THQ employees have been notified today that the auctioning of studios has been completed, and mass layoffs have begun. Upcoming and established game franchises will have new homes, and some will be shuttered completely.
According to a letter from THQ: Sega has agreed to buy Relic, Koch Media agreed to purchase Volition and Metro, Crytek has purchased Homefront, Take 2 Interactive has purchased Evolve, and Ubisoft has agreed to purchase South Park.
THQ says that they expect the sales to be finalized this week. Studios like Vigil Games (Darksiders), didn’t find buyers and will be shuttered. The assets that were not purchased by other companies will remain part of THQ’s Chapter 11 case, while THQ looks for suitable buyers.
Twitter has seen long-time employees of the company tweeting their farewells to friends within the industry, and hopefully they find a new publisher to call home.
The prices that these companies have paid for the studios are as follows:
$500k Homefront (Crytek)
$26M for Relic (Sega)
$2.5M for THQ Montreal (Ubisoft)
$3.2M for South Park (Ubisoft)
$11M for Evolve (Take-Two)
$22.3M for Volition (Koch Media)
$5.8M for Metro (Koch Media)
