
THQ Dissolved - wonginator1221
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/23/thq-dissolved-saints-row-company-of-heroes-darksiders-devs-acquired
======
csmattryder
Shame, they were one of the only publishers willing to take the risk on a new
IP.

Which other publisher would dare take on the offensive, lewd sandbox game like
Saint's Row, each sequel just a little more over the top than the last?

In a market full of repetitive sequels, played out plotlines, and annual cash-
cows, I'm hoping Koch Media do Volition and Saint's Row 4 justice!

~~~
yareally
Thankfully EA, Activision or one of the other more cookie cutter publishers
did not get ahold of Saints Row and Metro. If they did, each series might as
well have died with THQ. I think I would be sick to see Metro or Saints Row
turned into a Call of Duty or Medal of Honor knockoff.

EA just is not what it used to be and all my favorite classic franchises
(Command and Conquer, C&C Red Alert, Sim City, Syndicate, etc) are just a
shadow of what they once were.

~~~
cageface
You might find it amusing that I considered all those to be from a much less
interesting iteration of EA than the one _I_ grew up with, which really did
make some classic games:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.U.L.E>.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon:_The_Light_and_the_Dark>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Order_Monsters>

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Cities_of_Gold_(video...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Cities_of_Gold_\(video_game\))

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Construction_Set>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_Destruction_Set>

~~~
yareally
I played 7 cities (the remake) in the late 90s, but the rest are long before
my time or I'm sure I would agree with you on a personal level. 7 cities was
fun though and I know M.U.L.E. was a pioneer in the strategy game area.

I didn't have a real PC until I was 11 or so and that was around 1996 (had an
NES, Sega Genesis and SNES before that). I did play many of the classic games
of the early 90s (original sim city, red baron, panzer general, doom, wing
commander, x-wing/tie fighter), but ones from the 80s are kind of beyond my
scope, even for an avid PC gamer like me. I could play them now, but not sure
if I would be able to appreciate them on quite the same level with the same
magic they had when they came out.

I do have one question though for the sake of curiousity. Did you ever lament
or rage at the state of pc games in the 90s compared to those in the 80s? Your
reply kind of hints at it, but was not sure what your actual point was for
sure. I always second guess everything repeating itself, even something like
this.

~~~
cageface
It's hard to completely remove nostalgia from the picture but yes, I do think
the best games from the 80s were more creative than what followed. I'm not
sure why. Maybe because more limited resources forced developers to focus more
on concepts? Maybe because game publishing wasn't yet the risk-averse, well-
oiled money making machine it came to be.

I hold out some hope for the new generation of indie game makers but mostly
what I see coming from that crowd is platformers of various stripes. Maybe
kids today just don't have the attention span for a game like M.U.L.E.?

~~~
yareally
Yeah, I would agree that it's kind of been diminishing returns for many games
out there. I think the strategy games put out by Paradox Interactive are still
pretty decent for the most part (Hearts of Iron III and Victoria II
especially).

I wouldn't mind seeing a remake of M.U.L.E. if it's done right. Though that
would probably be somewhat complicated with the original creator dead and EA
probably has all the rights to it still. Have to be independantly developed. I
would hate to see what EA would come up with if they tried to put it out.

------
amishforkfight
As someone whose employer just underwent Chapter 11 and a subsequent sale, I
hope that the power-jousting, cockfights, backstabbing, and general dumbassery
that I experienced will not happen to the members of THQ. The lengths some
people will go through for some token of power...

~~~
minimaxir
Ironically, you just described the gameplay of THQ-published Saint's Row 3.

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kesun421
With Sega's purchase of Relic, hopefully they can pick up the Homeworld
franchise and do something with it again!

~~~
jcurbo
I'm actually quite pleased with that, Sega seems like a good home for Relic.
They seem to do ok with The Creative Assembly (Total War games). Homeworld 3
please :)

~~~
ekianjo
Was Homeworld 2 any good, by the way ?

~~~
dvhh
more slow paced than the first one ( + extension by barking dog studio ), but
still a good homeworld game

~~~
jcurbo
I agree. It was a bit 'easier' in that there were features like automatically
vacuuming up all resources on a map once a mission was complete. The graphics
were more modern (not that Homeworld 1 had any problems in that department)
and I seem to recall the tech tree being a bit more streamlined? Also a better
UI - much more information could be on screen at the same time.

~~~
dvhh
About the automatic resources vaccuming, I preferred the homeworld 1 way,
where you could rebuild your fleet at the end of the mission (cataclysm added
a much needed time warp). Still my favorite RTS.

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mikelat
I wish you had posted a better source of gaming journalism, I don't like IGN
at all.

[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/23/fin-thq-sells-
off...](http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/23/fin-thq-sells-off-most-
studios-basically-done/)

------
venomsnake
Metro and CoH 2 seems to be safe. Southpark may be in trouble, and Obsidian
are in no need of additional trouble right now. And Ubisoft don't know what an
RPG is.

Darksiders are done which is sad.

~~~
chris11
Ubisoft wants to buy South Park, but it looks like there may be legal trouble.
South Park Studios filed a complaint saying that THQ did not have the legal
right to sell South Park as long as South Park Studios reclaims the license by
paying the full amount that THQ put into the game.

[http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a453020/south-park-
stu...](http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a453020/south-park-studios-
request-stick-of-truth-pulled-from-thq-auction.html)

~~~
venomsnake
I think that Ubisoft is a death sentence for any creative studio, and obsidian
is that. I thought with the 2004-5-6 Prince of Persia trilogy and Beyond good
and Evil that Ubisoft has finally found out how to make great games that are
also creative.

But from all of their recent years - they ran Heroes into the ground, from the
fabled AC franchise only the ACII is really good, and whatever they ship they
manage to make unplayable with the uplay crap.

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yareally
Metro 2033 is most likely in good hands. The parent company that bought them
owns Deep Silver, who published one of the great games of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
series[1], which I think Metro pulls from. Random fun fact, but the first
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game was also published by THQ. Probably why THQ were so
interested in Metro 2033, which came shortly after.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R._%28series%29>

~~~
lloeki
> which I think Metro pulls from

Metro 2033 is adapted from a russian '05 novel of the same name, while
S.T.A.L.K.E.R is from both the '72 novel _Stalker_ and its '79 movie.

They bear no lineage.

~~~
AimHere
Partly to help people find it in their bookshops, but mostly because I'm an
anal-retentive pedant, the novel is actually called 'Roadside Picnic' by the
Strugatsky brothers.

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snowmiser
I hate how people echo Saints Row and Company of Heroes whenever someone
mentions THQ. Darksiders and Darksiders 2 (especially the latter) are
brilliant games.

~~~
runevault
Vigil is the part of this that most interests me, and saddens in me in that
the current word last I knew was no one had shown much interest in picking the
studio up.

------
dpiers
My first programming gig was an internship at Vigil Games when I was 20. I had
an awesome summer there and worked with some amazing people; hopefully those
who were still at the studio will find something soon.

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angersock
Can somebody leak the source code for the old Red Faction games?

Those didn't seem to be a franchise that got sold off, so maybe is
abandonware?

~~~
jcurbo
My bet is that Red Faction comes along with Volition.

~~~
jcurbo
Or maybe not, if it's the same case as Homeworld:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5106540>

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newman314
I hope Homefront 2 ends up being good. Homefront is a ton of fun to play.

~~~
jgoney
Exactly this! They can essentially start the story for Homefront 2 right where
the first one stopped, and with Crytek's track record, it should look amazing
as well.

That is, if it's not already deep in development, which I think I remember
hearing that it is.

~~~
newman314
They need to balance the guns somewhat, fix the spawn points and get people
playing the DLC maps but otherwise multiplayer is fantastic.

The ability to get additional toys per round is a huge mechanic IMO in
replayability.

I also look forward to the improved graphics that Crytek will bring. My only
fear is that Crysis from what I have seen feels pretty cold at times so
hopefully that does not bleed over.

EDIT: I also don't get why Homefront was so panned by critics. The graphics
obviously pale when compared to something like Crysis but like I said, I think
they got many aspects of multiplayer very right.

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zobzu
So long THQ.

I hope SEGA will make good use of my favorite games.

