THQ president: Company doomed by 'massive mistakes'

THQ's demise was not something that happened because of bad luck or a changing marketplace, but more a result of a "sea of bad decisions," with the uDraw tablet at or near the top of the list, according to company president Jason Rubin.

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THQ's demise was not something that happened because of bad luck or a changing marketplace, but more a result of a "sea of bad decisions," with the uDraw tablet at or near the top of the list, according to company president Jason Rubin.

"THQ had every chance to survive had it not made massive mistakes," Rubin told MCV UK. "Unfortunately, the mistakes that were made long before I joined, like the incredible losses attached to uDraw, massive wasted capital in the unpublished MMO that was cancelled, sticking with children's and casual titles far after mobile and tablets had killed the business, bad, late, or otherwise inferior titles like Homefront, and a generally haphazard and inefficient approach to deal making, left the company with too much negative hanging on its books."

Those decisions ended in THQ's assets being divided up piecemeal in bankruptcy, ending any hope of that the embattled publisher would emerge from Chapter 11.

"I think that luck plays a role in success and failure, but THQ's decisions and execution were the major reason for its failure," Rubin said. "It would be a cop out to say that bad luck was the predominant force. Could Homefront have caught a nerve and sold 10m copies? It's possible I guess, but probably not without better production. And it's hard to attribute a cancelled MMO to bad luck. That was simply a bad decision in a sea of bad decisions."

Crytek recently opened a new studio filled predominantly with former employees of Vigil, which was unclaimed in the bankruptcy auction. Also, Platinum Games is reportedly interested in the Darksiders franchise, while Take-Two could be picking up the WWE license.

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  • reply
    January 31, 2013 2:45 PM

    John Keefer posted a new article, THQ president: Company doomed by 'massive mistakes'.

    THQ's demise was not something that happened because of bad luck or a changing marketplace, but more a result of a "sea of bad decisions," with the uDraw tablet at or near the top of the list, according to company president Jason Rubin.

    • reply
      January 31, 2013 2:45 PM

      Pretty much.

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      January 31, 2013 3:18 PM

      the wii is so horrible it puts other companies out of business

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        January 31, 2013 3:24 PM

        It wasn't actually the Wii's fault, it was them thinking they might succeed moving it over to the 360 and PS3. Was a really bad idea all around though.

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        January 31, 2013 3:28 PM

        Actually it did alright on the Wii. It wasn't a huge success, but it made money. Their mistake was expanding the uDraw to the 360 and PS3.

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      January 31, 2013 3:22 PM

      The whole Udraw thing every one could see that was a epic fail but THQ them selfs i am sad none the big games that was sold will be that good now.

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      January 31, 2013 3:30 PM

      THQ should have performed more due diligence in Homefront's development, instead of letting this happen: http://www.polygon.com/2012/11/1/3560318/homefront-kaos-studios-thq

      Homefront sold 1 million, but they still closed down Kaos, and spent a ton of money on marketing. Danny Bilson would not stop pushing this game, but apparently never really looked behind the curtains, or was already resigned to at least seeing it through release.

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      February 1, 2013 6:22 AM

      Funny I loved the MP in Homefront. It wasn't a total clusterfuck. Gamers just have a very skewed vision.
      They lament what a game is not, rather than what it is.

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      February 1, 2013 6:54 AM

      I'm still mourning the loss of THQ and Vigil. Ugh.

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      February 16, 2013 3:11 PM

      THQ killed themselves by over-DLC-ing their best games and keeping their special editions store-side...

      I stopped buying all THQ PC games on release in favor of the Full / Game of the Year versions.

      I loved the Dawn of War games, but have a quick look at just how much DLC there is for the last one... it's simply overkill.

      I bought the Collector's for Darksiders, and I would have bought the Warhammer ones too, but they were only available online...

      It's just bad decisions that keep people from buying what they want.

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