SEGA has recently filed a claim with Delaware US Bankruptcy court, saying that THQ owes them 941,710.93 for Steam pre-orders on Company of Heroes 2.
The claim says there were 20,755 pre-orders registered on Steam between September 2012 to January 24, 2013 that made the company $1.3 million in revenue, leaving $941k figure after Valve’s 30% cut. Also seems that Valve paid THQ $508,877.85 on December 19, 2012.
If you guys didn’t know, SEGA bought Relic and all its software catalog for a reported $26 million dollars. According to Eurogamer, this will be piled up on over $200 million dollars worth of debt that the company owes.
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Makes sense. Those pre-orders are money customers spent on the game in advance. Sega ended up publishing the game, so that money should go to them.
But the games were sold when it was still published by THQ. A publisher doesn’t just put a game out onto the market; it researches, finances, and advertises it. THQ did most of this before SEGA got involved. SEGA may have actually made it so the game actually made it to the consumers hands, but THQ made the actual sales. That isn’t to say that SEGA shouldn’t be compensated for the pre-order sales it helped bring to market, just that they are not entitled to 100% of the revenue.
Of course right now everyone if trying to get a chunk of THQ like a group of hagfish on a whale carcass. I’d rather see this money say in the gaming industry, but know that the banks need to get their pound of flesh too.
SEGA bought the franchise from them, THQ was already paid and lost all its rights.
IIRC from what I’ve read Sega isn’t going to be entitled to 100% of whatever but they are at least claiming partial entitlement. I believe that other publishers or game companies have or are going to file similar lawsuits for whatever stuff they have contracted with THQ.
The number that Sega is asking for is already a partial number of the THQ assets or whatever the proper term is.
“There were 20,755 pre-orders for CoH2 registered through Steam from September 2012 to 24th January 2013. That generated revenue of $1,345,301.29, but, as is standard, Valve takes a 30 per cent cut of Steam sales, leaving publishers and developers with 70 per cent – in this case $941k.
Of the amount it claims it’s owed by THQ, Sega said $508,877.85 is entitled to priority because Valve paid the money to THQ after 19th December 2012, the day it filed for bankruptcy protection.
…
Sega joins the long list of potential creditors, who collectively claim they’re owned over $200 million by THQ.”
10/10 picture
Jeez, how many more legal shenanigans are they going to keep getting involved in?