THQ shuts Red Faction: Battlegrounds dev

By Robert Purchese Published 14 June, 2011

No more Juice left in the tank.

Another THQ studio has bitten the dust - THQ Digital Warrington, known once as Juice Games.

Yesterday we heard that Homefront developer Kaos Studios is no more. Homefront 2 will move to THQ Montreal.

The THQ Digital Warrington team made Red Faction: Battlegrounds (5/10 - Eurogamer) and were making Warhammer 40K: Kill Team.

UK games industry body TIGA blamed tax breaks, which are rubbish here where the Queen lives.

"THQ's decision confirms once again that Canada's tax breaks are draining investment and employment away from the UK," commented TIGA boss Richard Wilson. "THQ has made it clear that the UK development workforce is second to none."

Juiced, Juice Games' 2005 debut release as an independent outlet, was awarded 6/10 on Eurogamer by then-editor Kristan Reed.

Juiced 2, released two years later, also scored 6/10, also from Kristan Reed.

Kill Team, THQ Digital Warrington's last project.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • azic #1 12 months ago

    Always sad when job losses are around. I hope these talented people find new jobs.

  • jablonski #2 12 months ago

    Pretty clear the UK government need to pull their fucking fingers out before the industry is dead over here

  • King_Edward #3 12 months ago

    So this is what they meant copying ea/acti.

  • sheldipez #4 12 months ago

    Sad when you have to move to another country to find work in your industry

  • Perfecto #5 12 months ago

    I work in the UK Games Industry, and am quite worried that theres hardly anywhere left over here. Going to Canada is on my list of things to do.

  • MerricK #6 12 months ago

    maybe thq is reinvesting its money from the game studios to a decent PR company who dont just talk bullshit 24/7?

  • Olemak #7 12 months ago

    I guess THQ isn't in the conversation after all, then.

  • flaming.carrot #8 12 months ago

    Red Faction Battlegrounds was a bit poor, but it was a PSN Plus free deal, surely they got a hefty chunk of cash from Sony to do that which must have at least covered the development costs?

  • Daeltaja #9 12 months ago

    Wow, THQ sure are on a rampage at the moment. Guess they're just following in the footsteps of their Idols, Activision.

  • dr_zoidthrob #10 12 months ago

    It's no wonder I can't get a job anywhere - all the devs are being shut down :(

    16 years making games... and nowt.


    I hope the guys at THQ Digital Warrington fair better than me.

  • Kazzahdrane #11 12 months ago

    I moved over to Canada to make games and it's awesome here!

    I feel a bit guilty for abandoning the country that educated and supported me, but the government clearly don't consider the games industry to be important enough to ensure jobs stay in the UK.

  • HyperTails #12 11 months ago

    The Government need to give this industry tax breaks. Instead of funding fucking wars in Libya (regardless of how they spin it, if you send in the army and fucking navy to attack another country in the middle of a civil war, you're in a Goddamn war) that's nothing to do with us, and wasting money all over the place, the Government needs to pull its finger out.

    Wish these guys the best of luck finding new jobs.

    Also, didn't THQ say that they were one of the big boys now? On par with EA and Activision, or something? lol Of course you are...

  • Crea #13 11 months ago

    I don't really understand the UK government sometimes. We refused to subsidise shipbuilding, because we 'couldn't compete' with the developing world. So we lost it. But Germany and Norway still have huge industries. We refused to help home-grown manufacturers because we can't compete with China. So we lost that, but France and Germany still have a large manufacturing base.

    We are clearly not really interesting in backing any kind of sector other than the City. Why? When I see countries like France, Germany, Japan and South Korea still actually making things I begin to question the principles of non-intervention that we seem to hold so dear in this country.

  • bf #14 11 months ago

    I suppose none of these closures could have anything to do with the studios making rather mediocre games? Nah, taxes that's it!

  • Murton #15 11 months ago

    "UK games industry body TIGA blamed tax breaks" - and thus proved why the UK Games Industry doesn't need such a body to represent it.

    We've seen a great many arguments now for why tax breaks are not the way forward and only one fudged numbers study from TIGA as to why we should give tax breaks. Tax breaks are not some silver bullet that will instantly make the UK Games Industry strong again, considering that most UK developers are tied to an overseas publisher/investor the tax breaks will not safeguard jobs or prevent further decline but bolster the bottom line and ensure higher dividends for shareholders. What we need is direct backing and finance via grants and loans. A state sponsored games industry through direct intervention means we can safeguard jobs rather than shareholder lifestyles as we can give publishers terms and conditions on that backing to ensure no jobs are shed without operational need to do so.

    So please TIGA, change the fucking record and start actually speaking for the games industry in a logical and constructive manner. All this crying over tax breaks that will never come isn't helping and if you don't start looking at alternatives there won't be a games industry left to offer tax breaks to.

    Anyone who seriously thinks that the any Government can possible offer a luxury industry tax breaks in the current economic climate clearly has no understanding of the severity of our situation and therefore probably shouldn't comment on it, and that includes TIGA.

  • Mikeside #16 11 months ago

    @Murton - I couldn't agree with you more. Begging after tax breaks is just distracting people from the real issues here.

  • Tryhard #17 11 months ago

    Welcome to Britain,where we make...erm...nothing.

  • metalangel #18 11 months ago

    Britain once made some of the finest aircraft, trains, cars and ships in the world, not to mention steel, coal, drinks, weapons...

    I can't explain why you don't make anything any more apart from ideas for TV shows.

  • dirtysteve #19 11 months ago

    Warhammer 40K: Kill Team
    Does this mean our turn based 40k is further away again? Compounded bad news.

  • makeamazing #20 11 months ago

    Anyone who seriously thinks that the any Government can possible offer a luxury industry tax breaks in the current economic climate clearly has no understanding of the severity of our situation and therefore probably shouldn't comment on it, and that includes TIGA

    So the situation is so severe that we can send planes and bombs on the pretence of getting rid of Gaddaffi because we want to defend people (while the actual plot is to remove him because he no longer suits the governements aims).... and we are talking millions of pounds to do this.

    Or perhaps we can talk about the BILLIONS of pounds wasted because we got the wrong planes for an aircraft carrier and now need to redesign it, or the many other ways governments are wasting money every single day.

    If you think industry tax breaks are something this country cannot afford, you need to take your blinkers off. Because you aint got a clue.We can certainly afford it, we just need to stop being such muppets wasting money elsewhere.

  • BBIAJ #21 11 months ago

    @EG:

    I tipped you off about this last night, both by email, and in the Kaos Studios closure news.

    Thanks to the non-credit, I don't think I'll bother in future.

    @dirtysteve:

    Read the insider's perspective news story, a couple of stories above this one. Warhammer 40K is in the submission process.
    Edited by BBIAJ at 14/06/11 @ 23:58