THQ's found a seller and filed for bankruptcy protection.
Despite THQ's best efforts to sort out its financial troubles over the past year, the company has finally come to the decision to sell off its "operating business, including THQ's four owned studios and games in development" to a "stalking horse" bidder—essentially the initial bidder on a bankrupt company's—that's an affiliate of investment firm Clearlake Capital Group.
THQ's also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for itself and its studios under U.S. Code. Unlike Chapter 7 bankruptcy—the typical type of bankruptcy that comes to mind when thinking of troubled companies where companies sell off all assets, cease to function, and give proceeds to their creditors—Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows the company to continue its operations to attempt to restructure the business. In this case, THQ's filed for bankruptcy protection in preparation for the sale, which is expected to be completed in 30 days.
"The sale and filing are necessary next steps to complete THQ's transformation and position the company for the future, as we remain confident in our existing pipeline of games, the strength of our studios and THQ's deep bench of talent," said THQ CEO Brian Farrell in its investor news release. "We are grateful to our outstanding team of employees, partners and suppliers who have worked with us through this transition. We are pleased to have attracted a strong financial partner for our business, and we hope to complete the sale swiftly to make the process as seamless as possible."
The news release also states that "THQ does not intend to reduce its workforce as a result of the filing, and employees will continue to work their usual schedules and receive normal compensation and benefits, pending customary Court approval," so there hopefully won't be any more sad notices of layoffs that we've become so accustomed to over the year.
As per the Chapter 11 filing, THQ's stock will be delisted from NASDAQ. That's already clearly evident from THQ's dismal stock price, which tanked to $.36 (at the time of this article) at the announcement of the sale.
DRM doesn't matter one way or another so don't try and use that crap. It won't be the first company to have to file, and it won't be the last.
They had some excellent trailers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGQVkKB4lLU
They had some excellent trailers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGQVkKB4lLU
Don't forget about Zynga and Hammerpoint Interactive (unprofessional developers that hacked their own WarZ game, mass-banned anyone who complained about bugs in the game, and trolled DayZ forums)
I hope their future owners don't kill Metro Last Light or future Dawn of War titles.
If you want a demo, but there isn't one. Email the developer. If that doesn't work, get your friends to email them. If that doesn't work, rally hundreds of fans and get them to flood the developer's inbox so there would be a demo.
Now DRMs? The issue is that the more you pirate the game from the wrong developer, the more DRM future games have.
The more you pirate from the ethical developers, well, you just encouraged the development of more mini-EAs or Ubisoft (notorious for DRMs in the past).
DRM doesn't matter one way or another so don't try and use that crap. It won't be the first company to have to file, and it won't be the last.
I'm not blaming piracy, but to say that all of the problems are the developers' fault is, short-sighted.
Extra Credits did an excellent episode discussing about piracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfZv_lPwBFI
P.S. One the piracy talk, think Nike or Louis Vuitton. Both been "pirated" i.e. counterfeited for decades worldwide, yet they run a solid, profitable business.
People will pay for a game worth having. It's the redundant CRAP they keep releasing, and now are in the 'MUST RELEASE VERSION X IN 6 MONTHS AFTER W WAS RELEASED' over and over again with nothing really new and torturing the developers who really want to make a good product with unrealistic deadlines and unfinished products and nerfed project plans... (cough CoD cough)
People will wait patiently (sortof) and pay reasonably for a good product... Problem is they are so rare anymore... Same old crap made for decade+ old hardware... /yawn...
And I'm not blaming dev's. I don't know why THQ is filing.. Overspending, bad management, and/or simply poor business practices. But to try and say it's piracy that's just foolishness (not saying you are).
Also for that video.. I have pirated games and I have yet to play one over 30 mins that I havn't bought later. So that takes one of their own main points and throws it right back at them. I have saved a crap load of money because I've pirated games before I bought them, but not because its "I've already got it so w/e" it's because "thank god I only wasted my time and not my money on this crap *delete*".
Yes I actually do think its a perfectly good thing. Nobody should be able to copywrite/patent a "design", wouldn't you be mad if someone patented a square with round edges & then started suing everyone because they made something similar & "stole" customers?
I would also be mad if I hired a programming team, spent $1 million on a software (chump change compared to today's AAA title games), and watched the download hits of it on torrent sites reach into the millions while I have to explain to the bank why the software isn't selling.
Usually it ends in bankruptcy, or being acquired by another company like EA.
I pirated Sins of a Solar Empire. Glad I did, too, because I hated it and deleted it.
I didn't pirate Pirates of Black Cove. I wish I did. I hate that game. Worst money I ever spent on a game.
I pirated Kingdoms of Amalur. Loved it, so I bought it.
I semi pirated Mass Effect. I bought the game, beat it, uninstalled it. Years later, Mass Effect 2 came out. But I had deleted my save game from ME1! So I scoured the web for saved games that matched mine, but could only find the ones that had DLC that I never had. So I basically pirated the old DLC in order to get the save files to work on my computer...
I won't try to justify pirating. I know it saves me money, and I am a firm believer now in demos. As kingnoobe said, pirating helps the consumer save from getting burned in the absence of a demo of a game. I used to love the old Shareware days, like Rise of the Triad. I had the Shareware version, loved it, bought the full version. Why can't we go back to that model? Here's a trial, see if you like it, then buy it. I would support that one hundred percent, instead of feeling guilty pirating a game first.
If there's a demo (trial version), there's no need to pirate it.
If there isn't, then complain to the developer. If they refuse to release a trial version, then their loss. Vote with your wallet.
And I really hate it when people pirate games from decent developers and never pay for it.
what hit games has extra credit put out?
piracy isn't the problem, the problem is companies like EA sucking the war chest dry and leaving the developer high and dry. ask bungie about that.