Today the news finally broke, after weeks of rumors and speculation THQ finally had to concede and the company will be sold off in pieces as opposed to the combined sale to investor Clearlake. While the good news is that most of the publisher’s properties and studios will be sold to very established companies in the industry, an unknown number of employees will lose their jobs.
In a letter to employees which was provided to Kotaku, CEO Brian Farrell and President Jason Rubin have broken down the current status of the company which is in chapter 11 proceedings. Without posting every quote here since you can read it over at Kotaku, we are simply breaking down the facts below.
- Saint’s Row franchise and Volition as well as the Metro IP will be purchased by Koch Media (Deep Silver)
- The Homefront IP will be purchased by Crytek
- Take-Two has agreed to purchase the unannounced Evolve game
- THQ Montreal and the South Park game will be bought by Ubisoft
- SEGA is buying Relic
Some interesting bits here are that neither Activision or EA have chosen to get in on the auction that took 22 hours and is now being approved by the bankruptcy court as we speak and Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Désilets who had left to head up a studio and new game at THQ Montreal is now returning to Ubisoft.
In unfortunate news the developer Vigil Games, the studio who created Darksiders 1 and 2, did not receive any bids and has a very uncertain future.
More news as the story develops.
