well, yeah, the speculations aren't exactly new, and it's pretty common knowledge by now that THQ is in a bad way.

i hope they pull through, though. they were one of the more decent publishers, IMO. i've enjoyed many of their more recent releaes, i.e. Space Marine or the Dawn of War series, the Company of Heroes franchise, and Homefront had a pretty good multiplayer mode.

why can't UbiSoft be the company about to go down?

Because Ubisoft makes better games? Both companies have awfull drm shit on their games. And Ubisoft don't sell their games on that many pieces like THQ do :)

Can't argue with that. But you've named mostly Relic games and one developer isn't going to save the publisher by itself. I'd also mention SR3 as a truly damn fine game. But Volition's output on the whole has been very hit and miss.

Overall THQ's business strategy has sucked and the economy isn't tolerant of that. And consoles were always where the most money is at. So the fact that they've absolutely murdered their PC market share is not something that has been fatal for them. THQ's bad decisions mostly affect all platforms and the fact that Relic is probably their best asset and largely PC only... well yeah. It's not enough to carry them.

joke?!?

first of all, that's probably subjective. if you're into strategy games, UbiSoft will do nothing for you. and apart from the Assassin's Creed series, and some individual titles like Anno 2070 and RUSE, what good games is UbiSoft supposed to have? the Tom Clancy games have become a joke. Driver was OK but badly ported. from my point of view, THQ has the better games. THQ no longer uses any DRM other than Steam AFAIK, and that's a hell of a lot better than what UbiSoft is doing with their always-online, account-based crap, limited install tokens, etc. depends. pretty much every UbiSoft game nowadays gets a bunch of DLC. just look at the Assassin's Creed series, Anno 2070, and even RUSE. sure, Space Marine and Retribution got a lot more DLC, but that was mostly cosmetic and optional stuff. thanks to Steam sales it was cheap as dirt anyway. i know. i just looked at a few piles of games in front of me and that's what i saw. i'm sure i have other THQ games lying around somewhere. true. yes, considering Relic made many of THQ's best games, they are a very PC-oriented publisher, unlike UbiSoft. in the event that THQ does go down, i just hope that Relic find a decent new partner. just - dear God! - don't let it be UbiSoft. first they killed Massive and then Eugen Systems couldn't get outta there quick enough...

Really a shame. One of the few developers that actually has quite a number of games that are actually *cheaper* in the EU than the US for a change. (on Steam)

I remember Michael Pachter saying something like this a couple episodes ago. I'm sure from a business stand point that certainly seems to be the case. And THQ has probably stated a defensive press release so as to keep the stock holders from panicing. It's impossible to know what's going to happen to a certainty, but no one would blame you for siding with the nay-sayers. Really though, how many hits has THQ been able to put out their in the past two generations? They've been consistently banking on bad decisions for a decade.

I believe Zanzarah was published by THQ, shame it apparently didn't sell well enough for them to finish the expansion. I wonder who'd be interested in buying the rights to that one if THQ goes down, and if they'd be more likely to put it up here.

Here's to hope that STALKER 2 and Metro Last Light get picked up by a good publisher.

Yes, agreed.

I like THQ. Games-wise, I mean. No idea if they're a "nice" publisher or not.

I actually like Ubisoft too :P

Only the first STALKER was published by THQ, and STALKER 2 doesn't have a publisher at all for the moment as far as I know.

Let's compare the catalogues:
Ubisoft have: Anno series,Assassin's Creed series,Beyond Good & Evil,Call Of Juarez games,Driver,FarCry,HoMM,Prince Of Persia,Rayman,Silent Hunter,Settlers,Tom Clancy games.... I think this is enough for saying they have very good games.

What THQ have.. Company Of Heroes,Warhammer series,Darksiders,Metro 2033,RedFaction,Stalker,Saints Row ....uh Broken Sword games are listed on THQ(Wikipedia said that...maybe it's wrong) UFC series for consoles....and I guess this sums it...

So yeah Ubisoft have better Franchises for sure and THQ.
About the DLC's part you can't even compare the amount of DLC's for SR3 and AC:Revelations

Assassin's Creed Revelations - Gold Edition(This includes the 3 DLC's) = 49,99 €
Saints Row 3 - 29,99€ + 12 DLC's - 45,38€ = 75,37 €

This don't look normal for me :) It looks like milking your customers for stuff cuted from the game :)
The devs that made Stalker closed doors if i'm not mistaking...

And Metro Last Light will be released by THQ

That's a bit more complicated than that in fact.
Some members of the team are still working on it even if GSC was indeed shut down, but they are probably doing it "for free" at the moment as the game doesn't have a publisher.
At least that was the case last time I read about it, I am not following all this very closely so I don't know if the situation has evolved since then or not.

I hope they still found money to make a Stalker 2...it will be nice

I'm not a fan of 'milking with DLC' , however I saw the GF play through Saints Row the Third on release and I consider it a great game as is, without the need for DLC.

Also, that 45 Euro you picked for the DLC pack is misleading, because 14 Euro of those is for the Third Season Pass DLC pack, which is basically a pass to get 3 of the other DLC's (Trouble with Clones, Gangsta's in Space, Genkibowl, 3x 5.49 Euro)

The rest is mostly Vanity packs with a novelty weapon here or there, but the game isn't any less for it really. There's one pack to get more cheats in game ... lol.