THQ's For Coming

THQ announced late last year that it would be filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy as it had run into significant financial problems. It was initially expected (as reported here) that the clear lake capital investment group would be bankrolling its operations until they could buy the company outright and it would continue as a whole in that manner until it got back on its feet.

This didn't happen. Their creditors and a government trustee filled objections saying that THQ had rigged the proceedings so it would be more fair to them than it would be to the creditors. A judge ruled in their favour and bidding was opened with the deadline set for January 22nd.

Well the bidding for the pieces of THQ ended today and here's how it all ended up.

The good folks at Sega took home Relic Studios and the Company Of Heroes IP ($26.6m).

Ubisoft picked up the South Park: The Stick Of Truth ($3.3m), THQ Montreal's studio along with two unannounced game IP's Underdog and 1666 ($2.5m) which had only been revealed through the bankruptcy proceedings.

Take-Two Interactive bought the Evolve IP ($10.9m)..

Crytek GmbH nabbed the Homefront IP rights ($544,218).

Volition Studios  and the licenses for Saints Row and Metro (including 2033 and 2034) went to Koch Media GmbH (also known in the states as Deep Silver).

One thing I wanted to make sure was clear about that last one. Koch Media. I know ethical shoppers will be aware of a particular pair of politically active businessmen in america with a similar sounding name. I want to assure you that the company Koch Media is not affiliated with them. 

Koch Media is a company that started in Germany in the early 90's by a couple of German guys. So yeah, buying games from Deep Silver does not support those with nefarious schemes for world domination. Unless Franz and Klemens have been playing that one particularly close to their chests.

Between all of this and Atari filing for the same chapter 11 bankruptcy you could be forgiven for believing that the games industry is dying. And in some ways it is. 

The games industry, as with any new industry, is volatile and probably will be for the next 50 years. But then it will have been forced to evolve by market forces so much that really at the end of the day it will be so much stronger.

So while it may be sad to say farewell to what we consider to be old friends. There is a lot to be hopeful for in the future of gaming. Just keep supporting games and studios you love and the rest will follow.

*sometimes wonders if opera is on to something*

Sources: Joystiq, Koch Media (now with 100% less evil)

Its All Our Fault

Creativity in the gaming industry has long been fraught with problems. Terrible story writing has been a plague on gaming for years. As an observer of the culture you may see the potential of the medium to grow and you will also be consistently disheartened by what seems to be, an increasingly shallow, gun porn and violence vehicle.

But there is one issue that often gets left completely to the wayside. The simple fact that its OUR fault. Capitalism works, but this is what capitalism working looks like. When it comes to deciding what's important to the general public all you really have to do is look at what they are buying.

Perhaps this doesn't take into account peoples motivations for their purchases, the deeper meanings these things have to the individual. As a measure of what's important to society though, what people buy is pretty much the most comprehensive way possible of seeing what exactly has value to them.

This brings to mind the old adage “a budget is a moral document”. Coined by the faithful, this phrase is so deeply and profoundly important, in a capitalist society, that its a wonder that its not more commonly used. Where we spend our money, as individuals and as a society, says a lot about our values, what is important to us and what our priorities are.

So gamers. Here's the thing. And this is quite difficult for me to say. But its our fault that the big three have so much power and its our fault that, with the rare exception, most games that come out of that evil empire are little more than violence porn. Not to say that there's anything particularly wrong with violence porn. Just that there is so much room for more depth in these things that is completely unexplored.

I do my best to spend my money as best I can. I support indie developers whatever way I can (look out for my #1GAM article, coming soon) but, at the end of the day, the field is so devoid of truly important content that it often feels like a completely fruitless endeavour.

Spend your money wisely folks.

*self hatred can be fruitful*

Bravo, Bravo, Encore, Encore

This years winter holiday has apparently been so successful for Steam that they have decided to have an Encore Weekend for their Steam Holiday Sale, which was supposed to end at 10am PST on Saturday, for two additional days of spectacular discounts.

The sales, for the two days, will not just be the standard discount fare however. "A select number of the most sought-after titles from the Steam Holiday Sale will reprise their biggest discounts" Suggesting that the sales will be for the highest end titles with the largest discount percentages they had during the holiday period.

This could mean phenominal savings and added opportunities to get your hands on some of the biggest titles of the past year at heavily discounted prices. Will this include Batman: Arkham City which, i maintain, was the greatest discount and value for money purchase for the whole sale? I'm sure we will find out. But all in all, gamers have a lot to be excited about in, what is essentially, the digital distribution version of the January clearance sales.


*is a massive steam fanboy*

Sources: Steam News

How to Lose Women And Alienate Everyone (Who Has a Soul)

In a time of new sexual revolution its not really surprising to see a lot of backlash from the established norms. But the most disheartening for me is how female gamers are treated as they, more and more, step into the arena with the boys. . But a new trend that's been getting a lot of coverage lately is the particularly nasty attacks that have been levelled against some female gamers. Also how they seem to be viewed by geek culture in general is really quite disturbing.

I won't be linking to the video's or the YouTube channel but there has been a revelation broken today by Kotaku (who have the aforementioned links if you want them). A user by the name of ShrineNI posted, on Dec. 23, in a “Christmas Special” YouTube video began voicing his opinions on how girls who play World of Warcraft, and presumably in all games, should be treated.

In this, oh so special Christmas extravaganza, he goes into detail about how to “Get inside the mind of a girl gamer”. From this well thought out and clearly evolved perspective we are treated to such titbits of wisdom as: “New content is too hard for them to participate in,” as an explanation of his perception that girl gamers only do old content raid instances like Molten Core. 

And apparently girls only do dailies and secondary professions so that they feel like they are playing the game when in fact they aren't. Because, you know, dailies and secondary professions aren't a “real” part of the game.

Now my personal opinion is that this was actually a troll of the girl that he takes aim at towards the end of the video, Daicy. I am currently awaiting a conversation with the girl gamer in question to discuss this issue. Update to follow.

The second video is more of the same disgusting behaviour and talk but again, I don't really buy it. At the beginning he feigns just enough elaborate planning about communication and coordination to sound like it's something he's put a great deal of thought into. the video then quickly deteriorate into him just rambling diatribe and fake sounding “get the gamer girl” nonsense.

Finally is the apology video which ShrineNI spends about 1:30 explaining how sorry he is for being so thoughtless. He then breaks out an ethnic slur against the author of the article and launches into yet another diatribe, this time, aimed at the author of the article, Patricia Hernandez and Kotaku in general.

Maybe I'm giving the guy too much benefit of the doubt but really if I am, then I think the quote of the whole day goes to the YouTube commenter who pointed out, that in the faux apology video, ShrineNI had the tab “How to come out of the closet” open.

The worrying thing about this whole thing isn't even so much the guy who posted the videos. As I said, I believe he is trolling. No, the really worrying thing is the commenter's. While I agree that its disgraceful to equate sexual harassment with sexual assault or rape, its quite still disturbing to see SO many people completely support the message of the video. That women are inferior in some way and should be treated like dirt for, you know, existing.

*is still scared of the feminazis*

Sources: Kotaku, Twitter, The ESA

Ooooo Yeahhhhh

So the folks at Ouya's have shipped 1,200 of their Kickstarter funded console and they have already begun arriving at developers all over the world. There seems to be a great buzz about it happening on twitter right now. So here's a quick run down on some reactions to the fledgeling console.

“Lunch Game Studio is a two man team based in beautiful Vancouver, BC. The team is currently working on the 2d platformer "Shelled In" slated for a multi-platform release. Check out the title specific pages for more info!”

Helmed by James Brotherston Lunch Game Studio has their game Fruit Flies up for review on Apple iTunes now.

Got my @playOuya dev console today!!! twitter.com/jamebesa/statu…
— James Brotherston (@jamebesa) January 4, 2013

Notorious console hacker Ben Heckendorn took it upon himself to tear the Ouya apart before ever turning it on because he was so excited to get inside this thing. I suppose that's a man thing hey?

Ouya teardown video. youtu.be/_hh3Ezg9xf0 Don't worry I put it all back together!
— Ben Heckendorn (@benheck) January 4, 2013

“Kactus Games is a small independent developer based in Perth, Western Australia. It was founded in mid-2010 when Kamil and Sue impulsively decided to make a game for Android. We currently have three Perth based team members.”

@playOuya We got our game's alpha version up and running on the same day as the unboxing! youtube.com/watch?v=pO2gdE…
— Kactus Games (@KactusGames) January 4, 2013

All in all the Ouya seems like its being very well received by developers, some even having their projects up and running on the machine, this bodes well for a decent selection of launch titles. With the open source nature of the console it will also no doubt be awash with indie titles of all kinds. With some major titles thrown in there for good measure and a potential version of Minecraft on the cards the folks over at Ouya have a lot to be excited about.

*wants one*

Sources: Twitter, Kactus Games, Lunch Game Studio