Life After Death: The Repercussions of THQ's Demise

[Alarien]

I was a bid worried about Koch Media buying up so many franchises, but it is clear what has to happen next: An open world 3rd person rampage about a Bavarian milk-farmer that has to set out on a quest to save his favorite cow Matilda.

I'd probably buy that game.

Sounds compelling.

 

[EmilShmiengura]

Congratulations on this article! I would really like to see somebody else pick up the Warhammer franchise.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Frankly, I felt like the last couple of Dawn of War 2 expansions as well as the last couple of Saints Row releases were pretty weak; phoned in/cash ins. Was this a contributing factor or the symptoms of the crumbling?

As an avid 40k fan and player of all the DoW games, I was heartbroken over THQ's death. And GW isn't exactly peachy when it comes to licensing out their IP for things. This is the company and sued and shut down a German college fan film. It will be a long, long, LONG time before another 40k game is made. The DoW stretch was the longest and quickest release of games in decades. Usually its one PC (Chaos Gate, Final Liberation) every five years or so. Or that God awful Fire Warrior game.
I'm truly disheartened by this.

There's actually like six Warhammer 40,000 games in the works by various other developers right now; some of them are even RTSs. I don't know about the Dawn of War series though, it might go silent for a while, but I can't see why it wouldn't make a return because people love those games.

Those games still hold up; most of them. I played them again a year ago. But I am intrigued by the idea of other 40K RTSs; especially since DoW1 & 2 were so different anyway. There's a lot that can be done with that license. Something like a DoW on the WiiU would probably be enough to get that console on my shelf.

 

[Dirge Eterna]

I work about a mile from the THQ building, I would drive past every day and smile because I got so much enjoyment out of the DOW and COH games. I was and still am sad that they went down in flames, I knew a few of the guys that worked there as well. I saw the THQ badges at a local restaurant and just started talking to them about their jobs there. Really nice guys and I was even able to beta test for a few games. I hope the new WH40k games are done well.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Mostly all of the games listed are the epitome of mediocrity. Just because THQ was big it doesn't mean it was good. It just housed a whole bunch of mediocre games under its mantle, most of which were bought by unknown entities rather than by other big publishers, showcasing that no big publishers cared for them since if they did they would be able to buy em out. (such as Ubisoft buying that southpark game)

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I was quite surprised to see games like Darksiders and Company of Heroes get updated by these new owners.

Unfortunately there's no word on whether Darksiders will continue on as II was already completed and released just as THQ collapsed. And the original dev team is gone, including the creative directer Joe Madureira who has said they had it planned out what they were going to do with the rest of the series. 4 player co-op as all 4 horseman taking on Hell and Lucifer, but now that there's no more Vigil Games, those plans are gone and he's not working for Nordic and has moved on. So the hope for another Darksiders as good as either 1 or 2 is slim.
Sad too because I really got into those games at the same time part 2 came out.
Maybe Nordic Games can pull it off, but they haven't said a thing about pursuing the IP at all since the purchase.

EDIT: Forgot to mention Nordic only intends to publish, not develop any future Darksiders games which means whatever studio gets contracted would be developing it. Not very promising...