Gamernode: News - THQ drops Stuntman and Juiced franchises

THQ drops Stuntman and Juiced franchises

Category: Industry, Posted: 01/23/2008 at 08:54PM CST by Billy Wang, Previews Editor

thqlogo Gamasutra is reporting on a few business outlook changes THQ has undertaken following a re-evaluation of its third quarter financial results. Included within the changes are a studio closure, a few game platform drops and the abandonment of two game franchises.

First, the company announced they've dropped the Stuntman and Juiced franchises following poor sales. Back in October, THQ CEO Brian Farrell commented on the poor sales of the two franchises by saying, "This is not acceptable and we've taken steps to address it." It looks like they took the full step and dropped them completely.

THQ also dropped a few planned platform releases for a few games, including canceling the PS3 version of Frontlines: Fuel of War and the PS2 version of Destroy all Humans!: Big Willy Unleashed.

Lastly, THQ closed its Concrete Games studio, whom was working on two unannounced titles for Xbox 360 and PS3. While the studio hasn't released its own game, many team members contributed to games like Halo, Halo 2, Everquest and Medal of Honor. The publisher offered positions in other of its studios to the departing employees too.

For its third quarter, which will be announced on February 5th, THQ has increased its sales guidance to $509 million from $490 million. Just last week, THQ acquired strategy games developer Big Huge Games.

Posted by Quasar on 01/23/2008 at 09:54PM

Hmm, this doesn't really surprise me. I played the first Stuntman and it was one of the hardest games I've ever played. (I still think it was pretty fun though) It had a real niche following and for the most part, it didn't appeal to too many gamers. I was hoping for a better Stuntman when the new one came out but it was totally bad. The developers missed everything that should have made it fun for the fans.

Posted by BahamutBBob on 01/23/2008 at 11:09PM

I never liked the first Stuntman. Take the (horrible) driving physics from Driver, and add them into intense precision driving sequences. Not a good combination.

Posted by edb87 on 01/23/2008 at 11:34PM

Quasar:
I love Ignition. Infinitely better than the original. What did you hate about it, exactly?

Posted by Quasar on 01/24/2008 at 12:03PM

For me, trying to do the stunts perfectly was a rehash of the old game but without the fun or inspiration. They really needed to improve the gameplay and change it up a lot, instead of the constant trial and error/ repetition format. I know some fans really liked it, but I guess it wasn't enough to keep me happy.

Posted by siggs on 01/24/2008 at 12:03PM

Stuntman, i'm not too bothered about. Wait a minute, i'm not bothered about either. The first Juiced still currently has a place on my hard disk. The modding isn't as good and the NFS's of this world, but it has a more entertaining driving model and physics. Then they said with Juiced 2.... lets copy NFS more and give the game a name that sounds suspiciously like a porn film...

Posted by edb87 on 01/24/2008 at 02:28PM

Eh, to each his own I guess. I still pop the original in from time to time. Stupid Asian Yakuza movie...

Posted by Quasar on 01/24/2008 at 05:03PM

Actually, I still give the original Stuntman a whirl once in a while. It's actually still pretty hard to believe that I actually finished that game. I felt like throwing it out the window a lot of times, lol, but it was pretty satisfying in being able to finally beat it. The replay feature was pretty cool.