South Park, Darksiders 2 can't ship until they're 'perfect'

THQ is leaning more on its heavy hitters, and is committing to not release games like South Park or Darksiders 2 until they're "perfect."

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Between layoffs, the threat of a NASDAQ delisting, and a lawsuit, it's safe to say THQ has had its share of difficulties over the last several months. More is riding on the publisher's current portfolio than usual, and now it's trying to polish its tent-pole titles to perfection.

Executive VP Danny Bilson told Ripten that the South Park RPG would cut it "very close" for a 2012 release. "Because that game is being written by Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker], some of the production process ebbs and flows with their schedule," he said. "They are in the middle of a season right now, and as soon as they are done, they get back to the game, and their season takes them out for a couple of months at a time. Again, it's like I said about Darksiders. We can’t afford to ship it until it's perfect."

The mention of Darksiders is a reference to an earlier portion of the interview, in which Bilson seemed oddly non-committal to the release date for Darksiders 2. When asked if the game could be delayed, he responded: "We haven't announced anything... but the team is working really, really hard. We're not going to ship it before it's done." He says THQ will "give that team everything they need to make it as good as it can be."

Sounding uncertain about Darksiders is particularly odd since the game's release date is June 26, just over two months away. The South Park release is further away, and could also be impacted by recent layoffs at Obsidian. Bilson does note that entire sections of South Park are complete, and they'll announce a date once more of the pieces have come together.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 10, 2012 4:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, South Park, Darksiders 2 can't ship until they're 'perfect'.

    THQ is leaning more on its heavy hitters, and is committing to not release games like South Park or Darksiders 2 until they're "perfect."

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      April 10, 2012 5:22 PM

      I actually really excited about the South Park game. Trey and Matt generally don't accept a shitty product, no matter what the medium if they're directly involved.

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        April 10, 2012 5:35 PM

        Every Southpark game ever made indicates otherwise.

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          April 10, 2012 5:53 PM

          The tower defense one was pretty good and gave me way more than I expected.

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            April 10, 2012 6:02 PM

            I never played that, have to admit I'm not a big fan of that specific genre. Might have to check it out if I ever run across it on sale though.

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          April 10, 2012 9:56 PM

          if they're directly involved

          I believe the upcoming game will be a first on that front.

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          April 11, 2012 7:47 AM

          The South Park N64 FPS was epic, and Chef's Love Shack was awesome.

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            April 12, 2012 9:42 AM

            Wow, I thought I was too jaded for aneurism-inducing rage moments, but really, EPIC?! All I remember is the first hour consisted of killing THREE HUNDRED TURKEYS with low-damage snowballs, and multiplayer had the Oddjob problem (because of Ike) in deathmatch levels with waist-high walls.

            I got that game for free through a deal with Acclaim (run a Turok 2 server for a month and get T2 and SP for free) and I still paid too much.

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              April 13, 2012 3:29 PM

              When I get that feelin' I've gotta sing, when I get that feelin'!

              When I get that feelin'... I gotta sing!

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        April 10, 2012 5:37 PM

        I think every South Park game has been pretty terrible so far. I do hope for Obsidian's sake they pull it off though.

        I have complete faith in Darksiders 2 though.

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          April 10, 2012 9:44 PM

          This is the first South Park game that Matt and Trey have been directly involved in. They are gamers, I think this one will be significantly different.

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      April 10, 2012 5:35 PM

      [deleted]

    • ArB legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      April 10, 2012 5:52 PM

      Darksiders 2 is gonna 0wn.

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      April 10, 2012 6:21 PM

      I will happily wait for a perfected Darksiders 2.

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      April 11, 2012 12:04 AM

      Shame Obsidian just haven't made a good game in their whole career.

      All they did was butcher 2 great Bioware franchises and release a weird spy RPG that I played through once and then immediately forgot about.

      South Park is gonna TANK. You heard it here first.

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        April 11, 2012 12:48 AM

        What's a shame is how much hate Obsidian get for being recklessly ambitious.

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          April 11, 2012 2:47 AM

          Ambition is admirable, but when you overextend yourself ot the point of bringing out a game with a lot of good ideas but completely shoddy gameplay/structure/in some cases dialogue/UI then the final product suffers enough to render that ambition pointless.

          I mean, make a solid, stable, enjoyable, polished game first. Then push the boat out.

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            April 11, 2012 4:32 AM

            Haha, fuck that. We've got tons of those; that aversion to risk is exactly the problem with the AAA industry right now. Obsidian, much like Troika before them, is valuable precisely because they put ideas ahead of polish. Their games are often deeply flawed but they're also almost universally unique and worthwhile.

            I wouldn't trade Mask of the Betrayer for a hundred unambitious, polished-smooth BioWare RPGs.

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        April 11, 2012 3:20 AM

        Look how wrong you are.

        Firstly, that's by no means all they did. And don't forget about Fallout: New Vegas, which I and many others enjoyed more than Fallout 3.

        Second, I wouldn't say they BUTCHERED the franchises. KOTOR 2 was unfinished and buggy because LucasArts forced them to ship it before it was done. Other than the parts that suffered from that, the game itself was largely great, or at the very least more of KOTOR 1.

        The state of New Vegas and KOTOR 2 at release is hardly their fault at all. Do you think they just refused to fix those bugs? No, they just didn't have time to because of the strict publisher's deadlines. You'd have to be crazy ignorant to not realize that they were forced to finish and release those games buggy because the publisher demanded it, as is the way things go in this industry.

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          April 11, 2012 3:32 AM

          Funny how you fail to mention anything regarding NWN2...maybe because it WAS actually butchered? Man...never make a game with that kind of player camera or GUI...

          Alpha Protocol was Obsidians chance at proving themselves, no time constraints, no publisher pressure, and the finished product was a sub-standard forgettable game. So yeah, as soon as AP was released and flopped, Obsidian vanished from my radar as credible game developers. You can only blame other people for your failings for so long before the truth catches up to you.

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            April 11, 2012 4:55 AM

            I never mentioned NWN2 because I just never played it personally and I don't know much about it. But you can't deny that a lot of people though New Vegas and KOTOR 2 were great games, they had some incredible writing and I think despite AP (which some people still loved) they have already proven they have some definite strengths (like writing and characterization).

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          April 11, 2012 4:26 AM

          NWN2 also contained the fabulous Mask of the Betrayer, which was far better than any of the NWN expansions, and one of the best RPGs since Planescape.

          Try looking at the whole coin rather the one side.

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        April 11, 2012 3:29 AM

        In a weird way i'd be kind of happy to see Obsidian go bust, so the incredible talent that resides there would move on to create another studio. Hopefully something smaller that allows them to make stuff like planescape again.

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          April 11, 2012 3:33 AM

          Probably the best outcome, no doubt Obsidian has talent there, they just can't seem to put it all together into a great game.

          I would love to see a new Planescape. As long as it was worthy of the original. Hands down the most well written game ever.

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          April 11, 2012 3:37 AM

          Already happening with Wasteland 2. Troika going bust didn't help anyone, don't see why Obsidian doing so would be any different.

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            April 11, 2012 5:27 AM

            I was thinking of Troika too. Withing for Obsidian to go bust and magically reform into a better studio is absurd. They make great, but flawed, games.

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        April 11, 2012 4:32 AM

        Obsidian makes amazing games, you just have to play them a year+ after release because of all the bugs.

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        April 11, 2012 4:37 AM

        I will definitely remember the name of "rottdcorpse" when South Park does not do well.

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        April 11, 2012 5:04 AM

        New Vegas was the best pure RPG I had played in years before Skyrim came out. Obsidian may have trouble in the QA department, but they're certainly not a studio without merits.

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          April 11, 2012 5:42 AM

          " Obsidian may have trouble in the QA department,"

          Why do you say that, because of buggy releases? A QA department only finds bugs, they don't fix them.

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            April 11, 2012 5:46 AM

            Well, firstly I meant like "on the QA side of things". And secondly, I wouldn't know if the problem is testing, fixing, neither or both. Anyhow, wasn't meant as "their QA staff sucks".

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        April 11, 2012 6:29 AM

        [deleted]

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      April 11, 2012 5:44 AM

      Danny Bilson is just an executive off his leash who says what he likes. Can THQ really afford to wait for games to be "perfect"? No. They'll be good but there's no way they'd, for example, fund an extra 6 months of dev time if South Park needed it.

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