After a long battle with solvency, beleaguered THQ will cease to exist in a matter of weeks. Its assets have been sold off and its properties divided among several other companies. In a letter sent out today by the CEO, employees are "expected" to be employed by the new companies but that there are no guarantees.

If you are an employee of an entity that is not included in the sale, we regret that your position will end. A small number of our headquarters staff will continue to be employed by THQ beyond January 25 to assist with the transition. THQ has sufficient resources to pay these employees for work going forward, and we will be contacting these employees immediately to ensure their continued employment during this transition period. We are requesting the ability to offer certain severance pay to minimize disruption for employees of non-included entities as they determine the next steps in their careers.

Read more at Kotaku.

tis very sad news. while thq was having some issues as of later releasing their normal high quality games. they still did a hell of a lot better job then most of the A-hole big wig companies that remain. 

~rather see activision/blizzard or ea go belly up then thq~

Capitalism at its finest.  Only the best should survive.  THQ unfortunately made bad decisions and lacked strategy to remain competitive.  I will miss some of the IP and titles they had slated, but hopefully someone else will pick up.

Anyone remember LJN from the NES days?

sad news for so many talented people working behind great gamne titles!- as warhammer!

wish them the best and may better games come ahead your horrizon!

• SEGA has agreed to purchase Relic, developer of Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.

• Koch Media (owner of Dead Island publisher Deep Silver) has agreed to purchase Saints Row developer Volition as well as the publishing rights to the Metro franchise.

• Crytek, who is currently developing Homefront 2, has purchased the rights to the Homefront franchise.

• Take-Two (parent company of 2K and Rockstar) has agreed to purchase Turtle Rock Studios’ project codenamed Evolve. (Update: While Take Two was initially rumored to have acquired Darksiders publisher Vigil, reports now indicate that isn't the case)

• Ubisoft has purchased the rights to publish South Park: The Stick of Truth (pending any further objections from South Park Studios) as well as THQ Montreal, the current developer of Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Desilets’ project codenamed 1666.

SEGA bought Relic?

So sega became the overlord of strategy games AND owns the entire Warhammer franchise(fantasy and 40k) in one stroke?

Well played SEGA, very well Played

THQ like to buy up the rights to popular "teen" brands, and then make lots of games based off those brands. 

Lots, and lots of really bad games. 

And I mean LOTS of bad games. 

It's too bad that the decent companies that have been around for many years (Atari, THQ, etc.) have to suffer this fate. It's always amazing how one or two bad decisions can completely deface an entire company (*cough* Squaresoft). Too bad this won't be happening to EA anytime soon.

Originally posted by Nyrrho

It's too bad that the decent companies that have been around for many years (Atari, THQ, etc.) have to suffer this fate. It's always amazing how one or two bad decisions can completely deface an entire company (*cough* Squaresoft). Too bad this won't be happening to EA anytime soon.

Yup, yet companies like SOE and EA and Blizzard/Activision can make 15 mistakes a year, and still stay around to make another 15 the mistakes the following year, etc etc.  It does help these companies have other sources of income outside game development, but its still annoying.  If EA had to worry about going under because of a few bad decisions, then the quality of their games would go up.

Originally posted by Ingvar

• SEGA has agreed to purchase Relic, developer of Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.

Originally posted by Nyrrho

It's too bad that the decent companies that have been around for many years (Atari, THQ, etc.) have to suffer this fate. It's always amazing how one or two bad decisions can completely deface an entire company (*cough* Squaresoft). Too bad this won't be happening to EA anytime soon.

 A sad trend the top 500 companies used to last 50 years on the list, now it's common to be 10 years.  It is expected to get down to 5 years.  It's a side effect of how taxes and stock rules have come into play.  When the law reads that you have to maximize profit for the stock holders, there is nothing to stop them from looking at it in the short term.  It's easy to sell off parts of a company or layoff people to get a short term "gain" but kill a company in the long run.  Those rules must change.

SEGA actually has really strong PC department. Total War games are great especially with Rome 2 coming also Football Menager has been going realy good for them. And I really enjoyed Binary Domain despite some ppl hate it, it is very underrated game.

So SEGA now has 2 Warhammer IPs, cant wait new Warhammer games :)

Originally posted by Swiftrevoir
SEGA of course will not be able to resist getting their grubby hands into my favotire RTS and turn it into something unrecognizable.  They specialize in flaccid, brainless, action on rails experiences....not epic bloodbathed futuristic wars i.e. Warhammer: Dawn of War.  I know its still Relic but how much they will be left alone to do their thing is my worry. 

Actually, SEGA have one of the most succesfull (and good) strategy game series and the most popular football simulator....

Both are very sandbox-ish

They seem to give quite the freedom for their studios....

Why do you think everyone rejoiced when GW gave the Warhammer license to Creative Assembly(owned by SEGA)?

The ones to be worried with are the Darksider franchise and Vigil

Originally posted by Nyrrho

It's too bad that the decent companies that have been around for many years (Atari, THQ, etc.) have to suffer this fate. It's always amazing how one or two bad decisions can completely deface an entire company (*cough* Squaresoft). Too bad this won't be happening to EA anytime soon.

As long as their sports division can keep pumping out those yearly "treats" nearly uncontested.. Then no, EA will not be going anywhere anytime soon..