THQ had a tough year financially which seemed to generate weekly bad press throughout most of 2012. Recently, a bankruptcy judge ruled that THQ had to sell off its assets either as a whole or in pieces. The auction for THQ's assets took place last week.
While most of the big franchises found new owners, one key developer left unsold was Vigil Games, makers of the Darksiders franchise. Both Darksiders and most recently Darksiders 2 garnered positive reviews. Each sold more than 1 million units so it’s somewhat surprising that Vigil was shunned at auction. The end result is that Vigil Games was closed, all employees laid off and the future of Darksiders is now up in the air. Maybe 2old2play can raise some money and bid!
As for the rest of the studios, franchises and new owners, they line up like this:
DeepSilver, publisher of Dead Island, purchased Volition, Saints Row and Metrofor a total of $28 million.
Ubisoft snatched up the publishing license for South Park: Stick of Truth and also purchased THQ Montreal for a cool $5.7 million. Titles included in the purchase are Underdog and 1666. One interesting note, it looks like Ubisoft’s bid was the only bid for South Park.
Sega is the proud new owner of Relic-makers of both Warhammer and Company of Heroes. They laid down a cool $26.5 million for Relic.
Take Two paid almost $11 million for Evolve, a new IP currently in development. The WWE license also went to Take Two at a private auction for an undisclosed sum of money.
Lastly, Crytek picked up Homefront for a little more than half a million.
All total it looks like THQ’s auction raised about $72 million towards settling their debts. The $50 million Wells Fargo loan that THQ defaulted on prompted the bankruptcy filing so in the very least it looks like THQ made enough money to settle that debt.
