THQ files for chapter 11 bankruptcy, will be sold to the highest bidder

[Shawn Knight]

Yesterday afternoon we published a story about THQ’s indie games bundle, aptly named the Humble Bundle. A recent bundle of the same nature netted the struggling developer and publisher more than $5 million and it appeared they were ready to try their luck with a seventh follow-up bundle. That is, until we learned shortly after that THQ had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company has reportedly entered into a “stalking horse” bid with investment firm Clearlake Capital Group. Under this type of agreement, anyone else looking to purchase THQ would have to offer more than the stalking horse bid, which in this case, is $60 million.

Up for grabs to the highest bidder are four studios (THQ Wireless, THQ Digital Studios Phoenix, Volition Inc. and Vigil Games) as well as all games that are currently in development. We already know they are working on a number of upcoming titles including South Park: The Stick of Truth, Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Light, Homefront 2 and a new Saints Row game.

THQ, originally founded as a toy manufacturer more than 20 years ago, was once valued at $2 billion when times were good. They’ve since fallen on hard times following a number creative and business missteps. They hired a new president in May to help right the ship but it seems it was a case of too little, too late.The company had a market value of just $11.3 million following trading earlier this week.

THQ says they will continue business as usual during the chapter 11 bankruptcy process.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/51143-thq-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy-sold-highest-bidder.html

 

[oldikes]

The seventh humble bundle has nothing to do with THQ...
The THQ one wasent yesterday afternoon it was weeks ago...
But THQ is NOT a bad game developer. Saints row games are awesome. Darksiders at least had a very interested storyline. I hope to kinda see them last through this with minimal changes honestly.

 

[Cueto_99]

THQ makes great games! too bad the business didn't go well for them...

 

[Twixtea]

I didn't play the first Darksiders, but the second one definetly didn't have a good storyline.
It was basically doing stuff for X and Y that they show you the way to a certain place.
The gameplay was good though.
I'm still playing it and having fun.
I like THQ, Metro 2033 was such a badass game.
It would be a shame if Last Light would suffer because of financial problems.

 

[cmbjive]

Darksiders II is a classic example of what not to do when doing a sequel. First, the game did not do enough to differetiate itself from its predecessor. It followed the same formula to a T: Cut scene, go through overworld, go into underworld to complete objective and fight boss, repeat. To make matters worse all of the dungeons were longer than was needed and some items that were in view of players' grasp had to be put off until late in the game. Only a handful of games can pull off frustrating players with teases to have the return after that got X powerup and Darksiders II was not one of them.

Second, the main character Death was supposed to be cool. Instead we got this thespian sounding character that was boring and bland. There were no other characters you really cared about and it appeared that Vigil Games didn't care about them either which is why they were easily cast to the side once their plot point was finished.

It would have been better if Darksiders II was a direct sequel to the first game but Vigil decided to make the game happen simultaneously as the events in Darksiders I. To which the question could be raise, "Why were there no passing references to the first game?"

Darksiders II was a complete waste.

 

[Burty117]

NNOOO! THQ! you are one of my favorite! Company of Heros 2 is already looking to be awesome! I really hope you survive for years to come, You are one of the rare developers that seem to release games when they are ready rather than "as-soon-as-possible" and if theres a glitch, your usually very fast at responding and patching.

Please don't hurt CoH 2 because of this

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Get out of here Stalker...

 

[ShadowDeath]

What annoys me is they said THQ's stocks went up 40% just because of the Humble Bundle... now they want to tank? >.>

 

[avoidz]

THQ reminds me of my SNES days when the name was like a warning label of a game to avoid.

 

[Benny26]

You are one of the rare developers that seem to release games when they are ready rather than "as-soon-as-possible"...

Apart from Saints Row The Third I agree, It's sad to see them like this.