Although Christmas is coming up, not everyone is having a good time. THQ president Jason Rubin might be one of those people—especially since THQ recently filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The past year has given the company its fair share of financial hardships, and it has finally arrived at that conclusion. All of its assets are currently being sold off, and the court will determine the new owner of the company if the sale is successful. Although the company is clearly going to have a bad time as its ownership shuffles around from company to company, there are plenty of good things that arise out of its bankruptcy: the true value of the company, along with its future.
First of all, there’s quite a few rumors that Ubisoft might buy THQ’s assets and take it under their wing. This would be a huge boon for the companies, especially if they decide to join forces and work on games together. Sure, there would probably be a lot of management shuffling, but its goals would remain the same and its means would increase through Ubisoft’s help. Since THQ has already announced that it plans on continuing all of its current projects and will not lay anyone off despite their hardship, funding from another developer might be just what they need. Having a game company buy it out will hopefully help to keep its dream projects going. As a side note, THQ has shown profound resilience with its decision not to lay anyone off around Christmas time—it shows that the company actually has values, unlike a few other game companies that come to mind.
Aside from the good turn of events for the developers, gamers can also rejoice. There are quite a few secret projects that were ‘announced’ once THQ started selling their assets. Vigil, the creators of Darksiders II, is working on a game with the codename Crawler. Relic Entertainment is working on a game called Atlas, due for release in 2014, while Turtle Rock Studios (best known for Left 4 Dead) is hard at work making a game called Evolve. Evolve has probably been in development since 2011, when the studio announced that it was making a title for the company. On the other hand, Obsidian Entertainment is still working on South Park: The Stick of Truth, while Volition is working on Saints Row 4, showing that many of the games that are already public are still right on track. It will be both exciting and nerve-wracking to see how these games make it to market, if they do at all.
This new turn of events also calls for a new direction for the company—as Jason Rubin said himself, this is a good point for ‘a new start for our company.’ Going bankrupt doesn’t mean they’re off the map entirely, and if they manage to pull out of chapter 11, they should be able to become a huge powerhouse in the gaming world again. Thanks to its deal with Clearlake Capital group, the company should stay afloat for at least a few more years. It’s a bit troubling that such a successful company could announce bankruptcy, but in this economy, I suppose anything can happen.
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