Ex-Trauma Studios Guys Bounce Back

[HaemishM]

For all you who hated EA (even more) for closing down Trauma Studios (makers of the Desert Combat mod for BF1942) before the release of Battlefield 2, you can now shift your loyalties to THQ.

THQ Inc. (Nasdaq: THQI) today announced the opening of Kaos Studios, founded by veterans of Trauma Studios, creators of Desert Combat and Battlefield 2 R&D projects. Kaos' first project is an original intellectual property for next generation consoles and Windows PC scheduled for release in 2007.

"THQ is a great home for experienced, creative teams like ours," said Frank DeLise, lead designer, Kaos Studios. "When we looked at all the opportunities available to us, we found they truly foster creativity and embrace new, original intellectual properties. THQ was absolutely the best choice, hands down."

"THQ is committed to supporting strong creative talent, as evidenced by our growing internal development system which now numbers 18 teams across 12 studios," said Dan Kelly, senior vice president of business development, THQ. "We are thrilled to make the full resources of THQ available to the Kaos team to help them realize their vision of building a world-class studio in New York City that will deliver compelling original properties."

More information about Kaos Studios and their first project will be forthcoming in 2006.

Rejoice?

[Strazos]

What has THQ done lately?

[schild]

Coming Soon: Saint's Row, The Outfit, and FSW: Ten Hammers.

2005: Dawn of War & Winter Assault, Destroy all Humans, Juiced, Stubbs the Zombie.

As a company, they exceeded market expectations in sales last year, no doubt led by Dawn of War and their barrage of GBA games for kids.

They're not a bad publisher, they just have no one exceptional making games for them.

[Yegolev]

"THQ is a great home for experienced, creative teams like ours,"

"They probably won't fire us after our project is done!"

[schild]

"THQ is a great home for experienced, creative teams like ours,"

"They probably won't fire us after our project is done!"

As much as I hate EA's way of doing things, neither at the loss of Trauma or at the creation of Kaos did I even bat an eye. I can't be asked to care. Reading a headline like "Black Isle Studios closed" hit me like a rock though.

[Yegolev]

Hyperbole, yes.  However, the Looking Glass news made me tear-up.

[HaemishM]

They're not a bad publisher, they just have no one exceptional making games for them.

Both Destroy All Humans and Juiced were on the very CUSP of being damn good games. And they sold well. I think sequels of these games could well tip into the "must buy" sections. Or they could stay mediocre.

[Azazel]

Juiced? I never played it or anything, but from the box, it just looked like Need for Speed: Fromanotherpublisher. What was so special about it?

And good on Trauma/Kaos. I got a lot of quality time from DC, once it was patched up out of the early shit versions.

[Wolf]

I don't get racers, but I heard Juiced was god awful. Wasn't that the game where you could win the panties of babes that watched you race?

[NiX]

You might be thinking of SRS. Now that was a HORRIBLE game.

[Wolf]

You might be thinking of SRS. Now that was a HORRIBLE game.

Oh, yeah. My bad, that was SRS. Juiced was the one with the stupid commercial, right? The one where two dudes undressed a chick that was waiting for the bus while playing Juiced in a car or whatever. Or am I wrong again?

[HaemishM]

My Review of Juiced

It was a decent racing/customization game, with a REALLY bad treadmill effect on the career game. You'd be going along just fine with winning or not winning, and all of a sudden the difficulty just ramped up at about an 80 degree incline. You ended up having to be perfect in races just to have enough money to repair or upgrade your car.

I'm hoping they make a sequel with that shit toned down a bit.

[Azazel]

Thanks for the review, Haemish.

I'm hearing good things about the new Need for Speed, actually. Have you played that one?

[HaemishM]

It's EA, so no. The only Need for Speed game I've played since the first on the Genesis is Need for Speed Underground 1 on the X-Box. That one is pretty good.

[Azazel]

Is that a moral stand against EA? If so, which morals in particular? And does it cover all their releases regardless of quality?

[schild]

I've boycotted EA for YEARS. I have bought and played only Will Wright titles (didn't play them that much, but I support the guy). Fight Night Round 3 might be the first and last EA title I buy for a long time if I don't get hooked on an RPG or TBS title (LOTS COMING OUT).

[HaemishM]

Is that a moral stand against EA? If so, which morals in particular? And does it cover all their releases regardless of quality?

Yeah, pretty much all their releases. It's about the way they buy up developers, force them to put out mediocre sequels to the one hit the devs had, then closing the shop and assimilating all the decent employees who will go along with it and cutting the rest loose. It's about the continued layoff cycles and constant "crunch time" scheduling they force on their salaried employees. It's about their successful attempts to buy the sports game market, by signing exclusive licenses with the NFL so that only their games can be NFL liscenced despite the fact that NFL 2k5 was a much better game, for half the price. It's about their repeated lack of ability to make a decent MMOG, despite having all the property needed (Battletech 3025, The Sims Online, Motor City Online).

So it's a lot of things. The only reason I bought Need for Speed Underground was because I had a Circuit City gift card for Xmas and there wasn't anything else good that I could afford.

[Azazel]

That's understandable, I don't buy much from them, and despite not being into sports games anyway I hate the incremental upgrade thing that they do. (though all of the other sport game producers are guilty of the same thing).

Looking around, the last EA things I've bought have been BF2+SF, Sims2 + 2 unopened expansions (for the wife, and she comes before Producer hate), and NFS:UG2 which is also unopened and came free with a Pizza Hut Pizza a few months ago ago. Actually, I got BF:V and Sims2 diring the same promo... Essentially I don't like them as a company, but that's hardly anything new (I don't like Sony as a company either, or MS particularly yet I own a PS2, XBox and have an original copy of XP)

BF2 is fun and all that, but the last EA games I've gotten really huge enjoyment from were BF:1942(+DC) and Burnout 3. (and hell, that was an EA rescue mission. After the greatness of Burnout 2 I had to get 3. Shame Burnout 4 was a steaming POS, thank you EB games return policy..)

But anyway, my nephew keeps ranting about how good NFS:MW is, and it's gotten me curious..