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[mclem]

It is a private auction closed to the public, everything eil be settled tomorrow morning during the sellers hearing, which is happening the same time as that Nintendo Direct.

Iwata: "Well, we should have something to announce any second now. We really thought it would be ready by now! Wait, it's just come through"

(Piece of paper handed over from offscreen)

"We'd like to announce, for Wii U... Bratz!"

"is that *really* all we could get in the end?"

 

[Nirolak]

Not to me, they are still a traditional games publisher. I mean big shock as in a new entrant like News Corporation (which some had speculated on this afternoon) or Comcast/Universal.

I would like to post them, but the guy said that posting the names publicly could breach insider trading rules, and as bankers we would get in trouble.

Fair enough!

 

[Eusis]

Well, if Ubisoft is true (And South Park Studios doesn't go "Well fuck you!") at least it'll possibly still be on Steam and, hopefully, be Steam keys with Amazon anyway at least for existing pre-orders.

 

[Shard]

So after this THQ is done, gone forever, erased from the pages of history?

If not they will just be a shell.

 

[Mrbob]

I think I'm OK with Sega nabbing Relic. Sega at least cares somewhat about PC gaming.

 

[Seda]

hmm

 

[mercenar1e]

Ubisoft is the worst case scenario for me..

 

[Isaccard]

I'm going to have to cancel my amazon order and get it on Steam at full price if they make it uplay

South Park deserves a better publisher than those clowns.

I concur. I hope that rumor is 100% false.

 

[HerbertFish]

I'm lost. Can we update the OP with whose bidding on what

 

[Almighty]

https://twitter.com/kobunheat

The horror...the horror.

All that left is for Ubi or EA to grab Relic/Company of Heroes and this is my worse nightmare.

 

[Shard]

I'm lost. Can we update the OP with whose bidding on what

Probably not, all we know at this point is conjecture and rumor.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

South Park deserves a better publisher than those clowns.

The only thing I can think of is at least it isn't EA. That and maybe Ubi will throw some marketing weight behind the game.

I do hope at this point it is close enough to release that they don't force U-Play on it and just release it as it was already planned.

 

[Acosta]

I'm not too worried with South Park as the game is probably done and Ubi won't be able to influence it that much, it´s basically a distribution deal.

Actually I want a "powerful" publisher so it can sell a lot and Obsidian get their bonus. EA has been a complete disaster marketing external projects, Activision don't care, Ubi works for me.

 

[Nirolak]

I'm lost. Can we update the OP with whose bidding on what

Probably not, all we know at this point is conjecture and rumor.

Right we can't be sure of anything for certain.

 

[Mugy]

Can South Park Studios buy the rights of the Obsidian game, and the publish it with some company?

 

[Nirolak]

Can South Park Studios buy the rights of the Obsidian game, and the publish it with some company?

Their contract has a buyback clause yes, but if they can just negotiate the deal in one go they will probably do it (like selling the rights directly to Ubisoft).

 

[Corto]

I think I'm OK with Sega nabbing Relic. Sega at least cares somewhat about PC gaming.

Somewhat is an understatement. Total War, Football Manager, even Sonic games and Binary Domain were released on PC. The Cave, the new adventure game from Double Fine's Ron Gilbert is releasing on PC. And Steam play friendly all the way. Honestly it feels so right that I even wasn't considering it as I expected a catastrophe for Relic.

 

[grimshawish]

Not to me, they are still a traditional games publisher. I mean big shock as in a new entrant from traditional media like News Corporation (which some had speculated on this afternoon) or Comcast/Universal.

BBC Worldwide would be a not-so-shocking shock now I think about it.

 

[Eusis]

Somewhat is an understatement. Total War, Football Manager, even Sonic games and Binary Domain were released on PC. The Cave, the new adventure game from Double Fine's Ron Gilbert is releasing on PC. And Steam play friendly all the way. Honestly it feels so right that I even wasn't considering it as I expected a catastrophe for Relic.

It'd also mean that as far as we can figure next to nothing would change. We'd still have it on Steam, Sega wouldn't try to shoehorn a console version or something, all in all it'd probably turn out just fine. Assuming they DO get Relic of course.

 

[Delusibeta]

So after this THQ is done, gone forever, erased from the pages of history?

More or less, unless someone buys the THQ brand (likely, considering that some fool is still using the Acclaim branding last time I checked).

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

U-Play has generally been used by only Ubisoft-owned studios, so I doubt South Park would be an U-Play title. It'll most likely be a Steamworks title still with basic U-Play integration (login mainly).

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

Sega got Relic, Company of $h!ty Friends!

Just kidding, Congrats if true!

 

[K.Jack]

R.I.P. to the Dawn Of War IP, I guess.

One can only imagine that Games Workshop is already in preparations to reclaim the license.

If Sega got Relic, though, I'm pretty elated.

 

[Acosta]

It'd also mean that as far as we can figure next to nothing would change. We'd still have it on Steam, Sega wouldn't try to shoehorn a console version or something, all in all it'd probably turn out just fine. Assuming they DO get Relic of course.

There is a third benefit, given Sega already has a relationship with Games Workshop, it wouldn't be super difficult to see them extending the 40.000 IP to Relic for a Dawn of War 3 or for

Spoiler

that Battlefleet Gothic RTS that would make my head explode

 

[yogloo]

Let's kickstart some money and buy some franchises!!!!

 

[Delusibeta]

U-Play has generally been used by only Ubisoft-owned studios, so I doubt South Park would be an U-Play title. It'll most likely be a Steamworks title still with basic U-Play integration (login mainly).

I'd imagine this is surprisingly likely, considering a) RUSE did exactly that, and b) it's probably too damn late to remove Steamworks and add anything other than token U-play integration anyway for the PC version.

 

[Lupin the Third]

More or less, unless someone buys the THQ brand (likely, considering that some fool is still using the Acclaim branding last time I checked).

Even those fools kicked it over two years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acclaim_Games

 

[Pooya]

R.I.P. to the Dawn Of War IP, I guess.

One can only imagine that Games Workshop is already in preparations to reclaim the license.

If Sega got Relic, though, I'm pretty elated.

Sega will probably get that with WH40k license, they already have WH license, that's probably why they'd be interested in relic not CoH.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Ubisoft is not a bad thing to me for SP. If this game is great as it looks to be, they can actually afford to give it the marketing push it deserves.

 

[Corto]

If this turns out to be true I'll hunt down whoever speaks ill of Sega from now on. Unless Sega screws this somehow. There's always a chance for Sega to do that... Oops. hehehe

 

[Acosta]

Let's kickstart some money and buy some franchises!!!!

I think we could probably buy this:

 

[Kifimbo]

I think we could probably buy this:

Looks like the trademark doesn't belong to anyone anymore.

 

[PistolPete]

For someone who doesnt really follow Sega as a company but has a fondness for all things Relic... Is this a good thing? If so, why?

 

[Mrbob]

Somewhat is an understatement. Total War, Football Manager, even Sonic games and Binary Domain were released on PC. The Cave, the new adventure game from Double Fine's Ron Gilbert is releasing on PC. And Steam play friendly all the way. Honestly it feels so right that I even wasn't considering it as I expected a catastrophe for Relic.

True, but it has been more of a recent trend I hope continues. Thankfully this move doesn't rock the boat and I'm sure Sega will go after the 40k license next.

 

[Lingitiz]

For someone who doesnt really follow Sega as a company but has a fondness for all things Relic... Is this a good thing? If so, why?

Sega's been moving to a digital distribution focus. Considering what they've done with Creative Assembly and Total War, Relic seems like a good fit if they follow a similar path. Sega commands two of the biggest franchises on Steam in Football Manager and Total War. They've also been pretty good about sales too.

 

[Kifimbo]

For someone who doesnt really follow Sega as a company but has a fondness for all things Relic... Is this a good thing? If so, why?

Look at what they've done with The Creative Assembly.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

I think we could probably buy this:

Oh my god. This brings me back. The reviews where glorious.

The chat system built in must have been kept a secret until really late because i cant imagine how anybody in that fucking company thought releasing something arguably worse than what comes free in every system for 30 bucks was a good idea.

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

Hmmm... So let's assume Sega buys Relic. Does that necessarily mean Sega gets Company of Heroes 2 as well, or would they have to bid on the Company of Heroes IP in order to get CoH2?

Would it be possible to have some weird scenario where Sega gets Relic but somebody like EA ends up with rights to CoH 2?

 

[Almighty]

Sega will probably get that with WH40k license, they already have WH license, that's probably why they'd be interested in relic not CoH.

I imagine that is probably the main reason as well. Though if you are making a grab for Relic it makes sense(to me at least) to try and grab the recent game they have been working on as well. It also helps that that game is a sequel to a popular RTS title and is almost done. So Sega won't have to spend much more money to get it released and could have a real nice return on their investment almost immediately.

Hopefully the results get announced tomorrow like people are saying. All this talk is just making me think that at the end of the day EA will grab both and I am just setting myself up for major disappointment.

 

[sflufan]

Hmmm... So let's assume Sega buys Relic. Does that necessarily mean Sega gets Company of Heroes 2 as well, or would they have to bid on the Company of Heroes IP in order to get CoH2?

Would it be possible to have some weird scenario where Sega gets Relic but somebody like EA ends up with rights to CoH 2?

That is a possibility, but probably an unlikely one at this point.

 

[Erethian]

True, but it has been more of a recent trend I hope continues. Thankfully this move doesn't rich the boat and I'm sure Sega will go after the 49k license next.

Sega already has a working relationship with Games Workshop, having recently acquired a licensing deal for games from the Warhammer universe. So working something out for 40k would be easy enough.

 

[Acosta]

For someone who doesnt really follow Sega as a company but has a fondness for all things Relic... Is this a good thing? If so, why?

Sega doesn't have any walled garden of their own and are happy to steamwork everything, which works fine for many people. CoH 2 is already a steamworks game, so we wouldn't see any delay/problem with Relic being forced to change it for Origin or whatever.

Sega has done a great job supporting Creative Assembly, which has grown a lot under their umbrella doing what they are good at. Same with Football Manager. Actually their western arm is mostly focused on strategy games, with some car game in between.

Sega already has a deal with Games Workshop for Warhammer Fantasy, so it would be reasonable they could reach an agreement for Relic to keep working on 40.000 games.

The big thing is, is that given CA and SE has operated as usual and made the games we were expecting from them, Sega is probably the best candidate to make sure Relic keeps doing what they do without big changes.

 

[HoosTrax]

Sega has a car game? Not Sonic All-Stars?

 

[Odrion]

R.I.P. to the Dawn Of War IP, I guess.

One can only imagine that Games Workshop is already in preparations to reclaim the license.

If Sega got Relic, though, I'm pretty elated.

DAWN OF WAR: TOTAL WAR needs to happen.

 

[AppleMIX]

So when will we know for sure who gets what?

 

[Acosta]

Sega has a car game? Not Sonic All-Stars?

I was thinking in Sonic All-Stars actually. They don't own Sumo but the game is managed from the western arm of Sega I guess.

 

[daniel.robert.campbell]

THQ will still exist, but they will be a completely different and substantially smaller company. They are selling the IP and studios, not the company itself.

 

[Odrion]

Hey wait a second, doesn't Sega have no money whatsoever?

 

[Sinatar]

Just got this response in my twitter feed:

hrmmm

If Sega saves Relic then I'll buy their stupid cart racing game as a thank you.

 

[Corto]

DAWN OF WAR: TOTAL WAR needs to happen.

Dawn of War vs. Total War.