Were those games ever of good quality??

Doesnt surprise me at all, i would go so far to say you can apply what you just said about THQs own WWE games.

Guessing they'll be investing a bit more into Metro: Last Light and Homefront 2, two games which could be quite important.
Also worth thinking what would happen to those franchises if THQ does collapse as they are both being developed by third party developers. Would Crytek acquire the rights to Homefront rather than end up wasting their invested hours, and would 4A be able to survive itself without a publishing partner?

Crytek would most likely acquire the rights from THQ, even if they didn't use the IP in the future they wouldn't likely take a loss like this. They wouldn't want to abandon a successful project just because THQ went belly up.

4A would be in trouble, Metro 2033 was not that successful failing to break a million copies. Metro:Last Light has more potential because it is getting a larger release. The PS3/WiiU version could be enough to put the title around the million mark. If THQ were to go down before Metro:Last Light launched and was successful then I can't see them finding another publisher for the title. 4A would also need to aquire the Metro IP from THQ either right before they went under or at auction. They could possibly go with Atari or Majesco as a publishing partner.

Atari doesn't handle much internal development any more and is always looking for successful titles to publish, but 4A couldn't expect to get as many copies to market as THQ. Atari's distribution network is inferior and they are in a worse position to support a studio as they like to just publish titles and they invest as little as possible into the actual projects.

Majesco is another option but far less likely Majesco stopped producing higher end console games ages ago instead focusing on handheld titles and some Wii games but considering Metro:Last Light will be almost entirely developed by the time THQ goes down if the title isn't released they could likely convince Majesco to publish the game. But Majesco would not be a reliable publishing partner if 4A wanted to make a new title!

In all they could also try any of the bigger publishers but many of them would not be interested unless Metro:Last Light sells 700,000-million copies. In the end I think their Metro franchise could be dead if THQ goes down, that being said 4A could create a new IP. The studio has proven capable of bringing out a game every two or so years that would put them in a position to release a new IP in 2014 with Nex-Box and PS4 having been on the market only a year or so launching a new IP at that time would be the best chance 4A has at survival, they could likely find a major publisher if the IP looked promising!

This is what they get for supporting the 3DS.

A large reason publishers and developers aren't seeing success on 3DS is due to quality. With over 70 3DS titles currently on the market I could only think of five or so third party games that are of high enough quality to justify sales higher then 100k. In fact I can't think of a single 3DS game that was high quality and didn't sell over 200,000 copies except maybe DOA.

In the end software sales are beginning to rise and if you launch a high quality title then it should sell fairly well. Looking at THQ's DS line-up about 2/3rds of their software performed very poorly. Also looking at their two titles on 3DS SpongeBob was only launched in NA, while their most succesful DS version launched in both Europe and America. Looking at many of the SpongeBob titles they did not do amazing either and that was on DS with 120-million hardware units opposed to 3DS at what 6+ million?

Many developers who made Wii games stated they turned a profit at the 200K mark and considered their games successes at 500K and that was on a console with what 16x the user base.

Plus the good software the quality stuff will remain on shelves for some time in the future with very little new titles coming they stand to continue selling for a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the generation many of the quality launch titles neared 500K.

What is THQ's fault is releasing low quality software and expecting their licenses to sell the software. THQ shifting from low quality licensed software to higher quality internal IP could be one of the best decisions they could make. Of course they have a very small window of opertunity to introduce these new IP. New IP perform best on new hardware the longer you wait after the release of the hardware the harder it becomes to launch successful new IP!

You're right. THQ has consistently put out crappy games for quite some time. This is the real reason that they are in trouble. It's like Midway all over again.

Well THQ doesn't own the ip as the games are bassed on books so the publisher/author would have no problem moving the rights to someone else, if it's not 4A themselves that own the rights.

As for sales 

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/05/metro-2033-has-been-very-profitable-for-thq-ceo-says/

"It's a very profitable title for us,"

 "A lot of the sales were done on PC," he added, "and a lot of the sales were also done through digital mechanisms that don't get captured by any service."

Huh obviously you can tell I never played Metro 2033. I didn't realize it was a licensed title, THQ has been only publishing titles that it gets the rights too recently. This means if you have a new IP and you want to publish with THQ you need to be ready to surrender your rights to the IP.

I'm still not sure other big publishers would be interested in Metro. Just because it is very profitable for THQ due to its low development cost does not mean another major publisher would be interested. EA and Activision and Sega and the other major players are getting harder and harder to pitch new games too and they would be very skeptical about publishing a title in a franchise that sells less then half a million copies regardless of whether it profits!

Also keep in mind Conduit was called very successful as well by High Voltage and that franchise bit the bullet.

I am not sure how the Metro deal works but they are still an independednt, but THQ may well own the rights to the videogame series I am not sure. I think 2033 sold quite well considering the nonexistant marketing, unproven developer and an IP that is basically unknown outside the ex Soviet Union countries including Digital sales are probably closer to 750k. Last Light seems to be getting more premotion and coming to 2 extra platforms so should do well over a million (and VGChartz is terrible at tracking games in the EU especially PC so is likely undertracked on here). 

Tho it started after the first Metro game THQ does have it's Partners program which is managed by a semi autonomous devision  http://www.1up.com/news/thq-announces-thq-partners-program "the program will offer distribution and publishing deals to developers, while letting the studios keep the rights and creative control over their intellectual properties.". 

Developers that are covered by the partners program are Valhalla Game Studios (Devil's Third), Double Fine Productions (Costume Quest and Stacking), Turtle Rock (ex Left for Dead guys making something due 2013) and as of may this year Codemasters. It remains to be seen if this will be a profitable devision in the future but they certainly have some promising looking games.