Continuous lay-offs, closing studios and a supposed huge pay cut to upper management, many could be blamed for thinking THQ may or may not be ok in the future. The company has distributed and produced some awesome games in the past and it would be a dark day in Gaming if they were to go under. However, they have been constantly restructuring and changing things to find the dynamic formula.
The dynamic formula is to produce future proof franchises and ip’s which engage audiences and have a fresh feeling every time they try to hit the cash cow more they get away with it. They recently did this with the successful Saints Row 3.
Saint's Row sold 2.3 Million Copies on 360 alone
Saints Row 3 (developed by Volition Games) is a ‘core’ ip in which built on the successful first two games and marked a return to accessible adult games for THQ whose recent film and tv licences have seen them make the wrong games. Saints Row: The Third (as of 28th January) sold 3.68 million copies worldwide on all platforms with the Xbox 360 selling 2.3 million copies of the overall figure. Looking at the figures, Saints Row: The Third has sold the 3.68 million copies in just under 2 and half months of release. Saints Row 2 which debuted in October 2008 has sold over 4 million copies worldwide to this day. That is a huge bump in sales comparing the lengths of time the games have been on sale. It is interesting to note that Saints Row 2 picked up a 48% increase in 2011 from the sales in 2010 so much that the game sold over half a million copies a year and half AFTER relsease. The same sort of trend for Saints Row 3 could keep THQ and future IP’s in the limelight.
Following an annoymous letter to upper management from an employee, THQ are looking to ditch their tie in genre to focus on the intellectual properties like Saints Row to boost their overall revenue.
Will THQ survive strongly? Consider this a yes.
TheRyanGoodman 