THQ delays three games

At a dire conference call last night following a stronger than expected financial report for the last quarter, troubled publisher THQ announced that their upcoming slew of games - Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Light and South Park: The Stick of Truth have all been delayed.

When it comes to Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light, they were delayed from a suggested January slots to March, while South Park: The Stick of Truth has been pushed from a March date to an undisclosed date during the next fiscal year (starting April 1).

New president Jason Rubin told investors that the games "were guaranteed to fall significantly short of their design specs" if released on their targeted dates, something that if true makes two months sound well short of the sort of time needed to put things right.

The news has the buzzards circling what was once the third largest publisher in North America, with Gamasutra suggesting this might be the beginning of the end. At any rate, THQ is correct in assuming they need their upcoming releases to be of the highest calibre in order to compete, it remains to be seen if that is the case.