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.
The first is Destroy All Humans!, an open world game developed published by THQ but developed by Pandemic Studios in Brisbane for the Xbox and Playstation 2 way back in 2005. A tiny bit of trivia about Destroy All Humans! is that Matthew Harding is listed in the credits, a person much better known for the Where the hell is Matt viral video which featured his amusing dancing jig performed in various places around the world. It was a dance he initially did at the Brisbane games studio in front of fellow workmates.
Destroy All Humans! spawned a sequel called Destroy All Humans! 2: Make War Not Love in 2006. The other titles in the franchise, Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed and Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon were developed at other THQ studios and are up for sale too.
Destroy All Humans! won the 2005 Australian Games Developer Conference (AGDC) Award for Best Console Game, and also the AGDC Award for Best Game Audio. Destroy All Humans! 2 won the Games Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) Award for Best Game in 2006, and the 2006 GDAA Award for Best Console Game.
The other Australian-developed franchise in the list is de Blob, developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment, a Melbourne studio acquired by THQ in 2004. de Blob dominated the GDAA Awards in 2008, picking up Best audio, Best Graphics, Best Gameplay, Best Console title, and the GDAA Award for best game of 2008. The sequel, de Blob 2, was released in February, 2011, but sadly, THQ closed down the studio just six months later.
de Blob was an interesting risk for THQ. It was a completely original I.P based on a Dutch student project, developed when publishers were increasingly banking on sequels and games based on known franchises. Following the great reception of de Blob on the Wii, THQ CEO, Brian Farrell, called de Blob "a great brand" and "a great brand to build" on when confirming a follow up sequel for all console platforms. There was mention of bringing de Blob plush toys to market and a television series planned for the SYFY channel.