All Articles: Insane

When THQ gave the publishing rights to Insane back to Guillermo Del Toro, I (and many others) assumed that that was the end of it. But apparently the director is not giving up his game development dreams so easily.

“When something doesn’t happen in one way, I just continue pursuing it in another way. I own the property and I control it. I’m not giving up on Insane,” Del Toro said. See? Told ya.

When asked what his ideal destination for Insane was, Del Toro quickly replied “Valve.” Never stop believing Mr. Del Toro.

[Source: GameSpot]

THQ President Jason Rubin just announced that the company has canceled Insane, the first game in a planned trilogy from director Guillermo Del Toro and developer Volition. “We have decided not to pursue further pre-production on Insane, and have returned all of our IP rights to Guillermo Del Toro,” Rubin said.

Insane was first announced during the 2010 Spike TV Video Game Awards, so the game was in development for at least two years before getting the axe. With Del Toro retaining the IP rights to the game, he would legally be able to take the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 title to other publishers if he wanted to. However, it’s likely that Volition’s contirbution to the project would stay with the publisher.

THQ never talked about Insane much after that day, but Del Toro described it as a “Lovecraftian Thing” to the MTV Multiplayer Blog before the announcement.

[Source: Joystiq]

Barely a fortnight into his new role as THQ President, Jason Rubin is already showing how he intends to progress with the company’s new direction. In a recent interview with Joystiq, he managed to allay fears within the various studios owned by THQ of further job cuts.

“We have the appropriate number of teams and the appropriate number of people working on products, and we’re not going to be continuing to cut teams. But as far as product goes, I think we’ll have to find out exactly where that’s going,” Rubin said.

However, he does recognise that changes will have to be made, and several of THQ’s titles are on the chopping block as the company seeks to streamline their business. This process actually began last month when the company announced plans to sell off the publishing rights to Tomonobu Itagaki’s Devil’s Third.

While he comments that Insane, a planned trilogy of games from award winning filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro is “still in the slate,” other games such as a new FPS from Turtle Bay, a wholly new IP at THQ Montreal, and ex-Assassin’s Creed developer Patrice Desilets’ new project, rumoured to be called 1666, will have to wait for an official verdict from Rubin.

“I have to go around and look at everything over the next few weeks, next month, and I have to then decide which of the titles are the titles we’re gonna focus on based on what I believe our future should be.”

It is nice to hear Rubin talk so confidently, and will no doubt put THQ in a better position in the months and years to come.