THQ‘s chapter 11 bankruptcy filing yesterday was certainly not good news for the company’s debt holders, however, the actual filing turned out to be a gold mine for anyone interested in the publisher’s unannounced projects. As discovered by Polygon, the bankruptcy filing reveals a total of four unannounced games in various stages of development from four different studios.
In addition to Company of Heroes 2, Relic Entertainment is currently developing a game with the working title Atlas. The court documents do not provide any details as to what the unannounced project is, however, they do reveal that it is being planned for a 2014 release date.
What makes Atlas‘ release window so interesting is that THQ‘s projected development budget — which was also disclosed in the filing — shows that the last 21% of Company of Heroes 2‘s budget will be spent in 2015. This seems to indicate that it might be released after Atlas, which has not even been officially announced.
Turtle Rock Studios, who worked on Left 4 Dead 2 and Counter-Strike Source, is developing a co-op multiplayer action game called Evolve. THQ filed a trademark for Evolve last February, and the development budget indicates a late 2014 or early 2015 release.
THQ Montreal is working on another recently trademarked title, 1666, which looks to be headed for a late 2015 or early 2016 release window.
Finally, Darksiders developer Vigil Games has a project called Crawler in the works. It’s unclear if this is related to the Darksiders franchise or a new IP. Last June THQ president Jason Rubin stated that he thought he could “get that team [Vigil Games] to make other very interesting games”. Taking that into consideration, it would be reasonable to assume that Crawlers is not related to the Darksiders franchise.
Rubin has also taken to his twitter account to assure fans that all the publisher’s current projects are on track, this includes; Metro: Last Light, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Company of Heroes 2, Saints Row 4 (due out in 2014, according to the development budget), and Homefront 2.
We will keep an eye out for any news on all the new THQ games discovered in the bankruptcy filing and let you know as soon as anything turns up.
