It’s offical. THQ has gone bust and the games it was publishing have been sold off. These are tough economic times and it seems that one or two failed games can mean the demise for many publishers.

THQ has a special place in my heart, being one of those companies that wasn’t scared to take risks by trying new things but unfortunately that was the reasoning behind their demise. We as gamers only have ourselves to blame by not trying anything new as figures suggest that new IP’s do not sell as well as sequels, no matter how good they are. If this carries on the future of gaming looks very bleak indeed, with the only big console games being sequels. How does Call of Duty 27 and FIFA 2050 sound?

Some of my favourite games this generation were published by THQ including Darksiders 1&2, Costume Quest, Frontlines: Fuel of War, Homefront, Metro 2033, WWE Allstars, Warhammer Space Marine and the amazing S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl. What do all these brilliant games have in common? They didn’t sell very well and I struggle to understand why.

With very few big Publishers left the future of creativity looks to come from the indie developers pushing small downloadable titles to our screens at a fraction of the price. The risks of making big games is just too high these days with the public’s purse string held tight due to reduced budgets in the house hold. I admire THQ for their imagination and for trying new things but in the end the risks outweighed the reward.

I will always remember playing Homefront for the first time and loving the campaign and the multiplayer. For me it had a great story with the beginning journey on the bus watching the Koreans beating and killing people in the street forever etched into my mind. Yes the graphics weren’t up to scratch but who cares it was a fun game and the same goes for the multiplayer. (When it worked)

Metro 2033 is another game that was and still is a great achievement. Taking the writings of a Russian author and making a truly stunning world with great fiction. Panned by many people for the awkward shooting mechanics, (which I actually liked) the world was rich and diverse and at many times believable.

Now many of these great games and franchises have been sold off to the highest bidder and for gamers it is great news that games currently in development will still hit the store shelves.

Sega will acquire Relic, the developer of the Warhammer 40,000 strategy games.

Koch Media, which publishes games under the name Deep Silver, will acquire Volition, the Saints Row and Metro Franchise.

Crytek the developer of Far Cry and Crysis have acquired the Homefront license which comes as no surprise as they were already developing Homefront 2.

Take 2 have acquired Evolve, the new game in development from Turtle Rock Studios.

All other assets including Vigil Games, the developer of Darksiders are still with THQ but the rumour is that Platinum games are interested.