EA, Warner Bros, Ubisoft looking to Bid on THQ

Mass Effect and FIFA publisher Electronic Arts has joined media giant Warner Bros. as a potential bidder for bankrupt publisher THQ's assets. Writing from inside a bankruptcy court hearing today, Distressed Debt Investing reported that not only is EA interested in THQ's franchises and studios, but the publisher "has completed site visits" as well.

An EA representative was not immediately available to comment.

It was also revealed today in the court proceedings that stalking-horse bidder Clearlake Capital Group has agreed to allow bids for individual THQ titles. Previously, the firm was only planning to accept all-or-nothing bids, something creditors and US Trustee Roberta DeAngelis took issue with.

Last week, THQ banker Sam Greene revealed there were five active potential bidders for THQ's franchises and studios. EA and Warner Bros. are the only two named thus far, though Ubisoft had previously expressed interest in the company's games, with CEO Yves Guillemot saying in November, "They have good things."

What's more, Clearlake also moved today to extend its deadline for competing bids for its $60 million offer until January 15, an extension of five days over the previous January 10 end date. However, US Bankruptcy Court Judge Mary Walrath did not approve this timeline, saying it remained too short.

Parties later in the day agreed on a January 22 auction date, during which THQ assets can be purchased individually.


http://www.gamespot.com/news/ea-interested-in-thq-assets-report-6402081

What's thq anyway?

TheShotsii wrote:What's thq anyway?

Darksiders Series
Company of Hero's/Company of Hero's 2 (2013 release)
Saints Row Series
Metro 2033, Metro Last Light (2013 release)
South Park: The Stick of Truth (2014 release)
Red Faction Series
Warhammer 40,000 Series

Really Dan?

XKJGX wrote:Really Dan?

Yes Kevin those are the games they make which everyone should know.


The other posts were not necessary by everyone else.

DogManDan wrote:

Darksiders Series
Company of Hero's/Company of Hero's 2 (2013 release)
Saints Row Series
Metro 2033, Metro Last Light (2013 release)
South Park: The Stick of Truth (2014 release)
Red Faction Series
War hammer 40,000 Series

Basically http://www.thq.com and hit the games link

Fans of post apocalyptic games (me) follow this closely. I've played Metro 2033 and I read the book before I played the game. This falls right into the feeling of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series which I STRONGLY encourage everyone to try. I cant express enough prise for both series (well, Metro is a lonely title with Metro Last Light being soon released), due to extreme immersion, excellent graphics, sound and ambience, and strong RPG elements.

I'm patiently waiting for Metro Last Light.

What will be most interesting is that all the THQ games are on STEAM w/Contract. How would EA handle that without a lawsuit of sorts and a lot of real pissed off people.

DogManDan wrote:What will be most interesting is that all the THQ games are on STEAM w/Contract. How would EA handle that without a lawsuit of sorts and a lot of real pissed off people.

llol

DogManDan wrote:What will be most interesting is that all the THQ games are on STEAM w/Contract. How would EA handle that without a lawsuit of sorts and a lot of real pissed off people.

I would've put the suggestion forward that EA just buys STEAM, but that would probably create even further problems. Of course, if they did that, integration between STEAM and Origin would more than likely follow but I feel I've more chance of winning a lottery jackpot twice over before something like that happens.

i wondering if ea gets that bid, all games on steam from thq are not on steam anymore... basically cut loses and flip them to origin...

@Daxtron, that will not happen. The main reason for Origin is becasue EA refused to accept Steams/Valve's terms for games/DLC's/sales so EA went and created Origin to compete and compete they are not at this time. It has gotten better than what it was, has a couple features Steam does not, but has a lot more to go and Steam is a monster in terms of a company. I would venture to say they could buy EA if they really wanted.


@Sake, That would not happen either as first those agreements with Steam are solid and permanent from what I have gathered. Look at all the EA games still on and for sale up to the point where Origin was created. In terms of the worse mistake any one company could do is try and pull a contract from Steam and remove the games. Now looking forward if they did buy THQ's asset's then I would say future releases that have not been put into contract would only be available on Origin.

My hope's would be that Ubisoft has the capital to grad a couple of the good franchises in this bid as they have recently become very integrated with the Steam client instead of there old DRM tool. The thought that Steam could even throw some hidden cash there was if possible as well.

My opinion is that the only truly bad sale would be to EA.

ea is the most dominant and rich gaming company... steam is no pushover but ea still outranks them by millions of dollars and ea has a huge back pocket ( they have been around way longer) ... if any sues each other, i think the other will sue back... if that happens one or the other might get bought out... which way is no idea until it happens, they both know they don't associate with each other

on that note, for the reason of getting sued, i bet ea is seeing if revenue from upcoming and selling games is worth more than what steam can sue.........

this is my opinion...

Sake, there will be no lawsuit and if you read my comment you will see that Steam has the rights of past EA games under there lifetime contract. Even EA cannot get past Steam on this. Again this is why EA simply created Origin because they could not handle Steam being in charge/control of sales and DLC's available for their games.

This is also why NFS HP2010 never had any updates for content on the PC otherwise EA would have to give those to Steam as well

Notice Origin the games have all had updates and DLC's already, prios to Origin it was spotty at best. EA is not as dominate as one would think.

so i cant have a opinion in thinking if ea does get thq, they will get sued?
i not saying off the bat, i mean in the future because of this deal...

i do have a opinion, we will see what happens anyhow.

ea will try to take away thq's games... and on that note...

ea will not get the bid, warner or ubisoft has better chance

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=85954.0

THis interesting article talks about the beginning of Origin against Steam and has a little spot where it talks about how Microsoft quietly went against Steam and lost in the distribution war.

---

Let's go on to when EA's Senior VP wrote this: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/06/ea-senior-vp-comments-on-steam-sales-%E2%80%9Ci-just-think-it-cheapens-your-intellectual-property-%E2%80%9D/

Now that shows what EA wants, however they had some huge DEEP DEEP Pocket discount sales over the winter break, and not just on EA product!!!!

---

http://www.giantbomb.com/syndicate/61-30734/does-being-an-ea-game-mean-its-not-on-steam/35-573521/

And while the results of the auction are yet to be formally approved by the court, most of THQ's major brands are now effectively with new owners. Here's who got what:

Relic Entertainment: the studio behind titles such as Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40k has been bought by Sega for $26.6m. It's a good fit for the publisher, bringing over the forthcoming real-time strategy sequel Company of Heroes 2 which slots in comfortably beside the Total War series.

THQ Montreal: The studio had been working on two new properties: 1666 and Underdog. These have now gone to Ubisoft for $2.5m. Ironically, 1666 is the codename for a project directed by Assassin's Creed creator, Patrice Desilets, who left Ubisoft for THQ in 2010. In the wake of the move, Ubisoft attempted to take out an injunction prohibiting THQ and Desilets from employing further staff from the Ubisoft Montreal studio. It's unclear yet, whether Desilets will return to the fold.

Volition Studio, plus Metro and Saints Row series: The developer of the successful GTA-style gangster adventure series has been bought by Koch Media for $22.3m. The German media giant, which publishes titles like Dead Island, S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Risen, has also purchased the rights to the cult Metro series of shooters, though developer 4A Games is privately owned. The newcomers fit in with Koch's range of dark, mature titles – although it may have been interesting to see Volition work with second highest bidder, Ubisoft. Incidentally, it seems that Volition's Mars-based destruct-'em-up Red Faction isn't included in the sale.

Evolve: This is the forthcoming shooter from Turtle Rock Studios, which previously worked with Valve on Left 4 Dead and Counterstrike. Little is known about the project but that didn't stop Take Two from making a successful $11m bid on it. Apparently, the studio itself attempted to cobble together a bid for its own IP, but was out-muscled by the parent company of Rockstar and publisher of Bioshock and Borderlands.

Homefront: the American invasion shooter has gone to Crytek (for just $544,218), which is already developing a sequel. The original title sold over 2m units despite mixed reviews – the brand is now in the hands of Crytek's Nottingham studio, which in a former life as Free Radical Design, created the Timesplitters FPS titles.

South Park: The Stick of Truth: The keenly awaited role-playing game, based on the hit cartoon series, has been taken by Ubisoft thanks to a $3.26m bid. Created by respected RPG specialist Obsidian Entertainment and apparently still on track for a 2013 release, it features all the key characters heading out to save the town from evil crabpeople and underpants gnomes.

Darksiders: Well... this is the bad news for fans of the critically acclaimed but not hugely successful action RPG series – there's no buyer as yet. However, Atsushi Inaba head of Bayonetta developer Platinum Games, has tweeted that he'd be interested in purchasing the series if the price was right. Having the makers of Vanquish and Metal Gear Rising working on Darksiders 3 may well be considered a dream prospect by the game's community.

WWE license: nothing is yet certain for the future of THQ's long-running wrestling simulation series, although IGN and others claim to have heard that Take Two has put in a winning bid. Surely EA, which grappled the UFC license from THQ last year, must also have been considering a bid.

And that's it, game over. THQ has struggled for several years to develop a consistently successful portfolio, its major hits failing to make up for flops like the uDraw tablet. In a statement, the company's president Jason Rubin who only joined THQ last May, said:

"I was brought in eight months ago to help turn this ship around, and while I'm disappointed that we could not effect a sale for the entire operating business, I am pleased that the new buyers will be providing jobs to many of our very talented personnel."

Reportedly, a small administrative staff is being kept on to oversee the auction process, but there will be redundancies.

DogManDan wrote:An EA representative was not immediately available to comment.

Of course there wasnt, its EA.

DogManDan wrote:And while the results of the auction are yet to be formally approved by the court, most of THQ's major brands are now effectively with new owners. Here's who got what:

Relic Entertainment: the studio behind titles such as Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40k has been bought by Sega for $26.6m. It's a good fit for the publisher, bringing over the forthcoming real-time strategy sequel Company of Heroes 2 which slots in comfortably beside the Total War series.

THQ Montreal: The studio had been working on two new properties: 1666 and Underdog. These have now gone to Ubisoft for $2.5m. Ironically, 1666 is the codename for a project directed by Assassin's Creed creator, Patrice Desilets, who left Ubisoft for THQ in 2010. In the wake of the move, Ubisoft attempted to take out an injunction prohibiting THQ and Desilets from employing further staff from the Ubisoft Montreal studio. It's unclear yet, whether Desilets will return to the fold.

Volition Studio, plus Metro and Saints Row series: The developer of the successful GTA-style gangster adventure series has been bought by Koch Media for $22.3m. The German media giant, which publishes titles like Dead Island, S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Risen, has also purchased the rights to the cult Metro series of shooters, though developer 4A Games is privately owned. The newcomers fit in with Koch's range of dark, mature titles – although it may have been interesting to see Volition work with second highest bidder, Ubisoft. Incidentally, it seems that Volition's Mars-based destruct-'em-up Red Faction isn't included in the sale.

Evolve: This is the forthcoming shooter from Turtle Rock Studios, which previously worked with Valve on Left 4 Dead and Counterstrike. Little is known about the project but that didn't stop Take Two from making a successful $11m bid on it. Apparently, the studio itself attempted to cobble together a bid for its own IP, but was out-muscled by the parent company of Rockstar and publisher of Bioshock and Borderlands.

Homefront: the American invasion shooter has gone to Crytek (for just $544,218), which is already developing a sequel. The original title sold over 2m units despite mixed reviews – the brand is now in the hands of Crytek's Nottingham studio, which in a former life as Free Radical Design, created the Timesplitters FPS titles.

South Park: The Stick of Truth: The keenly awaited role-playing game, based on the hit cartoon series, has been taken by Ubisoft thanks to a $3.26m bid. Created by respected RPG specialist Obsidian Entertainment and apparently still on track for a 2013 release, it features all the key characters heading out to save the town from evil crabpeople and underpants gnomes.

Darksiders: Well... this is the bad news for fans of the critically acclaimed but not hugely successful action RPG series – there's no buyer as yet. However, Atsushi Inaba head of Bayonetta developer Platinum Games, has tweeted that he'd be interested in purchasing the series if the price was right. Having the makers of Vanquish and Metal Gear Rising working on Darksiders 3 may well be considered a dream prospect by the game's community.

WWE license: nothing is yet certain for the future of THQ's long-running wrestling simulation series, although IGN and others claim to have heard that Take Two has put in a winning bid. Surely EA, which grappled the UFC license from THQ last year, must also have been considering a bid.

And that's it, game over. THQ has struggled for several years to develop a consistently successful portfolio, its major hits failing to make up for flops like the uDraw tablet. In a statement, the company's president Jason Rubin who only joined THQ last May, said:

"I was brought in eight months ago to help turn this ship around, and while I'm disappointed that we could not effect a sale for the entire operating business, I am pleased that the new buyers will be providing jobs to many of our very talented personnel."

Reportedly, a small administrative staff is being kept on to oversee the auction process, but there will be redundancies.

Sounds great! I hope EA gets nothing, let that greedy company burn.

SRVXOTEMPC4 wrote:



Sounds great! I hope EA gets nothing, let that greedy company burn.

Hardly. As long as kids play games, EA stays in business.

Dan, Thank You for such informative post.

Mod edit: Please don't double post. Either put everything in one post, or edit your message if you forget something. Thanks.