Kotaku: juice games

A Look at the Cancelled, Never-Announced "Stormbirds"

Owen Good — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:00:00 MST

Before THQ shuttered Juice Games, the studio was working on a H.A.W.X.-esque game called Stormbirds. A Juice artist put out and then pulled back some pics and a video, but cat's outta the bag now.

The team working on this were "made redundant" (i.e., fired) on Dec. 1 because THQ made the decision Stormbirds was "too high risk," according to artist Greg Calvert in a post on his personal blog (the post is now taken down, the quote comes from Shacknews, which saw it.)

Looking at the visual assets, the game seems to be set in a post-apocalyptic future at least partly employing Paris and a desert oilfield as settings. And from the cinematic, my guess is the Stormbirds were some rogue/mercenary group of flyboys blowing up the huge, lumbering squadrons of whatever corrupt government is in charge at that time.

No game action in the trailer, but it is an impressive CGI render. Stormbirds was being developed for the PS3 and the 360 as well as the PC. ShackNews has more still images with its post. Pity, this thing looked like fun, but then, don't they all at this stage of creation?

Unnanounced, Cancelled THQ Air Combat Game Revealed in Slick Trailer [ShackNews via Blue's News]

THQ Shuttering Four to Five Studios, Including Paradigm, Juice? [UPDATE]

Brian Crecente — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:59:14 MST

Word just hit Kotaku Towers that THQ might be in the midst of shutting down a number of their studios. According to our sources the international publisher plans to shut down four to five studios this week including Texas-based developer Paradigm Entertainment and UK developer Juice Games.

Currently THQ has 16 studios located in North America, Europe and Australia. If the cut-backs are true they would be the latest to plague the industry. Perhaps it's a sign of the current state of the world economy or just the typical pre-holiday layoffs.

Juice Games is best known for their racing title Juiced and has a staff of 40. Over it's long history Paradigm created Pilotwings 64 and most recently Stuntman Ignition.

We've contacted THQ for comment and will update as soon as we hear more. THQ has yet to respond with a comment, but their website for their studio system just had a massive update.

While the site for THQ's studios still says that the company has 16 studios across the globe, the map now shows a mere 11 studios.

Gone are: Paradigm, Helixe, Locomotive, Sandblast Games and Mass Media. Meanwhile according to Juice Games Wiki page, and one source, the more than 30 of Juice Game's 40 employees have been laid off. More updates to come as we roll toward THQ's financials later this week.

Juiced Is Dead, But Juice Lives On

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:20:00 MST

Now that publisher THQ has squeezed the Juiced franchise out of its software line-up, what will become of its developer, Juice Games? Juice's Colin Bell says to GamesIndustry.biz that the team will soldier on, creating two new titles. Bell says that the axing of the franchise from THQ was "disappointing" but that the team was "working on two very fresh and exciting projects that I can't discuss but the whole office is buzzing with the work we've done here recently."

We can only hope that the Juice boys go on to generate more product that results in advertising on booty shorts and more "banned" commercials that feature full nudity and the forceful removal of women's clothing. Our hobby's teenage boys need third-rate racing games now more than ever!

Juice Games working on two new projects [GamesIndustry.biz]