THQ ceased to exist on Tuesday and its studios and intellectual properties were auctioned off to the highest bidders in an open court in Delaware, USA. Most of THQs assets have been sold off to companies such as SEGA, Ubisoft, Take-Two, Koch Media and Crytek. However no bids were made for Darksiders publishers Vigil Games so things look very uncertain for that studio and its IPs at this time.
We reported in late December that THQ had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The “stalking horse bidder” Clearlake Capital agreed to buy THQ’s assets at that time but it seems like the parts were greater than the whole in this case, as THQ has been sold off in many pieces to many rival games publishers.
Here’s a breakdown as to who bought what:
- Koch Media bought Volition, Inc. makers of the Saints Row series. Koch Media also bought Metro which is due a sequel called Metro: Last Light. Spending in total about $28 million.
- SEGA bought Relic Entertainment (Company of Heroes, Warhammer) for $26.6 million.
- Take-Two Interactive bought Evolve, a title in development at Turtle Rock Studios for $10.9 million.
- Ubisoft bought THQ Montreal (Makers of 1666 and Underdog) and also secured South Park with South Park: The Stick of Truth due for release on 5th March. Spending in total about $5.7 million.
- Crytek bought Homefront which is due for a sequel, for $544,218.
Also, as mentioned in the intro, no buyer was found as yet for Darksiders publishers Vigil Games. In total THQ values its unsold assets (including Vigil Studios and its WWE wrestling games license, among others) at around $29 million. However EuroGamer expects the assets to be sold off at lower prices to completely wind down the company that was THQ.
As Forbes summarises things could have been a lot worse. Now a large proportion of THQs studios, employees and games in the pipeline survive the bankruptcy and will continue under new stewardship.
