THQ has publicly announced that they have cancelled pre-production of the game INSANE. The game was announced back at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards. It was going to be in conjunction with Guillermo del Toro, a director of popular movies such as Pan’s Labyrinth, and the Hellboy franchise.
We have decided not to pursue further pre-production on Insane, and have returned all of our IP rights to Guillermo del Toro,” explained Jason Rubin, President of THQ.
The series was announced by del Toro himself at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, and was to be a trilogy of titles, the first of which releasing in 2013. The game was originally in development by Volition Inc. the studio which developed both the Saints Row and Red Faction series. I was to be of the survival horror genre.
Back in an interview in 2010 del Toro was excited about the prospect of the game, noting: “With this new series of video games, I want to take players to a place they have never seen before, where every single action makes them question their own senses of morality and reality, THQ and Volition, Inc. are equally excited to make this vision of a completely new game universe into a reality.”
During Rubin’s quarterly investment call, he noted why they chose to halt development of the game(s). “We have also stopped development for certain areas that are not productive for our new strategy,” explains Rubin. “Consistent with this vision, THQ has made a few changes to previously announced projects. First, we made the determination not to pursue any casual Facebook games. Second, we will not be publishing casual mobile games, including those with Innovative Leisure. And third, we have decided not to pursue further pre-production on Insane, and have returned all of our IP rights to Guillermo del Toro.
“By canceling these explorations outside of our core business, we feel we can improve focus on our core game portfolio, which remains unchanged.”
THQ’s quarterly report has led to cutbacks on projects, though it was better than the company initially expected. The company posted a $15.4 million in net income, with $133.7 million in sales for it’s most recent quarter.
(Via TheVerge)