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IGDA mobile SIG head Kevin Dent has rumoured on Twitter tonight that THQ has dropped its entire 2014 line-up, including “the Game Workshops MMO,” Vigil’s Dark Millenium Online.

In addition, it’s being claimed the publisher is offering itself for sale to “Asian firms” in order to increase its value.

Dent added that “word is spreading that THQ has returned IP to Disney AFTER paying the advance, with no refund.”

When contacted for comment, a THQ Australia representative had no statement to give.

Over the past year, the company closed five development teams, and made a number of staff cuts. Red Faction and MX vs ATV Alive were both shelved during 201 after disappointing sales. However, it also poured resources into a new studio in Montreal, headhunting top local talent.

THQ development teams were among the first to receive Wii U kits, and several launch titles were expected; it also holds the UFC and WWE licenses, and saw success – now waning – with its Wii tablet add-on, uDraw.

The publisher has five major studios and at least ten games in the works, including Darksiders 2 and Metro: Last Light scheduled for northern summer; a publishing deal for Obsidian’s South Park: The Game, Guillermo del Toro’s inSane trilogy, and Tomonobu Itagaki’s Devil’s Third, as well as the highly anticipated Dark Millenium Online.

GamesIndustry cites anonymous sources for word that the Vigil-developed MMORPG is for sale.

Value
THQ’s market capitalisation – the total dollar value of its publicly available shares – is $45.41 million. It is likely any offer to purchase the publisher would be much higher than that, resulting in a significant pay out to current investors – so expect interest in THQ stock to increase if a sale is on the cards.

At time of writing, THQ shares are on a slight rise at 67 cents in after hours trading. On Tuesday, THQ saw a spike to 80 cents per share – possibly on the back of insider rumours of a sale – but hit a 52 week low at 65 cents on Friday.

The company’s highest share price over the last year was $6.53 in early February 2011, but apart from a small bump in late October and early November, around the release of Saints Row: The Third, the company’s trade value has been on a steady decline in the 12 months since.

THQ staffer comments on shutdown rumors

January 15th, 2012 Posted in News
Posted By: Valay

Earlier today, gaming industry insider Kevin Dent tweeted that THQ will cancel all projects scheduled for 2014. Dent also claimed that the company was looking for a buyer.

Community manager Mathew Everett, under the Steam alias THQSledgehammer, has commented on the speculation. Everett has been involved with the Space Marine franchise, Devil’s Third, Darksiders, and more.

If he’s to be believed, THQ is still up and running. Everett said that the rumors aren’t true, adding that a contract was just signed with more coming this week.

He said:

“Something this big would have to have been told to us weeks ago and we just signed another contract. I doubt that we would sign more contracts this week if we are selling.”

Everett’s full response can be found in the image above.

THQ has yet to offer an official comment on the rumors.

Via

well, actually I havent buy any of their games in a very long time (I guess the last one was the blob) but I am still looking forward to darksiders II on the wiiU. I hope the company and the dev teams the best.

if they are up for sale, it would be in m$ or nintendo's best interest i believe to buy them to help increase there 1st party games library in the future battle against the great 1st party studios that sony does have.

I hope Nintendo buys them. Wii U having exclusivity on WWE and UFC could be huge for Nintendo for next gen.

A fanboy can dream :P

Hmm i don't see why Nintendo would buy them. do their games even sell that well? if this ever happens it would be because they don't sell enough games anyway. I mean if they did they wouldn't be in this spot (if it ever happens that is)

they don't have anything that interests me except maybe Darksiders 2 on WiiU. i wish them luck to do better than they are now though

uDraw on the Wii was a hit, the WWE and UFC games are solid sellers, Saints Row sells millions with each iteration, and Darksiders and Homefront sold 2 million each. In a theoretical scenario where Nintendo bought THQ, I can imagine the uDraw people taking advatage of the Wii U technology, the licenses THQ is known for being sold to some 3rd party or another, Saints Row becoming Nintendo's answer to Grand Theft Auto, and Homefront morphing into Nintendo's private FPS series to counter Halo and Killzone. Whether this is a good idea or not is another matter entirely.

If this rumor is false then it could have been made up within THQ to get people to buy stocks or whatever.

Same thing for me, only Darksiders 2 seems interesting for me right now, and still its not like its a day 1 purchase for me, I might only rent it.

But THQ has the WWE games, and these games are rly popular. These games suddenly becoming exclusive to Wii U could attract a new market, ppl who think Nintendo consoles are only for kids might change the way they think about Wii U, or those doubting that Nintendo will be able to attract core gamers with the Wii U might start thinking that Nintendo means business for next gen. Also consider all the publicity that the Wii U would be getting from the WWE in every wrestling show every time a new WWE game come out, I used to be a wrestling fan, and I can tell you that the WWE is advertising their games ALOT, when a Smackdown vs raw came out when we were watching wrestling on TV we kept hearing adds every 20min, sometime with even wrestlers saying how great the game is and all that bs, same thing when you go to their website all you see is adds. Alot of wrestling fans are stupid, alot of them would probably have never heard of the Wii U before hearing these adds, and when you have some popular wrestlers saying that he played the game and that its soooo awsome alot of these fans will want to buy a Wii U so they dont miss on this yearly franchise. That is why I think it would be relevant for Nintendo to own them.

Offcaurse it all depends how much it would cost them, but I agree with you that it will probably never happen but I still wish it would :P

What happens to Devils 3rd if true?