thq posts

Announced way back in 2007, THQ's long-in-development MMO based on the sci-fi themed Warhammer 40,000 license is getting close to getting a proper reveal. During THQ's financial conference call on Wednesday it was announced that the game would finally be shown at E3 2010 in mid-June.

The game from developer Vigil Games (who just released the console game Darksiders for THQ) will have a lot to live up to. Mythic Entertainment's MMO based on the fantasy themed Warhammer franchise was finally released in 2008. However that game didn't live up to expectations in terms of reviews and subscribers. It should be interesting to see how Warhammer 40K MMO is received by the game media in a few months.

THQ held its financial conference call with analysts today (you can listen to the replay at the publisher's web site) and revealed a bit more about their plans for their future game titles. The big surprise was when THQ CEO Brian Farrell announced that a follow up to their 2009 first person shooter Red Faction Guerrilla is not only in the works but will be shown as part of THQ's E3 2010 line up. The game is now slated to be released as part of the company's 2011 fiscal year which begins on April 1.

The conference call also confirmed that a third game in the Saints Row open world action game franchise is in the works for the company's 2012 fiscal year (which has been mentioned before) and that their Korean-invading-US shooter Homefront (which hasn't been seen since E3 2009) is stil on track for a release sometime in THQ's fiscal 2011 time period.

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.

There are PC game deals that scream out, "Look here. Look over here." And then there are deals that, for one reason or another, are put deep in a hole until someone spots them and says, "Look here." We have an example of the latter today with an extremely great PC game deal from THQ's online store.

They are coming out with the post-apocalypse first person shooter Metro 2033 from Russian-based 4A Games in late March (BTW the game will have an option to run on a full Russian voice track with English subtitles in addition to its standard English voice over). But if you head to THQ's online store listing for the game and hit their "Preorder Now" button something magical happens. You then see both Metro 2033 for $49.99 in your checkout box plus Red Faction: Guerrilla for the price of abosolutely nothing. Yep, Volition's PC port of the recent first person shooter can be yours for free via this special order only. We haven't spotted this deal on any other outlet so for the moment this seems to be exclusive to the THQ online store.

[Via GamePro]

It's a game that's been in development for several years (even if most of you were not aware of its existence). Today publisher THQ announced via its Twitter page that the post-apocalypse shooter Metro 2033, from Russian developer 4A Games, will ship to stores for the PC on March 16 in the US.

There will also be a special edition of the game that will have four art cards and an automatic weapon unlock in the heavy automatic shogun. No price point was announced for the special edition. Unfortunately there's some bad news; the Twitter site confirms there will not be a pre-release demo for the game.

Direct2Drive's 24 Days of Christmas promotion is still going on and while the last two days were a little bit on the lame side in terms of deals, that's not the case for Sunday. From now until 1 pm Eastern time on Sunday you will be able to get a very nice price if you purchase and download Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor.

Yep, Relic Entertainment's latest stand alone expansion pack for their hit WWII strategy game is next on the Direct2Drive hit list. The one day price is just $7.50 for the game. That's compared to its normal price of $29.95. If you want it you better act soon as another game takes its place tomorrow.

MGM is in the middle of creating a movie remake of their 1980's cult classic film Red Dawn but it looks like the MGM executives want to bring the massive gaming audience into theaters when its released in September 2010. The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business blog has a comment from MGM Chairperson Mary Parent who said that the movie plays out like "a live-action 'Call of Duty'".

We assume she means that it plays out like the current entry in the shooter series, Modern Warfare 2, which like the original Red Dawn and the remake centers on a military invasion of the US. We find this a bit ironic since the game franchise's publisher Activision has already trademarked the "Call of Duty" title for use in, among other things, 'pre-recorded movies" And what about THQ's upcoming game Homefront which has creative input from John Milius, the writer-director of the original Red Dawn? Sounds like everyone is now jumping in on the "Invasion USA" bandwagon. Hey, maybe a remake of that Chuck Norris flick is next?

[Photo credit to RedDawn2010.com]

The city of Montreal is attracting more and more game developers and publishers. Today, THQ announced they would be the latest company to open up a game development studio in the Quebec-based city. THQ is currently looking for a specific location for their new facility which it expects to officially open by mid-2010. THQ says it will hire over 400 people in the next five years.for the new studio which would make it the largest such facility in the publisher's current line-up. It expects its first games to be released in its 2013 fiscal year.

Montreal became a hotbed of game development activities starting with Ubisoft's studio that launched in 1997 and has since grown into a location with over 1,700 team members. Electronic Arts and Eidos have since set up major dev studios in the city.

Last spring, THQ announced Homefront, an upcoming first person shooter from its Kaos Studios development team. While there's been no news on the game at all since a brief hands-off demo was shown at E3 last June, THQ seems so confident in the game that it's already thinking about a sequel.

GameSpot reports that during a presentation today at the FBR Capital Markets 2009 Fall Investor Conference, THQ's core gaming group head Danny Bilson talked about its plans for the game which is due for release sometime in 2010. Homefront centers on North Korea invading the US in the near future. Bilson stated the single player storyline is just a small part of its overall plans, saying, " . . . we intend to continue the story in [downloadable content], until we go to Homefront 2." With EA reviving the Medal of Honor franchise and Activision planning on yearly Call of Duty games, THQ had better hope Homefront stands out from the crowd.

It was first announced nearly three years ago but since then the mysterious Warhammer 40,000-based MMO has stayed mysterious with publisher THQ only revealing bits and pieces over the years. However, Kotaku has stepped up and posted up a few concept art pieces from the long-in-development game.

The artwork shows early concepts for vehicles and for what looks like the Space Marine character in the game. Developer Vigil Games has been very busy making another THQ title, the console-online action game Darksiders. However that game went gold recently and is scheduled for a January 2010 release. With Darksiders out of the way perhaps we will begin to learn more about their MMO project sooner rather than later.