THQ have posted an ‘Investor Relations’ report which has revealed a number of delays.
“When I joined THQ the company made a public commitment to quality titles. We always expected that in some cases this would mean that more time would be needed to make sure that every title is of the highest possible quality,” said Jason Rubin, THQ’s President.
“Our fourth quarter releases are the first titles that I have had the ability to materially impact, and experience told me that the games needed additional development time to be market-ready.”
South Park: The Stick of Truth has been set back until “early Fiscal 2014” which begins in April 2013. THQ say they have been ‘working closely’ with creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker and need more time ‘to give gamers no less than the rich South Park game they have been waiting for and deserve’.
Also delayed is the highly anticipated Metro: Last Light which is now expected to ship in, yup, you guessed it, March 2013. That’s going to be one expensive month for gamers, THQ have also moved Company Of Heroes 2 back to the same month.
Rubin added that the company has ten titles in development for fiscal year 2014 and onwards, ‘almost all of which are based on our own IP.’ These include the sequel to Saints Row: The Third and an unannounced game being developed by Turtle Rock. They have previously worked on Left 4 Dead and online shooter Counter Strike Source.
“We must follow the course that generates the highest quality games, and will establish THQ as a mark of quality for the consumer,” concluded Rubin.
In addition to the report Gamasutra have just tweeted ‘THQ conference call: Company refuses to give future financial guidance, or even take any questions.’ That sounds rather ominous.
Source: THQ
aerobes
Metro is top of my want list. I’ve been looking forward to it for so long, another couple of months is nothing. And in today’s, quite frankly stupid, patch/update-to-get-it-out-on-time culture, a delay is refreshing to a degree.
cnutard
So we should be expecting these games to release with no game breaking bugs or heavy day one patches. Be interesting to see if it turns out that way.
The Lone Steven
Shame that South Park has been delayed as i’ve just got into it recently but if it results in the game that it deserves then it should be worth the wait but will THQ actually be around by 2014 as they are not in the best shape at the moment and do need to get some decent games out.
Forrest_01
So what happened to the add on that they were going to release for Saints Row 3? First it was DLC, then it was going to be a standalone thing. Will that now be rolled up into SR4?
bunimomike
I like Jason Rubin’s attitude – especially in today’s climate of “get it out of the door and we’ll deal with the other stuff later”. Skyrim, anyone?
Anyway… I also hope that THQ are going to be healthy and fit to release said ten titles. A couple of them sound great!