Sega buys Relic Entertainment from THQ bankruptcy sale

[Armoured Priest]

Hey guys, I'm just getting into this THQ stuff and wanted to quickly know how did they get bankrupt to begin with?

Something I wrote on another website about it, which is to the best of my knowledge:

While THQ had some successful titles, their top level management overpaid themselves, and the company also went on a buying spree of developers and properties. At one point THQ had something like 24-25 internal teams and subsidiaries (For comparison, Activision generates 5 times more revenue then THQ did before the bankruptcy and has had 26 devs and subdivisions total, with only 12 currently running). THQ controlled the licensing for much of Nickelodeon's properties, a lot of DIsney's game licenses, and the WWE license...none of which were cheap to acquire. This is ignoring the slew of smaller licenses they controlled. Really, THQ is a case study of a mismanaged company grinding itself into the ground and not being quit big enough/rich enough/manipulative enough to buy itself out of trouble (it tried with the Clearwater deal, but got caught).

The steps they took towards the end of 2011 to streamline their operations were too little, too late...basically they released one last WWE game, Saints Row 3, and were waiting on Darksiders 2 to give them enough capitol to get to the release of the South Park RPG, which they were hoping would save the company. Obviously between Darksiders 2 getting pushed back a couple months, and doing "pretty well, but not spectacular" (They needed Call of Duty numbers for it matter), and the South Park RPG getting pushed WAAAAYYYYYY back (it was supposed to be out already going by the original release dates) the creditors basically said "enough's enough."

[GeckoYamori]

Koch Media bought Volition and the Saint's Row IP..

Relic ending up with Sega is probably the best possible outcome. They're one of the few larger publishers who understand the value of the PC market and profit from it without making half-baked ports out of everything.

[MrSega]

MrSega, in the future please refrain from derailing topics with Sega Orbi chat. If you want to talk about it, stat a new thread.

However, as for those who continue to call for his banning and throw out names and other garbage, knock it off.

Thank you, Baloo. Guntz has started a topic regarding the "Orbi" brand. So going forward, all speculation will be in that topic.
Just to let you know, there's
a obnoxious Sega Forums flunkie troll named stu/Mulberry Tweedlecork who's stalked me around the internet for the past couple of years.

Everytime, on SEGA communuties. He attempts to derail speculation by flamebaiting,bulling, highjacking, or verbal abuse. I usually ignore him. But if derails the other topic or antagonizes me for being harsh on Sony(he's a fanboy), I'll waste no time reporting him.


Back on topic, THQ as far as I'm concerned has been on decline for almost 5 years. What motivated them to sell a toy tablet when they didn't have the capital and affordable budget for such a thing?

[Occutell]

What motivated them to sell a toy tablet when they didn't have the capital and affordable budget for such a thing?

The success of other peripheral based gaming ventures obviously.
Guitar Hero
Rock Band
Some Shooters

Hell, even as of recently Activision's second Cash cow, Spyro, or more specifically his ventures in skylanders. Just pulled in 500 Million a little bit ago.

[MrSega]

The success of other peripheral based gaming ventures obviously.
Guitar Hero
Rock Band
Some Shooters

Hell, even as of recently Activision's second Cash cow, Spyro, or more specifically his ventures in skylanders. Just pulled in 500 Million a little bit ago.

I'd say, they'd probably forgot to actually market the accessory. Also the whole idea looked like a poor attempt of a
"Vtech" toy. Not very casual or gaming oriented.

[Occutell]

IIRC it did fairly well in terms of units sold on the Wii. On top of the factor listed by Armoured Priest, the decision to expand it to the 360/PS3 audience is where it was made evident of failure, and again, easily totaled about 100 million or more in losses.

[Tripredacus]

Also, this earlier Orbi Trademark by Sega sheds more light on what it is. It mentions events, concerts, ticket reservations, amusement park, etc. I forget who it was who said it but I think they nailed it by saying it was most likely going to be some kind of hotel/resort/amusement park similar to what they put up in Dubai a few years ago.

I think that was me, after I decided to go find and read Sega and Sammy's annual reports (those things investors get).

[stu]

Thank you, Baloo. Guntz has started a topic regarding the "Orbi" brand. So going forward, all speculation will be in that topic.
Just to let you know, there's
a obnoxious Sega Forums flunkie troll named stu/Mulberry Tweedlecork who's stalked me around the internet for the past couple of years.

Everytime, on SEGA communuties. He attempts to derail speculation by flamebaiting,bulling, highjacking, or verbal abuse. I usually ignore him. But if derails the other topic or antagonizes me for being harsh on Sony(he's a fanboy), I'll waste no time reporting him.

Back on topic, THQ as far as I'm concerned has been on decline for almost 5 years. What motivated them to sell a toy tablet when they didn't have the capital and affordable budget for such a thing?

Aww sounds like MrSega is STILL mad that I exposed all of his different aliases that he uses and proved that he was just a bullshit spreading, patent/trademark spamming troll. I guess some folks can't face the truth.

[Moirai]

Aww sounds like MrSega is STILL mad that I exposed all of his different aliases that he uses and proved that he was just a bullshit spreading, patent/trademark spamming troll. I guess some folks can't face the truth.

well it is true that you seem to follow him around everywhere he goes on the internet to flame him. Why don't you just leave him alone? Sometimes I wonder what you are trying to accomplish. If you hate MrSega so much, why don't just stop reading his stuff and move on? Why don't you just put him on your ignore list?

[MrSega]

IIRC it did fairly well in terms of units sold on the Wii. On top of the factor listed by Armoured Priest, the decision to expand it to the 360/PS3 audience is where it was made evident of failure, and again, easily totaled about 100 million or more in losses.

This goes to show you that marketing Tablet devices are no walk in the park. You got to have extensive R&D and know how to execute the idea properly.

[Thunderblaze16]

Well the Wii-U was mainly bought to play those similar Xbox/PS3 type of games. People did not pay $350 to just sit on there ass and doodle on their tv screens.