Ninja Gaiden Creator, Itagaki, will have to look elsewhere for funding.
THQ is still bleeding money like a stuck piggy bank. Despite a 44% increase in digital sales in its fourth quarter, the company has managed to lose $240 million dollars in the past year. Naturally, belts are going to have be tightened, dead weight thrown overboard, and all manner of other money saving metaphors enacted. Sadly, Devil’s Third, the upcoming game from Tomonobu Itagaki, has has been let go, with CEO Brian Farrell announcing that the game’s “‘profitability profile” didn’t meet THQ’s new “internal threshold.”
THQ blames “unforeseen events” for its decision, pointing out that Valhalla games had begun work on the title, only for the company providing the game’s engine to go under. That and the growing strength of the Japanese yen against the US dollar is making investments in Japanese companies seem less appealing. THQ is currently trying to sell the project to another publisher.
Things are looking glum for THQ, but now that the company has abandoned its disastrous uDraw Game Tablet plans and restructured itself to concentrate on its core titles, the 2013 fiscal year is looking more promising. There’s a standalone extension to the Saints Row universe, Darksiders II, sequels to PC darlings, Company of Heroes and Metro 2033 and of course, the annual WWE game. It’s just a shame they had to throw Itagaki, and his sunglasses collection, overboard.
Source: Gameindustry.biz
