THQ assets reportedly auctioned off to several companies
Updates to this developing story are below.
Reports from all over are coming in about the potential new homes to all of THQ’s assets. THQ’s assets, including all of its studios and franchises, were recently auctioned off following the bankruptcy and downfall of the company.
The first reports we have are coming from none other than Twitter, where several game designers have tweeted about their employment with new companies.
This is what we have heard of so far (keep in mind, none of these have been confirmed):
- SEGA has acquired Relic, which includes the rights to Company of Heroes and Warhammer.
- Koch Media as purchased Volition, the developer of Saints Row, as well as the rights to Metro.
- Crytek has purchased the rights to the Homefront franchise, which they are already working on.
- Take-Two Interactive has purchase
Vigil, the studio behindDarksiders. UPDATED: We incorrectly reported that Take-Two had acquired Vigil, but they have actually purchased the rights to Turtle Rock Studios’ project codenamed Evolve. - Ubisoft has purchased the rights to South Park: The Stick of Truth and THQ Montreal.
Even if these reports were to prove true, all of these purchases would still have to be approved through the U.S. bankruptcy court. Some of the individual rights would have to be approved by additional rights holders as well (for example: South Park: The Stick of Truth’s sale would have to be approved by South Park Studios.)
All of this is unconfirmed at the moment, and we are treating this as a developing story that we will update throughout the rest of the day. UPDATE: The updates that we have included below seemingly confirm everything that we originally reported.
UPDATE: Vigil was originally reported to have been purchased by Take-Two, but Vigil, in addition to other unsold THQ assets, will remain part of the “chapter 11 case” while THQ continues searching for buyers.
THQ has also sent out a letter to all employees stating that “”If you are an employee of an entity that is not included in the sale, we regret that your position will end.” The full letter can be found at Kotaku.
In addition to that, DDInvesting has released the purchasing values for the auction, seemingly confirming all of these reports:
- $500k Homeland (Crytek)
- $26M for Relic (Sega)
- $2.5M for THQ Montreal (Ubisoft)
- $3.2M for South Park (Ubisoft)
- $11M for Evolve (Take-Two)
- $22.3M for Volition (Koch Media)
- $5.8M for Metro (Koch Media)
UPDATE 2: Ubisoft and Koch Media have both confirmed that they were purchasers of the assets that we mentioned about.
In a statement (courtesy of IGN,) Ubisoft said “”THQ Montreal will join Ubisoft’s development teams,” while also confirming that South Park: The Stick of Truth “is scheduled for release in calendar 2013.”
Koch Media followed suit, confirming that Deep Silver, their lead development studio, will “will lead all further development and marketing on the Saints Row and Metro franchises.” They also confirmed that plans for these franchises will be announced in the coming months.
