Employees of THQ probably went home for the weekend on Friday and expected to have a relaxing few days off. Not so, as gaming industry “insider” Kevin Dent started a rumor conflagration yesterday with a single Tweet:
Apparently, The Game Workshops MMO has been cancelled by THQ
— Kevin Dent (@TheKevinDent) January 15, 2012
A forum user on NeoGAF posted the tweet, which set off a shitstorm of rumors, retweets, speculation, and people lamenting the presumed death of THQ.
It got worse as the day went on, with most major gaming sites running with the story (although those with high integrity made it clear that these were rumors). One of the bigger threads on the topic at Reddit drew the ire of LoneGamer, who claimed to be a THQ/Relic employee.
THQ’s Community Manager, Mat “Sledgehammer” Everett, claims he was the victim of some Photoshop fraud, as a screenshot of a Steam chat window started circulating that appeared to quote him:
We spoke with Everett to confirm that this was a fake. “Yes 100% fabricated,” he said in an e-mail. He went on to explain that he was out with his family and wasn’t near a PC during any point in the day. “I was nowhere near a PC that has Steam on it.”
Tonight, THQ released an official statement that effectively quashes the rumors as they stand right now:
THQ has not cancelled its 2014 line-up, and has not made any decisions regarding the planned MMO. As part of the ongoing review of our business, we have made decisions to ensure that the company is strategically addressing the most attractive markets. As we have previously announced, we have dramatically reduced our commitment to the kids’ boxed games sector which leads to a significantly more focused release schedule moving forward. Our slate for calendar 2012 and beyond is focused on high-quality core games and continues to build our digital platform and business. We are excited for our pipeline of original and high-quality content along with our relationships with some of the best talent in the industry.
Additionally, we are thrilled with the great performance of Saints Row: The Third, which on a like for like period in North America has tripled in sell-through from Saints Row 2. In addition, WWE ’12’s worldwide sell-through sales are up almost 40% year-over-year for the same sales period with fewer platforms. According to NPD, for the month of December and the 2011 year, THQ was the #5 publisher overall, #4 third party, with reported sell through growing over 18% in a market that was down almost 6%. And coming up next, we have two great titles for the first half of the year including UFC Undisputed 3 and Darksiders 2.
It’s no secret that THQ has had some flops in the last year, the most notable being uDraw and Homefront, but neither of these are big enough to be “out of business”-worthy. Is this another case of Twitter having almost too much power? A single Tweet, no matter how ill-sourced it is, is very easily taken as fact, spread around the web in an instant, and somehow becomes canon. Be careful with that RT button, folks.
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