Back in the 16-bit era, THQ was notorious for so-so cartoon licenses and general shovelware. It improved greatly over time however, to the point where It’s been at the forefront of encouraging new IP over the last two generations. Just look at titles as diverse as Darksiders, Homefront, Stacking, Metro 2033, Red Faction, and Saints Row. The company’s well-documented troubles in recent times led to its eventual filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy – but the story had one final corner to turn.
As detailed at Metro, THQ’s sale to venture capital firm Clearlake was successfully blocked by its creditors, with the potentially more profitable result of an IP auction. On January 22nd THQ will be auctioned off piece by piece, allowing different parts of the company to be sold to different bidders. Don’t be surprised, however, to see all of the most lucrative tidbits snapped up by the same two or three companies. That’s capitalism, baby. Also up for sale in the auction are three THQ-owned developers; Volition, Vigil Games, Relic Entertainment, and a Canadian next-gen developing house. Hopefully, this will result in all current employees at these companies retaining their jobs.
Remember, January 22nd; that gives you about two weeks to come up with best/worst case scenarios regarding who buys what, and what they’ll do with their prizes. Could Ubisoft buy Darksiders, and confirm another two games in the series? Will Activision buy Saints Row and sell petrol for the vehicles via microtransactions? Maybe EA will snap up the Metro license and release a new title annually, promising that Artyom is guaranteed to sport no less than three new hats per year? Or perhaps Nintendo will shock everyone by buying a platform exclusive even more unexpected than Bayonetta 2? Or perhaps Microsoft will step forward to grab the Red Faction license, and hand it to Rare to turn into a karting game.
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