No more Juiced or Stuntman

News by Terence Gage, published on Friday 25th January 2008

US publisher THQ has revealed their latest financial report, and it shows the company plans to discontinue two of its franchises. The Juiced and Stuntman franchises will be cancelled, after both series racked up lower-than-expected sales figures for 2007 releases Stuntman Ignition and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights.

THQ acquired the Stuntman franchise along with developer Paradigm Entertainment in May 2006 from Atari. Similarly, the Juiced franchise and its developer, Juice Games was bought from original, now-defunct owner Acclaim.

THQ also revealed that there will be no PS3 version of forthcoming 360/PC first-person war shooter Frontlines: Fuel of War, and that Destroy All Humans!: Big Willy Unleashed will not be coming out on PS2, and so seems to be a Wii exclusive now. They also announced they will be closing down Californian studio Concrete Games, although some employees will be offered positions with other development studios.

It wasn’t all bad news, though. Their latest entries in the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw and MX vs. ATV franchises sold better than expected, and they expect net sales for the quarter ending March 31st will stand at $200 million. Not bad for three months’ work.