Welp, Nevermind THQ's Done

Remember when THQ filed for Bankruptcy and the President of THQ came forward and said in an open statement to everyone that 'THQ is fine and isn't going anywhere'?  Yeah, well....that is probably not the case anymore.  Some recent developments with that whole situation over the last weekend were made and they are not pleasant ones for any involved.  The plan was pretty much simple, as it was presented.  Jason Rubin said, basically "We had to go into Bankruptcy and look for an investor so that we could quickly repay the folks we owe as soon as possible" which sounds sensible as all hell and should immediately tell you that it's certainly not going to happen that way.  Because why would it?  I mean, why would things just work in ways that are considerate for everyone involved?

Over the weekend, some groups had raised some complaints to THQ's proposed plan to seek investment through Clearlake Capital Group, well a purchase from them I should say, and there was a hearing about it.  Ultimately a Judge decided that the sale wasn't cool to go through when it was scheduled to because, and this is literally the goddamn reason, 'it doesn't make the most money possible'.  With Warner Bros., EA and other publishers sniffing around, there's a very big, very real possibility that piecemeal sale of THQ's assets will ultimately bring in more money than the Clearlake deal would net, making it the more lucrative option for THQ's creditors.  Because, of course, in this economy when everyone is only too happy to chirp up about how nobody wants to protect jobs or this or that, whine about how outsourcing is too big, an actual plan to prevent the loss of jobs shows up and is instantly swatted away.  It's a fickle thing, clearly.

I guess I shouldn't be too annoyed just yet since there's absolutely nothing stating that the IPs are the -only- things that will go on sale, unless I missed it.  If you all remember when Midway went under, Warner Bros. stepped in and bought the MK IP, but they also got the development team which we now know as Netherrealm Studios and they're doing pretty spiffy, I should say.  So -technically- we could assume that any potential publisher that purchases up the rights to the individual series that will go on sale might also bring the talent over as well, one way or another.  The Netherrealm Studios example isn't the only one of course, as even when Squeenix bought up True Crime:  Hong Kong (later the amazing Sleeping Dogs), they helped United Front Games continue work on it so that they could finish it regardless.  They didn't acquire UFG, but I would assume if a Sleeping Dogs 2 was ever in the works (please let there be a Sleeping Dogs 2 in the works), Squeenix would tap them for a return as well.  If nothing else, perhaps we could assume that sort of situation for whomever picks up these IPs.

Because the IPs are definitely on sale - I mean, it's pretty much a done deal, I would assume.  The end-goal is, I believe, finding out which option will pay more between the Clearlake deal and interested parties purchasing franchises individually.  Whichever one has the biggest bottom line will be the plan that goes forward so that THQ can just funnel that money directly to the people their creditors.  So while it's still technically possible that the Clearlake deal -will- go through, it's highly unlikely as every franchise individually will probably be quite a bit more than a package deal.  As is the case, generally with package deals, which, I suggest is why they are called deals.  At this point it's pretty much just a matter of thinking about who will buy up what and doing a whole lot of hoping and finger crossing.  As much as I don't hop onto the EA Hate Train whenever it rolls around, I'm not at all enthused with entertaining the thought of an EA published Saint's Row 4, for instance.  Picking up the WWE license, however, is a lot more believable and palatable because EA already has like every other sport and they do alright.  I'd just like to think Warner Bros. will do up a thing like they did with Netherrealm Studios.

The ink isn't dry on the deals and there's still a lot of room for the situation to resume changing dramatically, but it's more or less a lot more real now than it was.  I'm pretty bummed, since I really believed Jason Rubin, but at the same time, there wasn't a whole lot to doubt based on what he presented.  He was saying if they didn't do the sale by a certain date, it would cause a lot of problems and that's basically the lynchpin here in that the Judge and others don't agree with that date.  As such, it's basically still up in the air, but I'm pretty sure it's looking like the chips are going to fall on this latter side now, rather than the shiny, bright side that was presented first.  It's a real shame in a sense, but we won't really know the extent of the damages until the actual dust settles.  Whatever happens, it's going to have a rather big impact all around, though, and that's probably going to be a hard show to watch.

Update!:  Well, things are pretty much like it seemed, since it was confirmed that this is a most money wins situation.  The amount of money Clearlake has put up is apparently $60 Million, so that is the number to beat.  If anyone bids -more- than $60 Million for the whole of THQ, they'll acquire everything as Clearlake would, -or- if the sum of the bids for individual franchises from the likes of Warner Bros., EA and such exceeds $60 Million, then that's how that'll play out.  $60 Million is a -lot- of money, so this might be a closer race than anyone could have figured on.  But it just relies on the bids because not only are the companies against one another, but up against this potential $60 Million figure or even more if someone puts in for a whole bid of more than that.  We'll find out around January 23rd just what's going to happen to THQ, so start hoping for whatever outcome you want now.

A Grab-Bag of Mini-Topics

It's one of those days again, I'm afraid.  Nothing too interesting in my life that I can write about it (not yet at least, I have something in the works, but it requires a little more time with the subject material), and there's not really something news-worthy that is also something I can go on about for four or five paragraphs.  But there are a lot of little stories that I can cover in a broad swath of text, so that's what I'm going to do.  First off, as you might suspect from the above image is the fact that The Simpsons Arcade is finally coming to consoles starting with PSN on the Seventh of February.  I imagine the graphics will be a little nicer looking, perhaps up to par with its iPhone brother, but it will also support up to four player online multi-player since, let's face it - it's an arcade game.  It's meant to be played with more than one person.  I -imagine- given the type of game, Couch co-op is possible as well, but it doesn't explicitly say that.  Anyone subscribing to Playstation Plus will enjoy the game at the easy price of "Free" where the rest of us can expect $10 which is likely a small price to pay for nostalgia and also playing a Simpsons game that doesn't suck.

Much like the rest of us in the same age range as I and, I suspect, the bulk of the 'main' gamers out there who do like we do - read the news about games, get excited for everything and just generally live it in a bigger capacity than most, I have fond memories of playing The Simpsons Arcade.  Not sure if anyone out there knows what this is, but when I was but a tot, my older siblings would sometimes take me to a place called Chuck E. Cheese which was, well, a place where you took kids to run around and do whatever and have fun in while you either unwound yourself with a few games or just tried to catch a breather amidst the chatter and clamor of dozens of other kids adding to the shouts of your own.  There was all the standard fare for a playground as well as an arcade section and little games that would win you tickets for prizes like at a midway or what have you.  And while my sister loved Skee-ball and I sometimes helped with that, the real, main reason, the main draw was the arcade section where there were plenty of games, but there was also The Simpsons Arcade.  And while I don't remember a single thing about the game, I remember playing it, and I suspect that's enough.

On the topic of releases and release-related news, Naughty Dog released this video above that shows the making-of process of the trailer that went out at last year's VGAs in so much as you get to see some of the mo-cap work done compared to the very, very bare-bones animation that Naughty Dog apparently shines to a mirror polish with tools that may just be infused with some sort of magic.  It's a neat little look into the world 'beyond the veil' as they say, and aside from that, I daresay there's some voice-over by the main character that isn't in the trailer proper.  In fact, there -is- some voice-over that isn't in the trailer proper since I just watched it again and holy shit.  My interest in the game just sort of regrows rapidly to a fever pitch whenever I really think about it, only subsiding to acceptable levels when I don't.  I honestly can't wait for the release and hope that some of the nonchalance its met with is slapped back in a few faces.  If people are so willing to accept questionable genre attempts from other studios, then 'just another zombie game' from Naughty Dog should turn quite a few more heads than it has.  But there's still time yet, of course.

The final bit of news comes from the world of Lollipop Chainsaw which, you might have noticed, I've completely neglected talking about for...well, ever now.  I assure you this is intentional and for purist reasons as I know in my head what the game was, so when I play it when I buy it, and I will do both of those things ASAP, I can see where the game has gotten which will surely give it a little bit of an unfair advantage over other games, but I don't even care because it's Lollipop Chainsaw.  I'm sure the graphical presentation won't impact my overall view of the game that much anyway, so no real worries there.  Though I have caught the headlines here and there of the game, I've mostly ignored them by and large for the above mentioned reason, as I want to know as little about the game as possible.

But the headline "Lollipop Chainsaw Boss Battle Composer is Also a Zombie Boss" was a little too tantalizing to pass up on and in seeing that and the article itself, I've found quite a bit of new pearls of information.  I think, if anything, Lollipop Chainsaw has been a very very interesting experiment on blending East and West if you really look at it:  the story being written as a joint-effort by James Gunn and Grasshopper Manufacture through a collaborative effort brought about by Warner Bros., and now the fact that, while Akira Yamanoka is the main composer of the game, Jimmy Euringer of Mindless Self Indulgence is the composer for all the boss music and is, in fact, the Punk Rock Zombie Zed that we've seen in so many trailers already.  (If your memory is a little foggy, he is the boss who attacks by yelling profanities which then materialize into words that fly towards poor Juliet.)

I was originally going to do a Music! post dedicated to Mindless Self Indulgence because of this fact, but I decided against it for a few reasons.  The bulk of them being that while I enjoy MSI, I'm not sure I like it, nor am I sure that it's something I'd want to freely toss out here for you, since you might then take that as an indicator of acceptance and enjoyment or something.  And while I don't -not- accept the music because, hey, it's music what the hell else do you need?, I also don't need to really throw it out there in the same type of post that's covered music from Nier, Chrono Trigger and the Sonic games.  Which is a really fancy way of saying "I stumbled across a cover of a Method Man song and went, 'nope.jpeg'."  But I did want to bring up that story at least because, hey, Lollipop Chainsaw.

That's about it for tonight though, kiddies.  If all goes well tomorrow, I might just have the first review of the new year posted up.  Maybe.  I kind of have to decide if I got into the game enough to qualify for actually reviewing it.  Guess we'll all just see how it turns out!

Some Pleasant Game Updates

Looks like a Suda/Grasshopper game, for sure.

A couple really nice bits of info came around today.  Warner Bros. has announced they're localizing Lollipop Chainsaw in the west, and not only that, but they're throwing some real talent (and money) behind it.  James Gunn, who was a writer on such movies as Slither, Dawn of the Dead (the remake), and uhh.....Scooby-Doo (The live action movies) will apparently have a hand in the Western version of the script (Or, perhaps the script in general; the game isn't due out in Japan until sometime in 2012, so...) to ensure it's got a nice bit of cult humor for American audiences.  (Really, though, San Romero High School; I imagine the game would've done fine without him.  It's certainly an interesting experiment at least, as we'll see how a 'pro' affects a video game story!)

It's actually a pretty welcoming thing, however; just a couple weeks ago when it was announced, I worried on whether or not it would see a release over here, thinking we would have to wait far closer to the game's Japanese release to hear word.  So that's quite a bit of fear assuaged there.  I don't have to peruse articles of the game wondering if or when I'd be able to play it myself because it just hadn't been announced outside of Japan.  Now I get to be all giddy about the game when new news comes out for it!  (So, more information on it is welcome anytime now!)

Update!:  It turns out that James Gunn started working on Lollipop Chainsaw's story last year.  As in, he has already had his hands deep in the project and helped flesh out the base story, characters and such.  So, his brand of the cult humor and such might already be what we've seen, and not the other way around.  That's just really neat, I guess, that Warner Bros. had faith in the game a year ago and still quite obviously do.

I like this picture because the dude in the middle is -fucked-.

The other big surprise that came out today was that Squeenix up and bought True Crime: Hong Kong.  Way back during the Great Activision Purge, many games felt the blade of the axe of cancellation.  One among them was True Crime, and it was arguably the most surprising cut of the bunch, since, well, the game seemed nearly done.  It was getting magazine features, had preview-builds up, advertising and all that jazz, well on its way to being a game proper.  I suppose the sentiment was shared throughout game players and developers alike, as, despite Activision's harsh words for the game, Squeenix London was more than happy to pick up the game and take it by the hand.

The unfortunate(?) part of the ordeal is that, technically, True Crime:  Hong Kong is still dead.  Squeenix seemed a little more interested in the game and not the, er, 'pedigree' of the series, and as such only bought the game and not the IP rights to the True Crime franchise.  So, whatever SEL does with the game, it'll end up having a shiny new name attached to it on top of, what I imagine, some script and design changes.  SEL does have one big advantage in all this, in that they can give the game what Activision never could - hope bordering on blind faith.  SEL oversees Rocksteady and the makers of Just Cause 2, Avalanche studios, so it's not inconceivable to imagine that special brand of fun might just make its way into whatever True Crime turns into.  I guess it more depends on how well SEL can manage United Front Games.

Still, it's a positive note, both stories are even.  It's pretty easy to get a bit cynical about the industry, after all, so when you get stories like this of developers/companies just doing "cool" things that, in all honesty might not pay off, you can't help but cheer them on for trying.  I know I will be (though I'm sure I don't have to say that, after gushing about Lollipop Chainsaw for two out of two blog posts mentioning it), and with any luck, both companies really get behind their games in the marketing/advertising department to make them really known and get buys that they might not have otherwise.