THQ Cancels Volition’s inSANE

Insane was first announced back in 2010, and was intended to be a trilogy that would span ten years. THQ’s new president, Jason Rubin, dodged a direct question about the game recently, saying only that “as to each project and what every company is doing, they’re still a work in progress.”

Today, however, it’s emerged that THQ has cancelled the game. It was a series of horror titles, developed in collaboration with film director Guillermo del Toro, who said that the games would “take players to a place they have never seen before, where every single action makes them question their own senses of morality and reality.

All rights for the name were given back to del Toro.

Volition are working on Saints Row 4.

15 Comments

  1. Makes sense. They have NO ground to be working with on new, risky IP. Good move, really.

    • Have to disagree with that. THQ is down to their last bullet, and insane was on alot of peoples radar. Just keeping production going would have given the appearance of, “hey we’re down but not out”. del Toro is a big enough name in hollywood that THQ could have really marketed insane and it would have giving THQ one more chance because THQ can’t survive on just the Saints Row franchise. THQ needs a new fresh IP to revitalise the company, theres no other way they’re going to succeed…. at least without getting bought.

      • I agree. It seems like they only have Saint’s Row left, which is a fun game, but not enough to keep a publisher afloat.
        They should have steered Volition in the direction of Red Faction: Guerilla 2 instead of letting them do RF: Armageddon. I’m still pissed they canned the whole franchise. It’s still one of my all time favourite franchises.
        Without inSane they have nothing left to keep me hooked. I enjoyed SR3 for a few hours but unless you play coop it can get very repetitive and boring.

  2. Shame could’ve been intriguing

  3. just my opinion, but the horror genre(minus anything with zombies) is dying. Seems a good call…imo.

    • It’s because no one is releasing any horror games..(good ones)

    • Trying to work out if this is punnage or not… :D

  4. Disappointing.

    This would have been the 2nd THQ console game I’d have bought (after Stuntman Ignition back in my PS2 gaming days).

    I really don’t rate this publisher very well.

    InSANE sounded like a great idea, I hope another publisher picks it up…

  5. hope this gets picked up his take on a horror game would have been nuts.

    • Agreed – Hadn’t heard too much about it, but what i had heard had made me suitably ‘wet’ in anticipation. :)

  6. What a shame! I was looking forward to a new IP, esp. one by del Toro.

    • i was interested in seeing what Del Toro came up with.

      incidentally, his new movie Pacific Rim sounds awesome.
      it’s a mecha versus aliens movie, there just aren’t enough giant mecha movies these days.
      one of the best was that 80s movie Robot Jox.

      sorry for going a little off topic there. ^_^

      anyway, maybe this could turn into a movie at some point.
      though from what i’ve read he’s going to be busy for a while, finishing Pacific Rim, and he’s also stated he keen to make another Hellboy.
      i’d love another Hellboy movie.

  7. well that’s disappointing so I guess its Saint’s Row: Enter the Dominatrix or whatever it was and Saints Row 4. Not that I minded Saint’s Row the Third, I actually enjoyed it and count both myself and THQ fortunate that I did as the first one was appalling.

    we really need good horror survival games, it seems to be a fad that passed which is a shame…guess I’ll see if I can dig out Clive Barkers The Undying and play it in the dark wearing headphones ^^

  8. Ten years was always going to be a risky investment into a new and untested IP. Shame they’ve cancelled it altogether though instead of maybe trying to reduce development time.

  9. Tis a shame but if THQ doesn’t release a new IP soon, i fear they will struggle to stay afloat as SR is not big enough for them to survive on. Just either remake a few games(such as Red Faction etc..) or do a few sequels to some franchises that have been canned. I suspect they will have 1 year left before they have to file for adminstration if they keep releasing the same old stuff. In fact, do they have any new IPs ready for release this year? Besides the typical WWE game that goes by unnoticed by the majority of us.

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