When the dust finally settled after THQ’s bankruptcy auction last month the majority of the publisher’s assets had managed to find better homes within the video game industry, however, the WWE publishing license was one of the bigger names to be left with a question mark hanging over its head. Conflicting initial reports suggested that both Take-Two Interactive and Electronic Arts had struck a deal for the license, but neither company stepped up to confirm the reports either way. It has now been announced that Take-Two has reached a deal over the WWE license and will publish the future games in the franchise.
“We can confirm that we have entered into an agreement to publish the WWE video game…” a company representative told IGN. “At this time, the agreement is pending court approval and we anticipate that it will be finalized shortly. We are very excited about the potential of this agreement and will have more to share at the appropriate time.”
According to the Take-Two representative, the publisher is not planning to move development of any future WWE games to one of their internal studios, but will instead allow Yuke’s to continue their work on the franchise.
Take-Two did not provide the financial details of their deal with THQ, nor did they reveal any plans about the next WWE game. We are assuming that at least some of those questions will be answered once they make a formal announcement to their stockholders.
In addition to picking up the WWE license, Take-Two also managed to easily outbid Turtle Rock ($10 million to $250K) for the IP rights to Evolve. Very little is know about what exactly the Turtle Rock developed game is, but we do know that THQ had the studio working on a first-person shooter at one point in time.
We will keep an eye out for any news from Take-Two on the next WWE game and whatever Evolve is, and let you know as soon as anything official is announced.
