juice-games posts

Game publisher THQ is trying to focus more on downloadable games and today announced that two of its internal development studios, the Phoenix, Arizona-based Rainbow Studios and the UK-based Juiced Games, would now turn into studios that create downloadable game titles. In fact the studios themselves were renamed to THQ Digital Studios Phoenix and THQ Digital Studios Warrington, respectively.

Unfortunately this switch has also come with a price. THQ has also revealed that the two studios will have their work force cut by a total of 60 people. The first downloadable games from these offices will be ready by sometime in THQ's fiscal 2011 year.

In related news, THQ also announced their financial results for their past quarter that ended December 31, 2009. Revenues came in at $356.7 million, just a hair less than the same period a year ago. The company had a net profit of $542,000 for the quarter compared to a loss of $191.8 million for the same period a year ago.

THQ made a number of cuts in its development studios in 2008 including canceling games and laying off team members. Now web sites have revealed one of the games that was given the ax by the publisher; Stormbirds, a flying action game that was under development by UK-based Juiced Games for the PC and consoles.

A CGI company called RealtimeUK posted up their intro cinematic for the game over a month ago which went unnoticed until now. (Download links for the trailer, along with screenshots of the CGI, can be seen at this link at Mil-Art.com). It seems to depict an alternate present where military bombers still use propellers alongside jet fighters and VTOL planes. It's currently unknown how far along Stormbirds was in development before THQ canceled the game.

[Editor's note: A previous version of this post contained render images of the game that were hosted on the personal site of Greg Calvert. Per his request we have removed the images from our story]

Download the HD Stormbirds CGI trailer (151 MB)

[Via Shacknews]

Publisher THQ may be waiting until Wednesday to officially reveal their latest quarterly financial results but apparently the news can't be good. Media reports are suggesting the publisher is making huge cuts in its work force and shutting down more than one of its internal developers.

Gamasutra reports that Dallas-based Paradigm Entertainment has been shut down by THQ along with LA-based Mass Media. The Develop web site also reports that the UK based Juice Games has had its team cut by a third. Finally the official THQ web site has apparently removed a number of their internal dev studios off their own interactive map, (thanks Kotaku) including Helixe, Locomotive, and Sandblast Games. It's not yet known if these studios are closed entirely or merged into other THQ studios. THQ has yet to officially respond to these reports but it seems clear that their financial results, due out on Wednesday afternoon, will be pretty brutal.
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