THQ Digital Studios UK

For other uses, see THQ (disambiguation).
THQ Digital Studios UK
Video game developer
Industry Computer and video game industry
Founded 2003
Defunct 2011[1]
Headquarters Warrington, Cheshire, England
Key people
 Colin Bell (MD)
Don Whiteford (GM)
Products Video games
Owner THQ
Number of employees
 45
Website www.thqdigital.com

THQ Digital Studios UK Ltd (also known as THQ Digital Warrington, formerly Juice Games) was a video game developer based in Warrington, England;[2] Juice Games was acquired by THQ in March 2006, and was merged with 'Rainbow Studios' in 2010 forming THQ Digital Studios. The Warrington operations were closed in June 2011.[3]

History

Juice Games was formed from the ashes of Rage Games Limited, which was mostly made up of staff from Digital Image Design (bought out by Rage). The company was headed by industry veteran Colin Bell, until the buy out by THQ, who then assumed the position of General Manager.

Juice Games' most anticipated game, Juiced, was released around May/June 2005 after much delay. Juiced was originally going to be released in November 2004, but its publisher, Acclaim, went out of business and the game went into limbo for a month before being picked up and published by THQ.

Set up in 2003, Juice Games also launched mobile and interactive TV games, according to their website.

In 2005, Juice Games won the "Best New UK/European Studio" from the Develop magazine awards.

Juice Games developed the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS versions of Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights in 2007.

As of 2007, Juice Games was based in two localised offices in Warrington, UK, and employed over 80 members of staff. on 3 November 2008, over 30 staff were laid off and the second office closed, as part of THQ's reorganization operations. Juice Games' current project at the time was viewed by THQ executives as a 'risk' (in line with the rest of the company's family friendly identity). The project was later revealed, through a Realtime:uk-produced CG video, to be Stormbirds (video game), featuring a range of customisable jet fighters.

In early 2010, their website advertised for staff to work on "an unannounced arcade racing game".[4]

In February 2010, THQ announced Juice Games would be part of a reshuffle, and would now bear the title THQ Digital Warrington. It is said 60 members of staff face redundancies between THQ's Rainbow Studio and Juice Games' studio.[5]

On 11 August 2010, THQ announced THQ Digital Warrington are working on "Red Faction: Battlegrounds" for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.[6]

The closure of the studio was announced on 13 June 2011.[1]

In August 2011, two members of THQ Warrington announced they would be opening an outsource studio, named D3T.[7] This was followed by a further small studio opening (Nomad Games) which has completed Talisman for Games Workshop.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Purchese, Robert. "THQ shuts Red Faction: Battlegrounds dev". Eurogamer.
  2. ↑ "THQ Digital Studios UK Limited", investing.businessweek.com (Bloomberg)
  3. ↑ "THQ Digital Studios Warrington", uk.games.ign.com (IGN), retrieved 2 October 2011
  4. ↑ http://www.juicegames.com/html/jobs.html Juice Games Website Jobs Section
  5. ↑ "THQ Biggest Loser Works Out for Profit". Spong.
  6. ↑ Tim Turi. "THQ Announces Red Faction: Battlegrounds". GameInformer.
  7. ↑ http://www.develop-online.net/news/38411/Axed-THQ-Warrington-chiefs-open-outsource-studio

External links