Topic: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-present

[TJ Spyke]

Right. Infogrames bought a stake in the company in 2003, then fully purchased the company in 2008 (then preceded to change their own name from Infogrames to Atari SA). Part of the bankruptcy is because Atari US wants to separate itself from its money-losing parent company. Atari has a very long and complicated history:

*Founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney
*Sold to Warner Communications (now known as Time Warner after merging with Time Inc. in 1989) in 1976
*Sold the home computer and console division to Jack Tramiel (founder of Coleco) in 1984, who renamed it Atari Corporation. Warner kept the arcade division (renaming it Atari Games) and also had a 20% stake in Atari Corp.
*Merged with disk drive manufacturer JTS in 1996 and became a subsidiary of it
*In 1998 Hasbro bought all the trademarks and IPs of Atari (initially they just wanted to license some of their IPs like Pong, but then saw they could purchase the whole company for just $5 million) and renamed it Atari Interactive, making it part of their Hasbro Interactive unit
*In 2001 Infogrames licensed the Atari name for use in games.
*In 2003, Infogrames purchase part o Atari and renamed their US branch Atari Inc. and the European branch Atari Europe. In 2008 they purchased the remaining shares of the company. In 2009, they renamed their selves Atari SA.

Making things even murkier, in 2009 Namco Bandai purchased a 34% share of Atari Europe.

[shingi_70]

THQ and Vigil are both gone as of today.

[TJ Spyke]

Here is the proposed plan breakdown THQ presented:

• Sega will purchase Relic Entertainment.
• Koch Media (parent company of Deep Silver) will purchase Volition Inc. and the Metro franchise.
• Crytek will purchase Homefront.
• Take-Two Interactive will purchase Evolve.
• Ubisoft will purchase THQ Montreal and South Park: The Stick of Truth.


The fate of Vigil Games and the Darksiders IP is not known yet.


http://www.gamespot.com/news/thq-dissolved-6402838

[EasyCure]

Here is the proposed plan breakdown THQ presented:

• Sega will purchase Relic Entertainment.
• Koch Media (parent company of Deep Silver) will purchase Volition Inc. and the Metro franchise.
• Crytek will purchase Homefront.
• Take-Two Interactive will purchase Evolve.
• Ubisoft will purchase THQ Montreal and South Park: The Stick of Truth.


The fate of Vigil Games and the Darksiders IP is not known yet.


http://www.gamespot.com/news/thq-dissolved-6402838

I wonder if Ubisoft will try to bring over the South Park game to Wii U.. please Ubisoft, please...

[tendoboy1984]

Deep Silver? That no-name shovelware company? What will they do with Saints Row?

[TJ Spyke]

Deep Silver? That no-name shovelware company? What will they do with Saints Row?

Shovelware? You are the same person who called 505 Games shovelware (until I showed you they aren't). They made the under-rated Wii game Cursed Mountain, they also publish the Dead Island games They also localize many games in Europe (for example, they published Nintendo's CrossworDS in Europe). So I think they could do a good job with Saints Row.

[Kytim89]

Who will be the next game company to go under?

[shingi_70]

I would assume publish Saints Row 4 and Metro Last Light alongside Dead Island Rip Tide, 

While this company was on low burn I think your going to see them try to take thq's place next gen,

[Kytim89]

It appears that Junction Point has been shut down due to the poor sales of Epic Mickey 2. http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/28/epic-mickey-studio-junction-point-reportedly-closed

[Do_What]

If only they could've made a good game. Sucks they're getting shut down though.

[S-U-P-E-R]

Does a game retailer count? Eh heh

[Shaymin]

It would but for the fact that HMV was largely a music store.

[TJ Spyke]

Sounds like a bitter employee upset that he is not good enough to avoid being fired. It's like when the person gets fired, then claims they are quitting. Sorry, but he is just a bitter ex-employee.

[oohhboy]

You never been fired have you? The coal face employees are usually the first to know whats wrong with an organization and the first to get scapegoated. In this case there isn't a level of "Good enough" to avoid being fired. They are going into insolvency, unless you're upper managment, nobody stays. Personal ability has nothing to do as to why they are bing fired.

[S-U-P-E-R]

Sounds like a bitter employee upset that he is not good enough to avoid being fired. It's like when the person gets fired, then claims they are quitting. Sorry, but he is just a bitter ex-employee.

Yes, I'm sure an entire department of 60 people got cut in a merger because they didn't hoist themselves by their own bootstraps hard enough. Are you for real, man?

[Kytim89]

Gamestop is expected to close 500 stores this year.http://gamercheeese.com/2013/02/03/gamestop-to-close-500-stores-in-2013/

[Ceric]

What is HMV?

[TJ Spyke]

What is HMV?

Basically like a British version of FYE. They sell music, movies, video games, concert tickets.

[tendoboy1984]

FYE is still around?

And it's sad to see THQ go under. They may not have had the biggest franchises (aside from WWE), but I enjoyed Darksiders and Saints Row immensely. Saints Row is a worthy GTA clone, and it closely resembles the PS2 games in terms of gameplay and presentation (cartoony and over-the-top).

[oohhboy]

GTA is way overrated. SW is better in the gameplay department especially the gunplay which actually works.

[TJ Spyke]

FYE is still around?

And it's sad to see THQ go under. They may not have had the biggest franchises (aside from WWE), but I enjoyed Darksiders and Saints Row immensely. Saints Row is a worthy GTA clone, and it closely resembles the PS2 games in terms of gameplay and presentation (cartoony and over-the-top).

Guess you haven't been in too many malls lately. Yes, FYE is still around.

And GTA is not over-rated, GTA IV was a great game.

[shingi_70]

http://epicgames.com/community/2013/02/a-message-from-tim-sweeney/

Epic has closed down impossible games the studio they formed last year of former bog huge games guys and who was working on Infinity Blade Legends. (It was even their project to begin with)

Makes me wonder why they didn't have the guys who made Kingdoms of Amluar Recokning make a Fucking Spiritual Successor to KOA I stead of an iPad diablo clone especially since the unreal 4 tech demo took place in a fantasy land.

[Ceric]

What is HMV?

Basically like a British version of FYE. They sell music, movies, video games, concert tickets.

My next question would be what is FYE? (We don't have that in TN)

But its pretty much a Sam's Goodie, Cat's Record, McKays, etc.

[MagicCow64]

DEATHWATCH

http://www.gamespot.com/news/sony-shares-slide-most-in-four-years-6403674

[Louieturkey]

DEATHWATCH

http://www.gamespot.com/news/sony-shares-slide-most-in-four-years-6403674

How is that deathwatch?  Sony would not go under for a few years from now.  They've slowed the bleeding.  My guess is if things do become dire, they are more likely to be bought out by Panasonic or Samsung before they ever file bankruptcy.