I think the “Oh God, Why” meme face describes mine and many other feelings about this. Each franchise and developer which THQ owned are now individually up for grabs.
They had originally aimed for a quick and clean sale that would basically mean that THQ could continue business, albeit under a different name and owner. But, after the publisher’s creditors made some objections which were upheld by a US judge, that is now not going to happen. This is mainly because it was decided that a wholesale of the company would fetch less money than dividing the company up and selling each franchise separately. A tweet by the Distressed Debt Investing blog confirms this, saying “The auction will allow for piecemeal (“title by title”) sales of THQ assets.”
Each and everyone of THQ’s properties will be auctioned off on January 22, with all of it’s owned games and developer studios up for grabs. So far EA and Warner Brothers have been confirmed as being interested, but there is no word yet on what titles they have set their hearts on molesting yet.
Unfortunately, the games currently in production, such as Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Light and South Park: The Stick of Truth, but since all of those are fairly close to completion, I would imagine that their status won’t be effected as any buyer will want them out making money ASAP. The future of titles earlier in the production stage, such as Saint’s Row 4, may be less secure. This is all assuming that the titles will stay with their respective developers, which may not actually be the case. Hopefully though, we will get good news on January 23 and hopefully no beloved franchises will be murdered.
