THQ

[3raser]

Since Sega bought Relic Studios from THQ about nine months ago, I was just wondering what else Sega might have bought from THQ. For instance, what happened to Valusoft? I used to love the simulation games from Valusoft. There were many subsidiaries of THQ. What happened to all of those? Did Sega buy them? Any other questions or comments about THQ and Sega are alright with me in this thread. I just hope someone can answer the main question...

[Happy Cat]

Far as i know the only THQ properties SEGA got from the auction were the devs Relic, and the IP's Company of Heroes and War Hammer

[TimmiT]

Warhammer 40k to be precise, they had already gotten the license to make regular Warhammer games so that The Creative Assembly can make one.

[tarpmortar]

SEGA botched the THQ bankruptcy, the Relic buy was a great move but passing over Volition was an unarguable mistake, passing on Vigil was another error imo. Then even though they did buy Relic they didn't buy Homeworld in the IP auction, bummer.

I was super upset with the THQ bankruptcy, probably my first or second favorite publisher this past gen. Darksiders, Metro 2033, Company of Heroes, Titan Quest, Red Faction Guerrilla, Dawn of War II, WH40k: Space Marine, Stalker, de Blob, de Blob 2, Saints Row 1-3, all good games.

CoH is amongst the best games ever, Titan Quest is the best ARPG ever and I think the first Red Faction is one of the best FPS games ever. Saints Row 3 even contended with Shogun 2 for my GotY 2011.

Was very sad to see them go.

[TimmiT]

SEGA botched the THQ bankruptcy, the Relic buy was a great move but passing over Volition was an unarguable mistake, passing on Vigil was another error imo. Then even though they did buy Relic they didn't buy Homeworld in the IP auction, bummer.

Because Sega has all the money and could easily outbid everyone else.

[tarpmortar]

Because Sega has all the money and could easily outbid everyone else.

I sense some sarcasm? It's ignorant sarcasm if so; SEGA is spending double the amount it would have required to buy out all of THQ on Atlus and I'm not even saying they should have bought all of THQ.

[TimmiT]

I sense some sarcasm? It's ignorant sarcasm if so; SEGA is spending more than double the amount it would have required to buy out all of THQ on Atlus and I'm not even saying they should have bought all of THQ.

Problem is, Sega would also need to make that money back. Relic makes games that sell well and they fit well into Sega's portfolio of PC games. Atlus also fits well into Sega's Japanese games. As for the rest of the studios, if they had bid on Volition other publishers would outbid Sega because of how popular the Saints Row franchise is. Vigil would be a bad choice because of how much money their Darksiders games cost and how much money they don't make.

[Aki-at]

I think we can drop all notions that SEGA has a lack of funds after their purchase of Atlus. They may have restructured the organisation but this was more of a case of making themselves profitable rather than a shortage of money.

Problem is, Sega would also need to make that money back. Relic makes games that sell well and they fit well into Sega's portfolio of PC games. Atlus also fits well into Sega's Japanese games. As for the rest of the studios, if they had bid on Volition other publishers would outbid Sega because of how popular the Saints Row franchise is. Vigil would be a bad choice because of how much money their Darksiders games cost and how much money they don't make.

This was believed to be a silent auction too, no one knows who and what amount the bids were. And the ones who did end up buying Volition make less than a sixth of SEGA's revenue and more than likely profit too.

[tarpmortar]

Problem is, Sega would also need to make that money back. Relic makes games that sell well and they fit well into Sega's portfolio of PC games. Atlus also fits well into Sega's Japanese games. As for the rest of the studios, if they had bid on Volition other publishers would outbid Sega because of how popular the Saints Row franchise is. Vigil would be a bad choice because of how much money their Darksiders games cost and how much money they don't make.

Vigil's Darksiders games would have been profitable with superior management. THQ pushed a larger budget behind Darksiders II than necessary and as such it barely broke even, ask any Darksiders fan they'll tell you how much bloat there was in that game, unnecessary development time. The games could have smaller budgets and target 15-20 hours of gameplay instead of the 30-40 DSII had, less time in development = lower budget but will likely still maintain the solid sales figures of the previous games.

Who would outbid SEGA? Nobody outbid them for Relic and we know for a fact that the second highest bid on Relic was from Zenimax. There's no evidence to suggest SEGA couldn't have beat out Koch for Voliton, if they could beat Zenimax they could definitely beat Koch.

[SuperSonicEX]

Well, Ubisoft and 2K games were also bidders in the THQ auctions, possibly EA if I'm not mistaken...but their interest seemed to only extend to SP: Stick of Truth and the WWE 2K series respectively, unless I've forgotten that Ubisoft tried to bid on another developer/franchise and got outbid by Koch.

How much of an influence/control does SEGA-Sammy have in these acquisitions of Western studios? because I'm wondering if it was just them limiting what they could pick up.

[pcm92]

3raser:                                                                                                                                                                                                  Just wanted to let you know that Valusoft was purchased by Cosmi Corporation, which I personally think is not the right company for Valusoft.                                                                                                                                                                                                SupersonicEX:                                                                                                                                                                                      Is Kock really the name of the company you are thinking of? I have never heard of them. Can you tell me more about them?

[Aki-at]

How much of an influence/control does SEGA-Sammy have in these acquisitions of Western studios? because I'm wondering if it was just them limiting what they could pick up.

They have the final say, but considering SEGA have had Secret Level, The Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Three Rings purchased prior, I doubt they would have withheld funds for any more THQ purchases.

[inthesky]

They have the final say, but considering SEGA have had Secret Level, The Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Three Rings purchased prior, I doubt they would have withheld funds for any more THQ purchases.

I had been wondering about this, actually, so it's nice to see confirmation.

It does indeed look like the fears over Sega's $$$ treasure chest can be put to rest. But I wonder about the meaning of the restructuring that Sega West just went through, and what context is proper for it. Do they want fewer people on payroll to offset their recent purchases (though of course Sega isn't going to make things equivalent)? Will Atlus USA and SoA be "working together"? Will be interesting.

[3raser]

3raser:                                                                                                                                                                                                  Just wanted to let you know that Valusoft was purchased by Cosmi Corporation, which I personally think is not the right company for Valusoft.                                                                                                                                                                                                SupersonicEX:                                                                                                                                                                                      Is Kock really the name of the company you are thinking of? I have never heard of them. Can you tell me more about them?

Thanks for telling me more about Valusoft. I think Supersonicex was speaking of "Koch Industries." Not "Kock." Koch Industries make asphalt, chemicals, and other stuff like that. I am not sure how they purchased anything from a video game company. It would be an interested thing to know why though...

[SuperSonicEX]

I am actually referring to Koch Media, who are the owners of Deep Silver:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Media

I had been wondering about this, actually, so it's nice to see confirmation.

It does indeed look like the fears over Sega's $$$ treasure chest can be put to rest. But I wonder about the meaning of the restructuring that Sega West just went through, and what context is proper for it. Do they want fewer people on payroll to offset their recent purchases (though of course Sega isn't going to make things equivalent)? Will Atlus USA and SoA be "working together"? Will be interesting.

Still seemed a bit excessive if that was the case, especially since there were several European offices closing down and even SEGA Studios Australia, not to mention their scale back of packaged retail.  Then again, I have no solid grasp of budgeting/business/operational costs.