THQ Completes Purchase Of Paradigm Entertainment

Major publisher THQ has announced that it has completed the purchase of Paradigm Entertainment from struggling publisher Atari. The developer was purchased as part of a recent move by Atari to divest itself of what it called “certain non-core assets” in May. THQ also confirmed that Paradigm is developing a sequel to Stuntman, which was originally developed by Reflections (also recently sold by Atari to Ubisoft) for the PlayStation 2 in 2002. The new game is in development for unspecified next-generation platforms, and is expected to be released sometime following April 1, 2007, with plans currently in place to unveil the game later this year. The purchase marks the latest addition to THQ's still-growing internal studio system, which has seen a total of five new studios added to its roster this year. In February, the company announced the formation of the New York-based Kaos Studios, founded by veterans of Trauma Studios. A month later, March saw a pair of studios acquired, including the David Adams and Joe Madureira-helmed Vigil Games out of Austin, Texas, and Juice Games, THQ's first European-based development studio. In addition, just last week the company announced that it had formed Incinerator Games, which is currently working on versions of Disney/Pixar's Cars for both the Xbox 360 and Wii. Founded in 1997, Paradigm Entertainment is home to a number of industry veterans, and has created several well-known titles including Pilot Wings 64, Beetle Adventure Racing and SpyHunter.