THQ Auction is Over.

C

crackbone

Gawd
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Sep 16, 2003
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According to sources, Clearlake is out and THQ as we know it ceases to exist.

Announcements about what IPs and developers are going where should be announced sometime later today.
 
It's a sad, sad day for the gaming community.

I can only begin to imagine the damage that EA is going to do to some of my favorite IP's

RIP THQ you will be missed.....:(
 
@VancouverTim

Judge to finalize everything by 4pm. Bittersweet day for @THQ fans and alumni alike.
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If correct, should know later today. Rumors yesterday coming out were that Sega had the high bid for Relic/Company of Heroes, but the bidding went into overtime today, so who knows.
 
crackbone said:
If correct, should know later today. Rumors yesterday coming out were that Sega had the high bid for Relic/Company of Heroes, but the bidding went into overtime today, so who knows.
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If true that Sega got Relic and Company of Heroes and NOT EA, then I'm happy.

I'm going to cross my fingers for now until more concrete information comes out.
 
This is why you don't go public as a company.

Also, get ready to see Saint's Row turn into an ACTUAL GTA clone via EA.
 
That's too bad. I loved the first two Red Faction games and Company Of Heroes as well.

I can remember being very sorely disappointed by Frontline Fuel To War. That game was prime to fill the battlefield nitch while we waited on DICE to get going with BF3. To bad it completely sucked due to rampant cheating.

And let's not forget the bomb that was Homefront. Another lost opportunity.
 
Well that sucks a big one. Hopefully EA didn't get anything.
 
Met-AL said:
That's too bad. I loved the first two Red Faction games and Company Of Heroes as well.

I can remember being very sorely disappointed by Frontline Fuel To War. That game was prime to fill the battlefield nitch while we waited on DICE to get going with BF3. To bad it completely sucked due to rampant cheating.

And let's not forget the bomb that was Homefront. Another lost opportunity.
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Company of Heroes will live on with Sega. (As a matter of fact, they are likely the best fit for Relic and RTS of the bidders)
 
Ubisoft has also apparently acquired THQ Montreal.


Things come full circle.

Patrice Désilets created Assassin's Creed and directed the first two games and left Ubisoft to head up the new THQ Montreal studio that never got to release a game to begin with.


So now the game he had created for THQ (apparently titled 1666 and based in Amsterdam) belongs to Ubisoft, and he's back with them. I'd imagine Ubisoft would cut some of the staff and merge the others into Ubisoft Montreal.

I guess its now possible that Patrice can get on on Assassin's Creed 4. As a fan of AC, this detail at least is good news.
 
To All THQ Employees:

We now have the answers we've been seeking through our financial restructuring and
Chapter 11 case. While much will be written, here are the facts of the bids and auction
that occurred t:

Yesterday morning, we received a competing bid for the operating business,
along with Clearlake's offer, and numerous offers for separate assets.
During an auction process that lasted over 22 hours, the final conclusion was
that the separate-asset bids would net more than a single buyer for the majority
of the company.
Shortly, we will, present the results to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which must
concur with our assessment.
The proposed sales of multiple assets is as follows :
Sega agreed to purchase Relic
Koch Media agreed to purchase Volition and Metro
Crytek agreed to purchase Homefront
Take 2 agreed purchase Evolve and
Ubisoft agreed to purchase Montreal and South Park

We expect these sales to close this week.

Some assets, including our publishing businesses and Vigil, along with some other
intellectual properties are not included in the sale agreements. They will remain part of
the Chapter 11 case. We will make every effort to find appropriate buyers, if possible.

What this means for employees

We expect that most employees of the entities included in the sale will be offered
employment by the new owners. However, we cannot say what these owners may
intend, and there will likely be some positions that will not be needed under the
new ownership. You should receive notice this week or early next week if the new
owners intend to extend employment to you. Please note that the terms of your new
employment, including pay and benefits, may be different from the current terms of
your employment with THQ.

If you are an employee of an entity that is not included in the sale, we regret that
your position will end. A small number of our headquarters staff will continue to be
employed by THQ beyond January 25 to assist with the transition. THQ has sufficient
resources to pay these employees for work going forward, and we will be contacting
these employees immediately to ensure their continued employment during this
transition period. We are requesting the ability to offer certain severance pay to
minimize disruption for employees of non-included entities as they determine the next
steps in their careers.

We know you will have many questions about this news. We'll be meeting tomorrow
when we return to talk through this announcement and to answer any questions you
have. You will receive a benefits fact sheet and FAQs with answers to some questions
that may be on your mind. Please review these materials closely.

A personal note

The work that you all have done as part of the THQ family is imaginative, creative,
artistic and highly valued by our loyal gamers. We are proud of what we have
accomplished despite today's outcome.

It has been our privilege to work alongside the entire THQ team. While the company
will cease to exist, we are heartened that the majority of our studios and games will
continue under new ownership. We were hoping that the entire company would remain
intact, but we expect to hear good news from each of the separate entities that will be
operating as part of new organizations.

For those THQ employees who are part of entities that are not included in the sale, we
are confident that the talent you have displayed as part of THQ will be recognized as you
take the next steps in your career.

Thank you all for your dedication and for sharing your talent with the THQ team. We
wish you the best of luck and hope you will keep in touch.

Sincerely,

Brian Farrell
Chief Executive Officer

Jason Rubin
President
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Reported by Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5978429/this-is-the-letter-that-thq-sent-to-employees-today
 
Considering the situation I'm rather pleased that Relic has been passed on to SEGA. I'm worried of what IP will end up with Ubisoft and EA. South Park being rumored to be bought by the former and Volition by Koch Media/Deep Silver.

EDIT: Crackbone's post confirmed what I heard. Also, it is of note that South Park Studios are not happy at all with this and want the rights to the game back. I can't find the article right now though...
 
EA didn't get anything from them! Awesome!

It's interesting Crytek got Homefront, seems like a rather perfect fit I would assume.
 
Nice to see EA & Activision didn't get their grubby paws on anything from THQ.
 
Well if those numbers are correct then they were right, selling off the IPs individually would net them more money than the $60M they were offered.
 
If I understand Rubin's letter correctly does that mean Vigil is technically terminated?
 
Mungojerrie said:
Yeah, very happy that EA didn't get Relic
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Its kind of unlikely that they wanted it. Doesn't really seem like something they'd go for. When they bought Westwood (same with most of their purchases), C&C was one of the biggest game series at the time, Relic's games, while good, aren't really as popular. :D
 
I hope that all the games currently in production get released ok (South Park, Metro, CoH 2).

It also sucks that NO ONE got Vigil, i mean DS1/2 were great action platformers imo and I'd love to have seen the story go full circle and get a proper end with all the horseman.


I also find it humorous that Ubisoft got the studio that Patrick (former Ubisoft developer on Assassins Creed) was working on.

Maybe they'll let him finish his game and publish it, I think if they tried to dissolve it into Ubisoft montreal and get Patrick back on board of AC he might just leave, it seemed he wanted to do something different.
 
crackbone said:
https://twitter.com/DDInvesting
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Surprised Relic got more money than Volition, but I think Relic makes better/more interesting games. Just assumed SR franchise was the big get.

Glad to see all Warhammer under one roof. Pretty excited about the new Sega now. Seems like it has become the first or second most preeminent PC strategy publisher.

Terrible news about Vigil. DS is a good series. How did they get no bids? Heck, I would have paid $10k for it and just kept selling the DS games.
 
Dolor said:
Surprised Relic got more money than Volition, but I think Relic makes better/more interesting games. Just assumed SR franchise was the big get.

Glad to see all Warhammer under one roof. Pretty excited about the new Sega now. Seems like it has become the first or second most preeminent PC strategy publisher.

Terrible news about Vigil. DS is a good series. How did they get no bids? Heck, I would have paid $10k for it and just kept selling the DS games.
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I'm guessing because they were based in Austin didn't help. (Most publishers have developers in Austin).

Minimum bid was 500k. I'm also guessing that Relic fetched so high because COH2 is basically ready to ship. Additionally, I'm also guessing that the development costs on any internal work by Vigil coupled with their location sealed their fate.
 
crackbone said:
Vigil is done. Wholly owned studio (THQ) that no one bid for.
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Sad to see them go...
Dolor said:
Terrible news about Vigil. DS is a good series. How did they get no bids? Heck, I would have paid $10k for it and just kept selling the DS games.
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I would guess because Darksiders was not a good *enough* selling franchise. Darksiders II did not break even from the last information I read on the matter.
 
What happened to the Titan Quest IP? I thought THQ owned that as well?

Also, excited about crytek owning Home front. I'd love to see what they can do with it.
 
MisterClean said:
What happened to the Titan Quest IP? I thought THQ owned that as well?

Also, excited about crytek owning Home front. I'd love to see what they can do with it.
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Any IPs that weren't purchased today will likely be gobbled up from the shell of THQ later on. I'm pretty sure that's how MS wound up with some of the Midway IPs. I'd assume things will be similiar here.
 
Vigil has a lot of talent on it. Going to be interesting to see what happens to them.
 
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