Crispy Gamer News

THQ, already known for its hit WWE SmackDown vs. RAW series, apparently has enough stroke to even put the fighters of the Ultimate Fighting Championship down for the count. According to a Sports Illustrated report, UFC fighter Jon Fitch has been terminated from the franchise (along with many of his American Kickboxing Academy teammates) for refusing to sign away rights to his image for use in THQ’s upcoming UFC video game.

According to the report, the problem stems from UFC’s requests that fighters sign a merchandising deal giving the UFC rights to use fighters’ likenesses in various licensing deals for life. The issue with Fitch apparently finally came to a head when he was approached with the THQ deal.
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THQ today announced that its new Ultimate Fighting Championship game, UFC 2009 Undisputed, will be released in spring 2009 for the Xbox 360, PS3,and mobile devices. The game, which is based on the popular mixed martial sporting event, features 80 top fighters in UFC competition across all five weight classes using a multitude of martial arts disciplines like Muay Thai, Kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and more. The game will also feature all the commentators, announcers, referees, trainers, Octagon girls that you’d expect to see when watching a UFC “event.”

And that what THQ is trying to push here with this game - a home experience that puts you in the heat of a live event as a combatant. Finally THQ says that they have created an all new fighting engine to power this game, though details on it were not availablre at press time. The company will also include a create a fighter mode, various single-player modes and the promises of future downloadable content.

It has been awhile since there has been a UFC videogame from THQ, so here’s to hoping that the company behind the WWE video games will do it right the first time. You can learn more about the game by visiting www.thq.com….

A lot of interesting news came out of this week’’s THQ conference call besides just the usual facts and figures. THQ president Brian Farrell revealed some of the games the company plans to release in the next quarter and beyond, with a couple of interesting surprises.

One that everyone already knew about was Saint’s Row 2, but THQ talked a little bit about the game’’s focus in the second chapter of this gang-themed third-person action game, promising a more refined game. The most important thing to note is that Saint’’s Row 2 is going to avoid directly competing with Rockstar’’s Grand Theft Auto IV, which is probably a wise decision on THQ’’s part. The company said that the game for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is being built using existing technology at Volition and that it will hit outside of GTA IV‘’s release window (late April).

Farrell also revealed that developer 5th Cell’s popular DS game, Drawn to Life, is being developed for the Wii. The game has sold 700,000 copies worldwide on the DS. Farrell hopes to duplicate or improve on that success with the new game.

Red Faction, the latest in Volition’’s shooter franchise, was also revealed, with Farrell promising more action revolving around the concept of highly destructible environments. That game is being developed for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. More details on the game will be released within the next couple of weeks.

THQ is also putting a lot of faith into de Blob for the Wii and DS, which is one of its many original titles. The company delayed the game once, to give it more time for polish, say Farrell.

Farrell said that Frontlines: Fuel of War will prove to be a promising title for the company because of its keen focus on multiplayer. The game promises 32-player online games for the Xbox 360, with more on the PC. Finally, Farrell said that the PS3 version was canceled for a number of reasons but then went on to point the finger at Epic’’s Unreal engine as a major roadblock. According to Farrell, Unreal engine is not optimized for open-world development. Sticking with the development of the PS3 game would have put its release date 60 to 90 days behind the other games. A playable demo will be released sometime next week on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Here are some other small but interesting tidbits from THQ:

- First details on the new UFC title will be revealed on Memorial Day weekend in conjunction with a live event. The game is being scheduled for a release in March 2009 — prior to the launch of its regular WWE game season. Farrell says that the game has one year of development under its belt and another year to go.

- THQ expects Disney Pixar’’s Wall.E to outperform the previously licensed Disney Pixar title Ratatouille (which was kind of a bust).

- A new Tak game is coming, along with other licensed Nickelodeon titles.

- Company of Heroes Online will launch soon in China and is the first of many planned free-to-play online titles.

- THQ Wireless will be creating mobile phone titles based on LucasFilms” Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises.

- There are currently 1,700 developers working in THQ’’s various studio systems and each is working on three skus or less.

- Stuntman failed because it did not translate well to next-generation platforms.

- Juiced failed because it was way too ambitious and the developers were overburdened (they were working on a whopping six sku’’s!).

- Farrell said that he was pleasantly surprised with Warhammer 40K Online‘’s progress but cautioned that development is still the early stages. So far, so good, he said.