigil Studios. There are too many studios with the letter V.

I haven't played Saint's Row and wasn't too impressed with Red Faction Guerilla so I have no say on them. I'm just worried about Darksiders.

Random twitter post found from the shack:

AznKnight613[/url]]Sega currently has the highest bid for Relic. Koch Media currently has the highest bid for Volition. Did not see these coming.

I guess we might have been a bit tunnel-visioned on the big three.

edit: Also

Chris Kohler[/url]]Rumor: South Park goes to Ubisoft.

I seriously hope Vigil doesn't get lost in the crowd and forgotten.

Scratched wrote:

Random twitter post found from the shack:

AznKnight613[/url]]Sega currently has the highest bid for Relic. Koch Media currently has the highest bid for Volition. Did not see these coming.

I guess we might have been a bit tunnel-visioned on the big three.

So we can look forward to collector's edition swag of questionable taste for Saint's Row 4?

EDIT: I'm not surprised EA and Activision are being outbid. EA's stock still hasn't recovered from 2007, and there was recent talk of the Vivendi conglomerate jettisoning Activision from their holdings. Neither of them are in great condition to buy up some of these properties.

ccesarano wrote:

I seriously hope Vigil doesn't get lost in the crowd and forgotten. :(

Should know later today. Eurogamer say 5 PM UK time is when the results are to be announced. So that's like... noon EST?

Sega could be awesome for Relic! They don't seem to interfere with the Creative Assembly at all. I think if they treat Relic in the same manner this could be a huge win!

Edit : Creative Assembly announced they're gonna do Warhammer Fantasy games awhile back.. and if Sega grabs relic they have Warhammer 40k, as well. It makes sense

Barab wrote:

Edit : Creative Assembly announced they're gonna do Warhammer Fantasy games awhile back.. and if Sega grabs relic they have Warhammer 40k, as well. It makes sense

I'm guessing Sega wants Relic in order to guarantee that constant cash flow. If RadioRadar is to be believed (which is often dubious as their off-the-cuff knowledge is frequently confused and/or inaccurate) then Total War is the biggest money maker Sega has. Adding Relic to that could basically start to turn Sega into the Western version of what Koei used to be.

Which is curious considering Sega is a Japanese company.

ccesarano wrote:

Total War is the biggest money maker Sega has.

If that true, props to Sega, it seems that they have the capability to just leave CA alone and let the cash roll in, rather than pull an Activision/EA and try to get Total War on consoles, etc etc

Given Sega's own financial worries, I'm surprised to see them step up for Relic but that would be a good fit. Koch Media blows my mind. The guys who own largely nothing publisher Deep Silver are trying to take over Saint's Row and they seriously put up more money than any of the big guys? That just blows my mind. I don't have the love for Darksiders that many others do but there's a lot of talent at Vigil and I'd be really surprised if they didn't get bought up as well. The IPs and the studios can be had for a song so I can't imagine any of them will be left by the wayside. I do hope that Volition and Saint's Row can find a better home than the Deep Silver owners though.

That seems less of a problem, that guy has been around many places, and wasn't at Relic for very long.

Too late, but maybe we should have started a kickstarter to buy Volition and Relic at the auction.

It's quiet. Too quiet.

I have a tab in my browser open and I am refreshing it every approx 30 minutes, waiting to hear any new details. Nothing yet.

Eurogamer says the results hearing was pushed back to 8 PM UK time. So that's 3 PM EST?

I'm seeing a whole bunch of Twitter posts talking about huge layoffs. So I'm guessing either some of the studios weren't sold at all or some of the ones that were are being gutted. Dammit, this sucks massive. I hope all those guys land on their feet.

Rumor mill says:

Relic goes to Sega
South Park game and THQ Montreal goes to Ubisoft
Vigil goes to Take 2

Haven't heard anything about Volition yet.