THQ Dissolved, Assets Sold to Competitors for $72 Million

Ryan Bloom / Jan 24th, 2013 1 Comment

THQ

THQ has officially dissolved and the company’s assets have been sold to video game publishers such as Sega and Ubisoft in a bankruptcy auction.

Production studios, game franchises and games in development were bought up by competitors in a closed auction that netted a total of $72 million.

The bidding was full of surprises, as studios were bought by major publishing companies. Many expected EA to use some its cash to clean up at the auctions but that did not happen.

Koch Media, home to Dead Island developer Deep Silver, purchased the rights to the Saints Row franchise as well as the game’s Chicago-based developer Volition for $22.2 million. The company also paid $5.9 million to buy the Metro franchise. Metro: Last Light is expected to release in March.

Ubisoft paid $2.5 million for a THQ studio in Montreal. The company behind the Assassin’s Creed series also acquired the rights to new, unannounced IP from the development studio. In addition, Ubisoft purchased the publishing rights to the Obsidian-developed South Park: Stick of Truth for $3.3 million.

Sega won the bidding for the military franchise Company of Heroes. The house that Sonic built spent $26.6 million to purchase the series along with the developer Relic.

The first-person shooter franchise Homefront will now be taken over by developer Crytek, which paid $544,218 to gain control of the shooter series.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Take-Two purchased the rights to the new IP Evolve for $10.9 million. The company outbid the game’s own developer, Turtle Rock Studios, for the rights to the game. Not much is known about the game other than it being a co-op shooter.

In an interesting deal, Take-Two, which is home to 2K Sports, also acquired the WWE video game license in a separate agreement outside of the auction process. Terms of the sale are not yet known. It will be interesting to see what happens to the future of WWE games under 2K Games.

Developer Vigil Games, the studio behind Darksiders 2, failed to get any buyers and will be shut down.

It is a sad ending for THQ. The company was founded in 1989 as a toy company before moving onto video games. Despite having many successful games along the way, THQ had several flops. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December.

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Ryan Bloom

Associate Editor at Gaming Illustrated

Ryan Bloom is a writer and avid gamer from Orange County. He received a B.A. in Communications with a minor in American Studies from California State University, Fullerton in 2010. Follow him on Twitter @BloomsTweets.