[Turrican3]

A fine gennaio THQ verrà venduta all'asta, nella quale gli aspiranti acquirenti potranno formulare offerte "mirate" a singoli asset dell'azienda (IP, team, ecc.)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=506812

[Bluforce]

Spero che i team possano finire in mani più sicure, senza perdite di unità lavorative.

Per gli IP, non è che le produzioni THQ mi facciano impazzire, ma qualcuno salvabile e potenzialmente remunerativo c'è.

Chi sa se vedremo un wrestling game che non abbia il motore di gioco dell'epoca PS1

[Blasor]

Spero che i team possano finire in mani più sicure, senza perdite di unità lavorative.

Quoto, anche perché prima ancora di fare la finaccia ne avevano silurati tanti altri, tra cui Paradigm e Blue Tongue


C'è di positivo che vorrei assistere ad un bel rilancio di Destroy All Humans!, oltre a non perdere cosette come Darksiders e DeBlob. Red Faction non saprei neppure in che modo possa essere rilanciabile per farmelo piacere, non è più neppure FPS.

Qualsiasi cosa accada, spero di non vedere triturati il nuovo Metro e il nuovo di South Park. Insane non era più neanche roba sua quindi a posto.

[Turrican3]

Lo "spezzatino" dell'asta THQ:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509654

Intellectual Properties:
Homefront - Crytek, $544,218
Metro - Koch Media, $5.8 million
South Park - Ubisoft, $3.2 million
Evolve (title in development at Turtle Rock Studios) - Take-Two Interactive, $10.8 million.

Studios:
Relic Entertainment - Sega, $26.6 million.
THQ Montreal - Ubisoft, $2.5 million.
Volition, Inc. - Koch Media, $22.3 million

Manca all'appello Vigil (Darksiders) che quindi verrà definitivamente chiusa. [EDIT] per ora rimane senza acquirente ma potrebbe avere una seconda chance.
Non è ancora chiaro a chi sia andata la licenza del wrestling, si vociferano i nomi di EA e Take-Two.

IGN precisa comunque che tutte le acquisizioni di cui sopra NON sono ancora state finalizzate in quanto soggette ad autorizzazione preventiva da parte del tribunale fallimentare USA.

[Blasor]

Contento per Metro e Evolve, straziante South Park a Ubi. THQ Montreal cosa aveva firmato, fondamentalmente, fin'ora?

Povera Vigil

[Bluforce]

Pare che Vigil (ossia gli sviluppatori che la componevano) interessi a PlatinumGames.

[Blasor]

In effetti anche dall'update di IGN sembra non tutto è perduto per loro, certo non è bella come situazione: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/01/23/thq-dissolved-saints-row-company-of-heroes-darksiders-devs-acquired

[Turrican3]

Blasor non trovo alcuno "spiraglio" per Vigil nell'articolo, in questo momento. :mmmm:

A cosa ti riferisci?

[Blasor]

Some assets, including our publishing businesses and Vigil, along with some other  intellectual properties are not included in the sale agreements. They will remain part of  the Chapter 11 case. We will make every effort to find appropriate buyers, if possible.

Che è sempre melma ma non è ancora completamente perduta.

[Turrican3]

Azz hai ragione, mi era sfuggito quel passaggio, fondamentale, dopo "Chapter 11".

Tra l'altro leggo or ora su GAF che ci sarà una seconda asta, o qualcosa del genere, dove Vigil potrebbe effettivamente trovare un compratore.

Ne approfitto per linkare direttamente l'intervista a Jason Rubin:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/01/24/interview-jason-rubin-talks-about-thq-39-s-struggles-and-final-days.aspx

(ho anche editato il mio messaggio precedente per riflettere la correzione di Blasor, aggiungendo che nel medesimo articolo IGN precisa che tutte le acquisizioni sono subordinate ad autorizzazione del tribunale fallimentare USA)

[Turrican3]

My name is Ben Cureton, and I was the Lead Combat Designer at Vigil Games. I'm sitting at my desk among... what appears to be a warzone. The walls look bare. It's quiet.

The seats are empty.

We've all been on edge for the past couple months... and more so, the last couple weeks. I mean, I'm sure you can imagine what it's like to wonder if you will have a job tomorrow. Most of us here joked about it just to keep the mood light, but we all knew what could happen. Now I look around and I realize... it did happen.

Am I sad? Well yea. I've been in this industry for 20 years. Seriously. Two decades. I've been laid off more than once. It sucks every time. But am I sad I don't have a job? Not really... I'm sure I'll get another one eventually. I'm sad because it won't be THIS job. It won't be at Vigil. That's why I'm sad. The people I waged war with are no longer together. The people that I bled with, vented with, argued with (often times LOUDLY), and kicked back with... these people will never be together again in the same combination.

Not that it was perfect. But what is perfect? Did I like coming to work? Yes. Was I proud of the work that I did? Yes. More importantly, was I proud of the work that WE did? Absolutely. I knew, without a shadow of the doubt, that the project we were working on (Codenamed: Crawler) was going to blow people away. In fact, it DID blow people away. We did, in TWO months, what many companies haven't done in a year. The pride of knowing that no one was doing anything like us was so satisfying, it kept us coming to work and giving 100% every single day, even through the dark times.

... so maybe you can imagine what it feels like when you read the list of who bought what only to discover your name is not on the list. Why? Did we do something wrong? Were we not good enough? Were we not worth 'anything?' Imagine that.

Vigil was filled with people that I would put up against the best in the industry. People that made my work better, people that made me a better designer, and people that made me a better person. And now they are gone.

Their seats are empty.

It's OK, though. I guess this post makes it sound a bit melodramatic. Seriously... if you work in the video game industry you have to be resilient. Doing what you love often comes with a price - anyone who has been around for a while can tell you that. Today, that price has been paid. That being said, I'd still never dissuade anyone from following their dreams if their dream is to make video games. While it's not as romantic as it sounds, it's sure a hell of a lot of fun.

So don't cry for the people at Vigil. We made games for game players. I have no Horror stories from working here... only Honor stories. Through both praise and critiques alike, our goal was always to make a product as if we, ourselves, were the end-user. We may have gotten pushed and pulled in certain directions by forces out of our control, we were always in it to make games for game players. And that's what we did.

I can only hope that those spared from the other companies remain employed long into the future. There is not much worse than false hope, and these people deserve to continue making great games. You may not know their names, but they exist, and they bleed, sweat, and cry for your entertainment. I mean that honestly, with no negativity. They do it... no, WE do it... because we want you to have a good time.

In closing, I can only say thank you to the fans of Vigil games. Your support means more than you can imagine. Your feedback (both positive and negative) gave us long-lasting insight that we will all take with us, wherever we may go. You are the reason we made Darksiders 1 &2... and you are the reason we will continue to make games.

And with that... my seat is empty.


Ben Cureton
Lead Combat Designer
Vigil Games


P.S. This is no place for a horse.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/185352/Without_a_buyer_Vigil_loses_more_than_a_few_jobs_It_loses_a_team.php
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=46817540&postcount=325

No comment.

[Blasor]

... so maybe you can imagine what it feels like when you read the list of who bought what only to discover your name is not on the list. Why? Did we do something wrong? Were we not good enough? Were we not worth 'anything?' Imagine that.

Che è più o meno quello che esprimevo altrove con la metafora dei cagnolini nello scatolone per strada. Anche io sarei curioso di conoscere i "perché" di queste domande.

[Turrican3]

Forse la risposta è che il mercato deve purtroppo guardare in faccia alla realtà, ergo ai quattrini.

Darksiders II non sarebbe (a detta di Pachter, quindi... vabbè dai, visto che non c'è di mezzo una previsione a lungo termine cerchiamo di credergli ) arrivato nemmeno alla metà dei 2 milioni di copie richiesti per andare in pareggio: con premesse simili, per quanto sia un'amara constatazione, aggiudicarsi Vigil (o dall'intervento di prima, quel che ne resta) probabilmente non è stato visto come un buon investimento per nessuno..

[Joe]

Mi rattrista sempre, leggere testamenti del genere. 

[Bluforce]

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2013-01-21/finisce-bancarotta-atari-societa-225219.shtml?uuid=AbzaBmMH