Tag: THQ

THQ Has No Answers: Future of the Developer In Question


If you’re going to say goodbye to THQ before it dies, not might be the time to sign your farewell cards. THQ held its quarterly earnings call with investors and the news is not good. Earnings guidance has been suspended, games have been delayed, and the developer refused to take questions from investors, citing efforts to evaluate “strategic and financing alternatives intended to improve THQ’s overall liquidity.” For THQ, once a massive publisher and contender in the industry, the tidal wave of bad news has overshadowed the tiny light in the dark, that THQ had beat initial forecasts. Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light have been delayed by a couple of months, and it appears that they are putting a lot of stock in South Park: The Stick of Truth.

South Park: The Stick of Truth has been delayed until the first fiscal quarter of 2014, from the original March 2013 release. THQ’s Warhammer 40k MMO was cancelled earlier this year and downgraded to a standard multiplayer title.

(Source: Gamasutra)

Warhammer 40k MMO Officially Cancelled


If this announcement sounds familiar, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. This time the announcement is official, Warhammer: Dark Millennium Online has been cancelled. Well, somewhat. In a press release today, THQ announced that the Dark Millennium will no longer be an MMO, but will instead become a single player game. So the title is dropping the “Online” and will henceforth be known as Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium, and thus is no longer a topic of conversation here at MMO Fallout.

 THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) today announced that it has refocused Warhammer® 40,000®: Dark Millennium™ from a Massively Multiplayer Online game to an immersive single player and online multiplayer experience with robust digital content, and engaging community features. Further product details, platforms and release timing will be announced at a later date.

In addition, over 100 employees have been laid off from the struggling developer. We already know that Dark Millennium was being developed with help from the Space Marine title, so the new iteration is likely to become a spiritual sequel. Dark Millennium Online was already looking at trouble with THQ acknowledging a lack of funds to publish the game.

As a side note, in a past poll 23% of MMO Fallout viewers believed either Activision or Trion should publish Dark Millennium.

(Source: THQ press release)

Who Should Publish Dark Millennium Online?


Although Dark Millennium Online was not cancelled, as per the false report circulated late last year, at the time we were given some rather uncertain news that the game was on uneven ground and that there was nothing set in stone. When THQ published its earnings report for the third quarter of 2011, they mentioned that Dark Millennium Online would be taking a more cautious approach.

Gamasutra reports that in an investor conference call, Brian Farrell (CEO) has revealed that THQ is seeking a partner for distribution, and that THQ cannot afford to publish the game by itself.  Of course, a developer hiring a third party publish an MMO is hardly surprising, even more so for a company like THQ that has seen better financial times.

(Source: Gamasutra)

THQ Aborts Company of Heroes Online


Zip this one up in a body bag.

Company of Heroes Online went into beta last September, so when THQ announced that the beta would end in March, with the following:

“We are excited to reveal the next evolution of the series in the near future.”

I think we can forgive anyone who didn’t expect the entire development to be shut down. Today, THQ announced that Company of Heroes Online will cease development, during an earnings call. In the call, THQ announced that they will be reevaluating their “strategy of adapting certain Western content for free-to-play online games in Asian markets.” Company of Heroes Online was to be an adaptation of the 2006 title, republished as a free to play MMO primarily for Asian markets.

Also of note, THQ has cancelled their WWE MMO.

Such is the case of MMOs. Many live, many others die, some don’t even make it past the Alpha or beta stages. Hopefully this will allow THQ to divert more resources into Vigil’s Warhammer 40k MMO.

Why Hello There: Warhammer 40k MMO Trailer


Heretics, aliens, and Orcs, oh my! The trailer for Warhammer 40k Online looks very promising.

THQ: We Don’t Need No Stinkin Million Subscribers!


Don't trifle in no stale subscribers.

“We don’t need the kind of subscriber levels that people throw around, like a million subscribers, to make a lot of money on this title. If we get anywhere near that level, we’ll be making a lot of money.”

Why thank you, THQ CEO Brian Farrel. MMO success is, as I have said before, relative. Technically any MMO that can make a profit and sustain both its viability in the market and the love of its developers over a period of several years is a successful MMO. Back in March, EA’s announcement that The Old Republic would require one million subscribers to satiate the title’s massive budget, and that they were hoping for two million, I wasn’t the only one to become worried. As far as Western MMOs go (discounting free to play eastern titles), one million is a lot if your name is not World of Warcraft, and very few titles have hit that one million mark.

So, those looking forward to the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO may be worried, as a number of forum threads have indicated: Will Warhammer 40k be placed on the same pedestal of Warhammer Online, where the developers expected the MMO community to jump on the title as if it were the second coming of Jesus, resulting in substandard results and the great majority of servers shutting down?

Nope! THQ wants you perfectly aware that they are not expecting one million subscribers, like some other studios. Warhammer 40k is aiming small. Not too small, mind you, but small enough that were the title to get even five hundred thousand subscribers, Farrel wants us to know that they’ll be making plenty of money. The aim is to develop the title with a small group of experienced programmers and developers, who will put out gold almost immediately, rather than beginning with flaky bronze and moving up from there.

Until then, get back into your formation soldier! What are you, some kind of free thinker? You will burn for that!

We will have more news on Warhammer 40k as E3 comes closer, so next month.

THQ: We Don't Need No Stinkin Million Subscribers!


Don't trifle in no stale subscribers.

“We don’t need the kind of subscriber levels that people throw around, like a million subscribers, to make a lot of money on this title. If we get anywhere near that level, we’ll be making a lot of money.”

Why thank you, THQ CEO Brian Farrel. MMO success is, as I have said before, relative. Technically any MMO that can make a profit and sustain both its viability in the market and the love of its developers over a period of several years is a successful MMO. Back in March, EA’s announcement that The Old Republic would require one million subscribers to satiate the title’s massive budget, and that they were hoping for two million, I wasn’t the only one to become worried. As far as Western MMOs go (discounting free to play eastern titles), one million is a lot if your name is not World of Warcraft, and very few titles have hit that one million mark.

So, those looking forward to the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO may be worried, as a number of forum threads have indicated: Will Warhammer 40k be placed on the same pedestal of Warhammer Online, where the developers expected the MMO community to jump on the title as if it were the second coming of Jesus, resulting in substandard results and the great majority of servers shutting down?

Nope! THQ wants you perfectly aware that they are not expecting one million subscribers, like some other studios. Warhammer 40k is aiming small. Not too small, mind you, but small enough that were the title to get even five hundred thousand subscribers, Farrel wants us to know that they’ll be making plenty of money. The aim is to develop the title with a small group of experienced programmers and developers, who will put out gold almost immediately, rather than beginning with flaky bronze and moving up from there.

Until then, get back into your formation soldier! What are you, some kind of free thinker? You will burn for that!

We will have more news on Warhammer 40k as E3 comes closer, so next month.

Warhammer 40k MMO: Little Information, High Hopes


Warhammer 40k Online is one of those titles you don’t read too much about, except for plenty of speculation on the part of the public. Announced three years ago, we know now that the MMO will be slated for release in 2012 (Competing year with the Fallout MMO Beta). I’ve wanted to do an article on the Warhammer MMO because, as far as titles go, I feel Warhammer 40k’s hype may end up killing it before it comes out of the womb.

As it stands, Warhammer has a following of what I refer to as the disgruntled Ex. Players who left Warhammer Online, who are now looking towards the 40k MMO for everything they expected from Warhammer Online. Such conditions can only lead to even higher disappointment than what the players may have experienced had Warhammer Online never entered the picture. The 40k MMO will also have to pass the hurdle of being the “spiritual successor,” despite absolutely no links to the original game aside from lore, where the two face a level of comparison down to the microscopic level.

In the absence of information, people will fill in the void with their own speculation, and the end result is never good. THQ hopes to fill this void this summer at the Electronics Entertainment Expo where Warhammer 40k Online will be fully revealed in all of its splendor and glory. Until then, more on Warhammer 40k Online as it appears.