At the MIT Business in Gaming conference, Take-Two Interactive CEO Stauss Zelnick gave a bleak prediction about THQ. He said that rival publisher THQ will be gone in a matter of months.
During the conference (via Joystiq, Zelnick compared THQ and Take-Two's strategy. He said that THQ's problem was that it focused too much on licensed games.
"THQ's strategy was licensed properties, first and foremost. License stuff from other people, whether it's UFC or WWE or a motion picture property and make a game around that," Zelnick said.
The problem with building games on another company's license, Zelnick said, is that you have no power. If you make great games that sell really well, the value of that license goes up and the company that owns the license will try to hit you up for more money. This, Zelnick says, is why Take-Two and their subsidiaries focus on developing their own original franchises, such as Grand Theft Auto and BioShock.
THQ has started to concentrate on their own IPs in recent history, such as Saints Row, Homefront, and Darksiders. They're also moving away from licensed kids' game. However, Zelnick says that this won't save them because the quality isn't there.
"The most important difference is quality. Take-Two has the highest quality ratings among third-party publishers, according to Metacritic and most people in the industry. Quality really, really, really matters. THQ has had some good games, but their quality levels aren't even remotely ... the quality hasn't measured up."
Because THQ's strategy "didn't work" and their execution was "bad," Zelnick thinks their days are numbered: "THQ won't be around in six months."
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