THQ declares BK

[brellium]

Not as if any of us didn't see this coming.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/19/thq-bankruptcy/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

[Rendakor]

Already posted in the useless news thread.

[Yegolev]

I thought they were going after Burger King.

[koro]

So THQ is pretty much officially gone.

The big auction firesale ended up raising more money than the equity firm Clearlake was putting up to buy the whole company, so everything's gone out piecemeal:

- Sega nabbed Relic
- Koch Media (Deep Silver, the Dead Island folks) nabbed Volition and Metro: Last Light
- Take Two got that Turtle Rock game Evolve
- Ubisoft bought THQ Montreal and the South Park RPG by Obsidian
- Crytek bought out the Homefront IP (for a reported $500,000)

Nothing specific's been said either way, but it's assumed that the companies that were bought retained their IP, so Koch/Deep Silver would have Red Faction and Saint's Row, while Sega would get Homeworld and Company of Heroes.

Note that nobody actually wanted Vigil or Darksiders, so... uh... I guess they're shut down now.

[Trippy]

Who got the WH40K license?

[koro]

I assume it's either staying with Relic, or it's reverted back to Games Workshop.

Also, Viacom/South Park Studios appears to be gearing up to go to court over the South Park game sale, arguing that the game can't have a new owner without the studio's approval.

Also:

Relic Entertainment
Makers of Company of Heroes
Winning bidder: Sega, $26.6 million.
Runner-up: Zenimax Media, $26.3 million.

THQ Montreal
Makers of 1666 and Underdog, titles under development.
Winning bidder: Ubisoft, $2.5 million. No runner-up.

Evolve
(title in development at Turtle Rock Studios)
Winning bidder: Take-Two Interactive, $10.894 million.
Runner-up: Turtle Rock Studios, $250,000.

Volition, Inc.
Maker of Saints Row
Winning bidder: Koch Media, $22,312,925.
Runner-up: Ubisoft, $5.4 million.

Homefront
Released 2011; due for a sequel.
Winning bidder: Crytek. $544,218.
No runner-up.

Metro
Series; due for the sequel Metro: Last Light.
Winning Bidder: Koch Media, $5,877,551
Runner-up: Ubisoft: $5.175 million.

South Park
License; South Park: The Stick of Truth is due for release March 5.
Winning bidder: Ubisoft, $3,265,306. No runner-up.

[Trippy]

Vigil was doing the WH40K MMO (which got switched to a non-MMO), though, so the license belonged to THQ.

[Yegolev]

Evolve
(title in development at Turtle Rock Studios)
Winning bidder: Take-Two Interactive, $10.894 million.
Runner-up: Turtle Rock Studios, $250,000.

Whoops!

[KallDrexx]

THQ has sold many of it's studios through auction.   The key points:

Sega
To purchase Relic (developer of Warhammer 40K and Company of Heroes 2) for $26.6 million. (Interestingly, Bethesda Softworks owner Zenimax media came just short of winning this portion with a $26.3 million bid.)

Koch Media
To purchase Volition (developer of the Saints Row and Red Faction games) for about $22.3 million.
To purchase the Metro franchise license for nearly $5.9 million.

Crytek
To purchase the Homefront license for $544,218.

Take 2
To purchase Evolve (a turtle Rock Studios project trademarked last year) for about $10.9 million.

Ubisoft
To purchase THQ Montreal (developer of the upcoming 1666, among others) for $2.5 million
To purchase the license to South Park: The Stick of Truth for about $3.26 million (though south Park Studios is putting up some legal argument over that part of the sale)

Darksiders developer Vigil Games, unfortunately, received no bids and will be shut down

[Montague]

Koch Media should consider a name change.

[Sir T]

Naa. There's a place for truth in advertising.

[Jeff Kelly]

Koch Media has no relation to Koch industries, it's a German company located in Munich, Germany and is the 'largest independent distributor of digital media in Europe' (according to the company profile).

It's own studio Deep Silver is responsible among other things for the Trackmania Series of Games, the Anno series of games, Sacred 2, Risen and others and they assimilated the "Rockstar Vienna" people.

They also publish SquareEnix Games in Europe and also a lot of Sony Interactive Games and smaller stuff.

[Ingmar]

I figured we were just going for a "sounds like cock" joke, myself, not a connection to the Koch brothers.

[Jeff Kelly]

Oh, I'm sorry. :D

Go ahead then

[Yegolev]

Still reading thread title as "THQ declares Burger King".