THQ has said that it won't be making any more games from the Stuntman or Juiced franchises, presumably because they're not bringing home the bacon.
Within the company's recent financial update is word that THQ expects to record non-cash charges of approximately $27 million related to "the company's decision not to pursue its Juiced and Stuntman intellectual properties" as well as "the cancellation of the PlayStation 3 version of Frontlines: Fuel of War (and Destroy All Humans!: Big Willy Unleashed on PS2).
Word slipped out from retialers that Frontlines on PS3 was in trouble last week.
We thought the Stuntman series ran it course many years ago but Juiced? That's still a relatively new kid on the tuned-racing circuit. It's developed by, and the clue's in the title, Juiced Games. What happens to the Warrington-based outfit remains to be seen. A Juiced FPS? We doubt it.
The company has also closed its Concrete Games studio (and its website), which was comprised of members who had worked on titles such as Halo, Halo 2 and Medal of Honor. The studio was working on an unannounced title. But not any more.
Stuntman was indeed fun. I never played the first one but I bought Ignition for PS3 back when it came out and had a blast with it. It wasn't the most grapcially impressive game or anything but it was loads of fun, really original concept and frantic fun gameplay. Never playing another one isn't the end of the world, but since Ignnition on current consoles was really just a higher resolution PS2 game it might have been interesting to see what they'd do with a true current-gen version.
I only played the first stuntman for the PS2 and thought it was great fun. Never played any of the juiced games though and from reviews and word of mouth its a good job.
Note to THQ. It takes more than just the IP to sell a game (although there are exceptions), here's an idea, make the game good and more people will probably buy it.
Hurray!!.... finally games developers realising you can only milk a franchise so far (something i wish Nintendo would learn!!) You'd think with a new generation & new hardware developers would take the opportunity to create new & fresh IP's?...... but sadly no, as the Hollywood syndrome kicks in & we are inundated with sequels remakes & Mario!!!.....urrgghhh......
The reason they weren't selling is because they're not that great. Juiced is crap, really always has been. I quite liked the Stuntman demo, but it was a little linear and unforgiving. And the lack of any real reason to play it through again made it a write-off. But as a concept it wasn't bad.
Shame about Stuntman though, it wasn't perfect but with some tweaking it could have been an outstanding title. As it stands it was an ok one but it looks like it never got the sales it needed.
Well heres hoping that whatever franchises brought to the table next are some excellent ones.
Hurray!!.... finally games developers realising you can only milk a franchise so far (something i wish Nintendo would learn!!) You'd think with a new generation & new hardware developers would take the opportunity to create new & fresh IP's?...... but sadly no, as the Hollywood syndrome kicks in & we are inundated with sequels remakes & Mario!!!.....urrgghhh......
I'm 100% in agreement with all of the above. Sadly I wish they could bin off the odd successful franchise too. Would Mario galaxy really have been worse off without having Mario in? From what I've read there's a lot more to that game than that plumber.
Juiced was a chav-tastic game; short of being able to unlock a a 1.6l Citreon Saxo with over-sized spoiler and Burberry paint job, Juiced might as well have come packaged in a gate-fold Rockport shoe.
One less game for the scrotes to buy the in case of Juiced. Good news. Someone should just bin THQ now and move Stuntman on to another publisher cos its not like they release anything that's worth having as such
I'm hoping that they can bring back some of the older franchises that have been binned.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to see a new Punch Out, Alex Kidd, Zool, Fantastic Dizzy, Chaos Engine, Streets Of Rage or Secret of the Monkey Island among many other classics that everyone could think of. The last 2 gens have been the same names with numbers or years at the end of them. Maybe it's time for a revolution, a shake up to bring back some of the fantastic characters gaming once had that have now been sidelined.
Its these big money-hungry companies that will ruin gaming, more interested in making a quick buck than a decent game.
Yep, it's just a matter of time before 2 or 3 corporations buy out everyone else & control everything. Then everything unique and interesting about the games industry will be lost.
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for the PS2 hopefully Little Willy 
for PSP still on?
Why? *Plays Juiced*
