In THQ's piecemeal auction, one of the biggest — if not the biggest — winner is Koch Media who acquired the Saints Row and Metro franchises from the troubled publisher.
While the relatively unknown company spent a ton ($28.1 million to be exact) to acquire studio Voliiton Inc., the Metro and Saints Row franchises, that payment could prove to pay for itself within the year since a new Saints Row game and Metro: Last Light are both scheduled to hit current-gen consoles before the year's done.
Over in an interview with GamesIndustry, Koch Media CEO Klemens Kundratitz talks about the acquistion, and how he's not "ambitious" in becoming the next THQ.
Many people didn't really see us as a player in the industry. They didn't really understand what we're doing…I appreciate that we now get more of the spotlight with these new IPs, but, having said that, we are not ambitious to be the next THQ.
While some might see that as a dig, you have to remember that THQ was once a very profitable videogame publisher that had a lot of franchises going for it.
In Koch's interview, he further talks about doing business their own way and not copying the success of others. Of course, this is easier said than done since German-based Koch Media has a lot more going for it than just publishing videogames.
We have always tried to find our own way, and do business in a way that we believe is right for us. We don't want to copy other people's success stories. We are passionate about Deep Silver, and we are obviously investing significantly now, but at the same time we have a strong, value-added distribution business in Europe, which will continue to be a tent-pole in the future. And the third element is our film business, which we are also growing here in Europe, where we acquire film rights and we exploit them in the movies, in home entertainmentand on TV.Those three elements of the business are all in a growth phase. Standing on three legs rather than one is still quite a good idea as far as we're concerned.
