Damn, first FOOL and now this news. Wrap that up in the steaming hot crap flavored tortilla that is SWTOR and MMO gamers are taking it on the chin this month.

Terrible news, hope someone picks it up IF there rumors are true.

WTF IM GONE A FEW MONTHS AND THIS HAPPENDS NOOOOOOOOOO

Even if it hasn't been officially announced it's a fait accompli; THQ is on critical. Share prices fell from about $5.00 (this time last year) to about $0.67 at the moment.[http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=THQI] Share prices for THQ are falling by $0.03 every time the market closes and have been falling since February. I personally didn't follow their history but I guess these events must have been obvious to anyone who researched since after E3. And people said DMO was going to kill THQ.

Even without DMO I really hope THQ recovers.

EDIT: "this time last year", from "this time last christmas"

I would be VERY disappointed if DMO got cancelled.

I have been playing TOR since launch now and, while a very polished game (at least the leveling), and the story addition is excellent, it still feels stale. The WoW formula is just old, and no game, no matter what skin anyone puts on it, will ever recapture how WoW felt 7 years ago. That is why DMO is my most anticipated MMO. It not only has one of the best sc-fi IPs out there (fantasy is getting old), but is actually attempting to change the fundamental gameplay of the MMO genre, which is so desperately needed, and which TOR completely failed to do.

Please THQ! Save DMO!

THQ has stated that they are streamlining the company and will be concentrating on the core franchises.
DMO is both part of a core franchise, quite possibly THE core franchise, and furthermore is an MMO that is likely to gain a core following of die hard fans worldwide giving the company a potential ongoing income at a very dark hour. Plus if it does particularly well (and it's timing is superb) it could singlehandedly serve to bail the company out.

Put simply they'd be crazy not to go ahead with it, sure it's a risk, but no riskier than hoping that their tightening financial situation won't strangle further growth and lead to a slow decline into mediocrity.

Here's THQ's investor relations news release from the 25th.
http://investor.thq.com/phoenix.zhtml?c ... highlight=

The in depth discussion of how this will be reflected in game developments will follow on the 2nd of February.

As you can see there is a narrowing and focussing of effort into the more profitable areas of the company and away from the loss making parts, meaning that childrens titles, childrens board games and gaming peripherals are being dropped.

Considering the 40k MMO is somewhere around 5/6 of the way to release (anticipating a 2013 release, first announced in 2007) I can't see it being dropped at this stage unless it is a festering pile of rubbish, and I very much doubt it would have even made it this far into development were that the case. To be honest continuing at this stage would entail less cost than developing and marketting a new non-MMO title. So just as it wouldn't be a good business strategy to cease all new game development it would be just as daft to prevent the release of an expensive title that would cost less than one.

The lads at THQ may have made some pretty poor business choices when they tried to reach beyond their area of specialism (computer games) but they are canny enough to know that the audience for MMOs are hankering after something new that breaks from the WOW/Everquest mould (yeah i know its mold, but it's a very very stale one) and they are both sitting on one that does just that and as a plus is set within a very popular IP. And an MMO doesn't need to be a runaway success in order to make a steady profit as RIFT has proven.

With my mercenary capitalist hat on it seems to me that the popularity of the IP and THQ as a developer can be leveraged in other ways.
If they play this smart they could get an awful lot of free publicity by involving people like John "Total Biscuit" Bain (who is a self proclaimed 40k fanboy) early on.
Also the beloved but struggling underdog status of THQ can work in their favor in the press.
Lastly were they to open channels of communication to the potential playerbase in a serious way they could gain a solid following prior to release (community being 50% of the MMO experience), one which could help cement the game's success.

The very worst thing they could do (other than dumping it and wasting all that has been spent on it so far as well as all the returns it could net) would be to do a 'Return of the Jedi' on it and mess about with the core design in order to make it more 'profitable'.

Fingers X'd

Thanks for the link Quoth. I'm in agreement.

And hey, THQ stock is up a few cents.

This does run the risk of a premature release, Mythic did something similar when it released an 80% complete game back in 2007. Tier 4 incomplete, beta quality animations and with four missing classes. With an approximate annual upkeep cost of $1.5 million (excluding launch fees) anything less than their best is dangerous.

If we assume that March 2013 is the release date, 14 months from now, Vigil has been very quiet about the project; in fact, I can't think of a MMO that didn't have a full-function website 18 months prior to its release. So in my opinion a March 2013 release is unlikely, I would expect something much later.

THQ's fourth quarter results are due in March so I hope that will offer at least some catharsis.