THQ had dropped the Devil’s Third IP citing poor sales projection as the reason, however they have given the rights of the IP back to Valhalla Game Studios and Tomonobu Itagaki.
“THQ confirms that the company will not be publishing Devil’s Third. All of the game’s IP rights have been returned to Itagaki-san and the Valhalla team,” THQ confirmed to Eurogamer.
Itagaki was also pleased after getting back the rights, but I feel a bit sorry for the man. They must be obviously very disappointed with this thing and it must be difficult to find a different publisher for the game, considering how risky the project is in this climate.
“Most important thing is gamers’ happiness. And people in business side like distributers and presses. And developers. It’s a Happy Three. So we can’t thank THQ enough. Anyway, we now own the Devil’s Third IP,” he told Famitsu (via Eurogamer).
“Devil’s Third development is in its final stage now, and is most expensive in this term. In the West, we need to spend a great deal for advertisements – as much as development cost – to sell a lot. But it wasn’t fit for [THQ’s] mid-term plan.
“They didn’t want to part with this IP, but we all have to see into the future and at last they did, for us. We were anguished and they were really kind to us. Mr. Danny Bilson was searching for a way to work together until the very end. I do appreciate him and THQ managers that signed the transfer contract.”
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