Blue Tongue

Bankrupt games publisher, THQ, is currently in the process of selling off its remaining library of games properties and licenses which include some well known titles such as Darksiders, Homeworld, and Red Faction.

Polygon.com have the complete list of the current THQ games up for auction and almost lost in all the games titles available for the fire sale are two notable franchises that were highly celebrated original games created and developed right here in Australia.

As THQ's share price continues its extraordinary plummet over the years, from $33.73 five years ago to now just 66 cents according to Kotaku AU, it has had to take some extreme cost cutting measures to stay afloat.

AIE lecturer and former Blue Tongue animator, Kate Inabinet, will be facing some serious life threatening challenges if restrictions on certain forms of medication goes ahead. Kate is a mother and cancer survivor. After the removal of her thyroid, she was subscribed Levothyroxine, a synthetic thyroid replacement hormone.

THQ executive vice-president and chief financial officer, Paul Pucino, has defended his company's decision to axe a number of internal studios this year, including Homefront developer Kaos Studio, THQ Digital Warrington in the UK, Blue Tongue Entertainment in Melbourne, THQ Studio Australia in Brisbane, and THQ Digital Phoenix in Arizona.

Blue Tongue Entertainment, the Melbourne-based games development studio that celebrated their 15th anniversary only last year, and THQ Studio Australia in Brisbane are finishing up today. The outpouring of sympathy and well wishes for these local developers have been pretty overwhelming.

In a "strategic realignment" to steer development away from "licensed kids titles and movie-based entertainment properties" and push "focus to high-quality owned IP with broad appeal", publisher THQ has decided to close its games development operations in Australia.

Nick Haggar, Project Director at Blue Tongue Entertainment, sat down for an interview with Mark Serrels from Kotaku AU on the Australian games industry. In the topic of the growing mobile and small games sector, Nick gave praise to the success of local studios, Halfbrick and Firemint, but expressed concern for the future viability of the rapidly progressing iOS platform. From Kotaku AU...

When: 22 February at 17:00 - 23 February at 00:00