Written by BossSolidSnake; PSHG Editor and Team Writer
A mere 5 years ago, THQ had a market value of more than $2 billion but has now been forced to sell most of its assets at a bankruptcy auction on Jan 22.
Games that were being developed, as well as, production studios owned by THQ were bought by several competitors for amounts of money totaling $72 million, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. This was higher than a bid from private investment firm Clearlake Capital Group, which offered $60 million for the entire company.
THQ was founded in 1989, as a toy company, and grew to become a prominent maker of games based on Pixar movies, Nickelodeon TV shows, and the WWE.
However, as the market for licensed children’s games began to shrink, THQ struggled. It attempted, unsuccessfully, to compete by releasing costly shooter games targeting the young male audience. Things only got worse when a string of flops, including the uDraw gaming peripheral, sapped the company of cash and left it unable to continue operating. THQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December.
Shares of THQ stock fell from a high of $341.70 in 2007 to just $0.36 the day it entered bankruptcy.
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The results of the auction to sell off THQ’s assets are as follows:
Sega paid $26.6 million for the “Company of Heroes” franchise and its developer Relic Entertainment.
Koch Media paid $22.2 million for the “Saints Row” franchise (THQ’s most popular game series in recent years), its developer Volition Inc., and $5.9 million for the sci-fi game series “Metro.”
Take-Two Interactive paid $10.9 million for the upcoming action game “Evolve.”
Ubisoft paid $3.3 million to release the upcoming South Park based game “The Stick of Truth” and $2.5 million for a studio in Montreal.
Developer Crytek paid $544,218 for the action franchise “Homefront.”
THQ’s publishing business and Vigil Games (developer of the “Darksiders” series) went unpurchased. Staff at both will lose their jobs this week but a few people will remain at THQ’s headquarters to wind down operations.
Looks like Platinum Games are interested in the ‘Darksiders’ series. Fingers crossed that something comes from that as I’m a big fan of the games.
Yes, this world definitely needs Darksiders. I beat the first one and I’m currently playing 2. I hope Platinum takes it because that story needs to be completed.
Someone made a comment on FB inquiring about what will happen to THQ’s backlog of games and I must admit that I’m curious about that as well.
I reckon anything published by the studios that have been bought will fall under the ownership of their new owners. Everything else is still owned by THQ until their’s a buyer, or so I’m led to believe.
I guessing that will probably be the case.
WWE will be under EA Sports.
Are you sure? I had heard that Take-Two bought it.