Posted by Chris on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 4:41 pm under THQ, Game Companies
Okay, fiscal 2008 didn’t treat THQ very nicely — Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter described it as a “miserable” year — but the upcoming year is looking very strong for the company that recently announced it had sold 50 million Nickelodeon games over the past decade.
Discussing the similarities between the next fiscal year and the one from 2007, which was “stellar,” Pachter said, “In both years, the company has games based upon its WWE, Nickelodeon, Bratz and Pixar licenses; in both it has a Saints Row game. It also has a very strong lineup of new content this year, with Ultimate Fighting Championship, Red Faction 3, Darksiders and an interesting Wii lineup comping against Barnyard and Monster House games that were released in FY:07. All of this happens in the context of industry growth that is expected to be +40 - 50% greater than the level from FY:07.”
If you’re at all interested in this sort of thing, Pachter also dishes out some other numbers and estimations. You can check them out at Gamasutra.
If you found this story interesting, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to get your daily fix of gaming news?
With all the news and leaks surrounding Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, I had nearly forgotten that a DS version of Viva was in development. I say “was” because in a Scribes entry (Rare’s mailbag) from May 9, they wrote, “Viva Piñata DS is complete. We are just waiting for our army of university interns, illegal immigrants and small children from the local schools to assemble the hand-made cartridges that we’ll be selling at all good flea markets this Sunday.”
Okay, so it’s not coming out this Sunday, but at least we know that the game should be entering manufacturing soon. That should mean a release this summer, so keep an eye out for more details on that in the coming weeks.
THQ has released a new video for their upcoming Wii title, de Blob. The video basically sets up the simple, yet bizarre story for the game — how a race of color-hating aliens invaded this planet and started draining it of all its color. The game will be an action puzzler, where you have the protagonist bounce around the landscape to bring color back to the world. The independently-developed PC version was pretty fun and quirky, so I’m expecting about the same from this title. Plus the gameplay actually seems like it could suit the Wii’s motion-sensitive controls quite well.
Baja is THQ’s upcoming next-gen racing title for the PS3 and Xbox 360. And as with most racing titles boasting of being “next-gen,” you can expect the physics of this game to have gone through an overhaul. In this developer diary, some of the people behind the game discuss how much detail and effort went into crafting the the physics behind the game as well as even how the suspension in the cars reacts. According the them, even hitting the slightest bump in the road can affect your car’s performance. I’m still wondering just how this game will stack up to MotorStorm 2 though.
The Drawn to Life : SpongeBob SquarePants Edition Trailer is ready for viewing. SpongeBob’s evil creation DoodleBoB has taken over Bikini Bottom and it’s up to players to take it back. Gamers will draw their own characters, tools and vehicles to use in this action platformer. Here’s a look at the inaugural trailer:
Over the past decade, THQ and Nickelodeon has been able take advantage (read: exploit) children’s love for Nickelodeon properties to the tune of more than $1 billion and more than 50 million units sold worldwide. This announcement comes alongside the companies’ announcement of their 2008 portfolio, which includes games based on shows I’ve never heard of such as Tak and the Power of Juju, Back at the Barnyard, and The Naked Brothers Band. (What the hell?)
THQ attributes much of the success to the popularity of both the Wii and DS. “With the enormous popularity of Wii and DS coupled with our exceptionally diverse portfolio of Nickelodeon-based games, THQ continues to lead in family entertainment,” said THQ’s Jim Huntley. “Featuring new forms of gameplay such as the music-based The Naked Brothers Band and the drawing-based Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition, we expect our upcoming titles to offer completely new ways for families to play together.”
Nickelodeon continues to view gaming as an important activity to their audience, so don’t expect to see a lack of SpongeBob games anytime soon. “Gaming is one of the primary activities of our audience, whether it’s online or on the console,” said Nickelodeon’s Steve Youngwood. “THQ’s interactive video games based on our hit shows have continued to help Nickelodeon maintain its position as a leader in gaming entertainment for the family, and we look forward to the addition of these new releases to our library.”
That’s a crapton of money. But you know what’s scarier? The Hannah Montana franchise is expected to total around $1 billion in 2008 alone.
In 2007, THQ raked in a whopping $38 million in earnings, but unfortunately for the company, this year they have reported a loss. A $35.3 million loss to be exact.
“In fiscal 2008, we did not achieve our revenue and profit targets and we are taking aggressive steps to ensure that we significantly improve execution in fiscal 2009 and beyond. Going forward, we are focused on three key initiatives. We are rolling out a stronger slate of products. We have put in place and are executing against initiatives to improve our product quality and competitiveness. We are also realigning our cost structure to generate significant operating leverage in fiscal 2009. We believe these initiatives will restore profitable growth and improve value for shareholders.”
In addition, according to GamesIndusrty.biz, THQ’s Colin Slade has announced that some restructuring will occur, and unfortunately that will lead to the loss of 200 jobs at THQ.
“In terms of the restructuring action in the near term we’re probably going to be taking at about 200 headcount. However, over the course of the year, we do expect to see overall headcount growth from around 2,400 as we exit this fiscal year to under 2,700 at the end of next fiscal year.”
Bad news for THQ, but hopefully the restructuring they are planning will help them out. You can read the full press release after the jump which is full of figures, quotes and other interesting financial wording. If you plan on reading it, you may want to fix yourself a pot of coffee to stay awake.
This has been a good year for THQ and much of its success is due to its partnership with Nickelodeon. The Company has netted over $1 Billion on Nickelodeon titles. On that note THQ has announced it portfolio of upcoming Nickelodeon titles.
This year’s feature titles include the video game debut of The Naked Brothers Band. The Naked Brothers Band: The Video Game (working title) is based on the highly rated TV show that follows the lives of a kids’ rock band fronted by real-life brothers Nat and Alex Wolff.
In addition, SpongeBob SquarePants will take on a new creative form this year in Drawn to Life™: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition. Based on last year’s top selling Drawn to Life™ video game for Nintendo DS™, the game will allow players to draw their own characters and populate the world of Bikini Bottom with their own creativity.
Gamers will find new games based on Tak and the Power of Juju, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Back At The Barnyard; and can also look forward to a new installment of the popular Nicktoons.
The 2008 Nickelodeon portfolio will be in stores for Fall 2008. Titles will be widely available on consoles including the Wii, PlayStation2 and Nintendo DS.
Well, July is approaching fast, and E3 with it. We received the list of E3 exhibitors, and thought we’d share them with you. As usual, you can expect us to have a team from Gaming Today on site to bring you coverage right from the Convention Center.
This year’s list includes (among others) Atari, Eidos, EA, Konami, LucasArts, Square Enix, and of course the big three of the console world: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Contrary to popular rumor, Bethesda will make an appearance with Fallout 3, as confirmed by their blog post. Apparently they were left off the initial listing for an unknown reason.
You can see a full list of the companies currently expected to attend after the break.
Never one to let a chance at innuendo go by, Rare has reportedly come up with a subtitle for their upcoming DS game, Viva Pinata — Pocket Paradise. (If you don’t get it.. then just enjoy it for what it is, I guess.) The BBFC revealed this on their website, so this isn’t an official announcement of any sort, but I also doubt that the BBFC just pulled this out of nowhere.
The other news that the BBFC revealed was that THQ will be publishing the game. So if you were hoping you’d see Microsoft’s name on the front of a DS box, I’m afraid that won’t be happening.
The presidential campaigns are really just starting to drag on and on at this point, so why don’t we jsut get it over with and settle things the old-fashioned way: in the ring! That’s what WWE is thinking, naturally, as they’ve extended invitations for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to appear on Monday Night Raw the day before the Pennsylvania primary. They’ve even paire dup with THQ to put together this video of what the two candidates’ entrances might look like. Sadly, the video ends just short of the two actually getting into a good brawl. Ah, to live in a world where all differences could be settled by a short grudge match.
Anyone who played the first Saints Row knows that damn near everything was attempted to be ripped from Grand Theft Auto, including its sense of humor. While it succeeded in many ways and made a lot of improvements to the series of GTA III games (that includes Vice City and San Andreas, plus the Stories games), its attempt at being funny was absolutely cringeworthy. Truly painful stuff.
So, imagine my surprise when I watched the new Saints Row 2 “Vehicles & Weapons” trailer this morning and I actually cracked a smile. Sure, it’s not the most original material, but they use it fairly well and manage to introduce you to a number of the game’s weapons (shock paddles? really?) and vehicles, including a helicopter, jet ski, and plane. Nothing groundbreaking (San Andreas had both planes and helicopters), but the original Saints Row was essentially an iterative step forward for sandbox games, and that’s exactly what I’m expecting from Saints Row 2.
The trailer is behind an age gate, so you’ll have to click here and verify your age before you can check out the trailer.
THQ has revealed some more details about their next off-road racing title, Baja. The game is being developed by 2XL Games, the same team who created ATV Off-Road Fury and MX Unleashed. For this new title, the developers are looking to bring a more expansive world to the racing genre by letting you plot your own path to the finish line. You’ll also have to work your way through the a track while dealing with realistic terrain, environmental obstacles, and constantly having to repair your own vehicle; not to mention all the other racers. Considering the development team’s track record, this might be one game for racing fans to keep an eye on.
You can also check out some screenshots from Baja here.
This week we purge the unclean from the podcast and discuss just where that Kane guy was during the lull between the 1st and 2nd Tiberium War. Our topics are two recently released RTS games - Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath and Dawn of War: Soulstorm. Join us for approximately 24 minutes as we talk good and bad and mostly great things about these two expansions. Additionally , Ron rants and I rave. Good Times. I almost apologize for the use of the word orgy in the podcast’s metadata too.
You can check out my “impression” of Kane’s Wrath as mentioned in the podcast here. And here is a link to 1Up’s official network review of Kane’s Wrath and Soulstorm as well.
This weeks show is available by direct download here.
As always, you can get past episodes from our podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com, and you can send your comments, questions, suggestions, or snarky comments to podcast@filefront.com.
File-N-Forget is also available on the iTunes Music Store.
Develop 100 ranks the world’s games development studios based on the revenues their products made at UK retail in 2007. This year, not surprisingly, the top honor goes to Nintendo and I have listed the Top 20 here for you.
Nintendo (£129.83m)
EA Canada (£68.78m)
Ubisoft Montreal (£52.17m)
Konami (£41.67m)
Infinity Ward (£39.6m)
EA Black Box (£37.31m)
Maxis (£36.84m)
Bungie (£31.45m)
Sega Studios Japan (£27.7m)
Traveller’s Tales (£27.06m)
Ubisoft France (£25.37m)
Yuke’s (£24.5m)
Amaze Entertainment (£24.07m)
EA LA (£22.49m)
Capcom (£22.3m)
Rebellion (£20.13m)
EA Redwood Shores (£19.99m)
Vicarious Visions (£17.56m)
A2M (£17.5m)
Hudson (£16.22m)
It was no surprise to see that EA took nine of the spots considering that they own many a gaming studio across the globe. Criterion, and BioWare which are also owned by EA were listed as well and maybe even a few that I missed. I expect EA to become the majority share holder for both Heaven and Hell eventually.
While the enthusiast media and forum-goers everywhere make it out to be the biggest deal in the world, THQ exec Jack Sorenson claims that the ongoing console war is “totally irrelevant.” He says his company is focusing on the opportunities that platforms offer rather than their respective install base.
“I think [the console war] is totally irrelevant. Even in the history of the business, other than something like the Dreamcast, you can do decent business on lots of platforms,” he explained. “So the issue is not who wins, it’s can an independent publisher do a good business on that platform. We’re thinking everything from high-end MMO all the way to cell phones.”
While most look at the console scene and think of the current generation of consoles, don’t count out the PlayStation 2, which is still very much a viable platform thanks to its massive install base.
“There’s a ubiquity of gaming out there, and the platform is really just a medium. If that makes sense [we’ll publish on] PlayStation 2 next year for something, PS2 two years from now,” he said. “We certainly probably carried on longer on the GBA than most and had a very nice business out there because there’re 80, 90 million GBAs out there - maybe a bunch left in closets and drawers, but there’s still enough audience to buy them. All these platforms kinda win.”
THQ’s CEO recently told Reuters that the company can grow without making acquisitions. Sorenson expanded on this, stating, “We’re certainly looking at acqusitions all the time.”
“[But] we’re not in any rush in any one area. When I started I think it was three studios and 150 people in development, and clearly we rushed a bit to get scale and a certain size where we can cover a lot of different bases both genre wise and on a technology and platform basis.
“And we’re there and past that, so the bar is probably a little higher in terms of what we’d look at in terms of fit, and how good they are, and what they are bringing new to the group. But I wouldn’t say there’s any one target we’re looking for right now.”
From a third party publisher’s standpoint, his assessment that the console wars are irrelevant is correct. It doesn’t make a difference to THQ which consoles are doing best so long as they exist and allow for THQ to sell games. I find myself wondering, though, if third party developers or publishers have their fingers crossed for one system to emerge as the victor, whether it be because they’ve invested more in that platform, because they’re more comfortable designing games for it, or any other reason.
THQ has unveiled a batch of screens showing off their upcoming Red Faction sequel. This entry in the series will depart from the previous games’ linear, FPS setup in favor of an open world third-person perspective. However, you will still be playing as an insurgent fighting against an oppressive corporation on Mars. Personally, I have a hard time getting too excited about Red Faction: Guerrilla, since the previous installments were pretty “blah” all-around. Maybe the change to an open-world game will shake things up a bit. We’ll have to see.
You can check out the rest of the screenshots here.
THQ’s Jack Sorenson stated in a recent interview that World of Warcraft has basically peaked and other MMOs are about to get in on some of the MMO loving from gamers tired of the online behemoth.
Speaking to Eurogamer last week at Gamers Day in San Francisco Sorenson stated that:
“However long it takes World of Warcraft to go through its cycle there will always be people on it, probably always be millions of people on it, but does it keep at that peak? And I think that, I wish I could see the numbers, but my guess is that it probably already has peaked - but it’s still a great business. Who wouldn’t want that?”
He went on to speak about THQ’s upcoming Warhammer 40K MMO stating that:
“We haven’t announced a release date, but it’s certainly not imminent and we plan on doing a very high quality job. That’s certainly one thing that World of Warcraft’s proved: not only do you have to do it well, it has to be great from day one. There’s not a tolerance like there used to be, when Ultima came out… All those games were buggy and horrible, and eventually got there. You can’t do that anymore, which has lengthened the cycle for good-quality MMOs. Blizzard based a lot of their, let’s say, RPG characteristics on 40k, which was the original. There’s a lot of commonality there that just comes right out of what Games Workshop has developed - the fiction, and the rest of it is incredibly deep. I think if we’re true to that and do it at a high quality, then people will come. And they can certainly co-exist.”
That was straight from the horse’s mouth, not mine, and if you want to read the rest, click through the link below. I almost refused to touch this with a nice, clean, germ free 10ft pole but I figured you would hear about it sooner or later anyway.
DISCLAIMER: This is post was not intentionally trying to get hard-core WoW fan’s silk panties in a wad - it is only the news as reported so please refrain from bashing the author. The views and opinions of Jack Sorenson expressed in this post do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Gaming Today News Editors, their spouses, significant other, lovers, pets, imaginary friends, game characters, house-elves, multiple personalities, ancestors, neighbors, fifth cousin twice removed, or the evil monkey residing in our closets.
The first details on THQ’s Warhammer 40,000 MMO have come to light and according to the information made available, it is likely going to be more of an MMORPG instead of an MMOFPS with an “in-depth combat system orientated around cover, suppressive fire and flanking”.
Players will be able to form squads, and firefights will take place on an epic scale and all races important to WH40K lore will be represented. The ability to explore cities, alien temples, Chaos shrines, deserted battlefields, mysterious ruins, ancient structures, and ‘drifting hulks in space’ will be included in the content along with what creative director Joe Madureira calls: “Tons of stuff hanging off your character, weapons, and scrolls”.
This all sounds really cool, but what I am wondering is whether this will compete with Warhammer Online: AoR. Even though there will be a major difference between the two, I am wondering which of the two Warhammer MMOs will win out in the end. I guess we will have to wait and see, especially since this one is apparently years off.
Ah, yes, finally here’s a proper trailer for Saints Row 2. This one shows off some of the gameplay and…um, is that Gary Busey? It appears THQ enlisted the infamous escaped mental patient actor for a few sort videos about a few different gameplay elements for the upcoming game, such as taunting, throwing people, and using satchel charges. And once again, these videos prove that everything is ten times more entertaining with even a mildly recognizable celebrity. Fun fact: Mr. Busey had absolutely no idea he was being filmed when these ads were shot. He thought he was auditioning for a role in a new stage version of The Sound of Music.
You can check out the other two videos after the break.
Okay, fiscal 2008 didn’t treat THQ very nicely — Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter described it as a “miserable” year — but the upcoming year is looking very strong for the company that recently announced it had sold 50 million Nickelodeon games over the past decade.
In 2007, THQ raked in a whopping $38 million in earnings, but unfortunately for the company, this year they have reported a loss. A $35.3 million loss to be exact.
This has been a good year for THQ and much of its success is due to its partnership with Nickelodeon. The Company has netted over $1 Billion on Nickelodeon titles. On that note THQ has announced it portfolio of upcoming Nickelodeon titles.
Well, July is approaching fast, and E3 with it. We received the list of E3 exhibitors, and thought we’d share them with you. As usual, you can expect us to have a team from Gaming Today on site to bring you coverage right from the Convention Center. 
