John-ShepardThis tends to happen when a company goes bankrupt. No money to pay off the debts, so those owed are left out in the cold. It sucks, but…
Game publisher THQ is technically gone; they went bankrupt and were dissolved earlier this year. The final IP auction is over with now, too, so at least some promising franchises got new homes.
But this doesn't mean THQ's problems are over. According to a new Polygon report , quite a few individuals and companies have claimed the now-defunct publishers owes them millions. Literally hundreds of parties want their money, including Wal-Mart (they want $1.6 million over a supplier agreement), the Entertainment Software Association ($190,000 for both space at E3), Codemasters ($1 million in unpaid game royalties), Double Fine ($595,00 for breach of contract) and Microsoft ($213,000 for royalties from Xbox 360 peripherals).
It's also interesting to note that former THQ executives filed their own claims. For instance, Brian Farrell is seeking $6.4 million, Jason Rubin wants $2 million, and Jason Kay also wants $2 million. Farrell says he's owed a lot due to being terminated "without cause," while Rubin claims THQ may have been negligent about its financial circumstances when they hired him.
Just one question: Where is all this money supposed to come from?
Yeah how do you get blood from a stone? Hey, THQ owes me a million too!
How will they pay?
Most likely the companies they own money to will get a good portion of that as a tax credit.
Not sure about the people.
Oh MS, suing a broken company for money? Lemme guess… Need some funds for more Kinect games.
Got a nice little laugh off of that one.
Trust Microsoft to come running for more royalties.
Since I see this a lot in my line of work, I figured I'd clarify this for those who don't know.
This is more of a formality then anything. It's so the bankruptcy court or trustee can see whom is owed money and how to distribute any additional money that comes in accordingly. On the other end of the stick, the companies filing these claims need to do this as a CYA just in case additional money comes in to the trust that was probably created for THQ. That and it is support for the bad debt deduction those companies will claim on their tax returns.