THQ may still go to Clearlake Capital Group—but according to an announcement the publisher sent out today, the door is now open for other companies to start bidding on THQ as a whole, or its assets. While the schedule originally called for THQ to be sold to Clearlake for $60 million on January 10—barring any higher bids from other companies—complaints from creditors have led to a revised and amended sale schedule.

The new schedule sets the beginning date of the auction for January 22 at 3 p.m., Eastern, and wthe hearing on the sale will be at 9:30 a.m. the next day, with the closing happening on January 24. Clearlake’s $60 million offer is set as the opening bid, and other competing bids are due on that day by 9 a.m.

Said THQ’s chairman and CEO Brian Farrell:

“Today’s ruling provides a clear path. We will now know definitively by January 23 where we stand. We appreciate the support of our employees, partners, and suppliers now more than ever.”

So what’s different about the new sale schedule, besides the date? Most importantly, the process will now allow for other companies to bid on portions of THQ’s assets—but only if the combined offers are more than that of the highest offer for the entire company. So that means if, say, Warner Bros. Interactive wants to buy Volition, the other portions of THQ have to be bid on as well—and all those bids have to combine to a higher price than one company is willing to pay for the whole enchilada. I’m not sure what the most likely scenario is, but we’ll know in a couple weeks.

Beleaguered game publisher THQ’s attempt to be quickly sold to Clearlake Capital for $60 million has been halted by a judge in response to creditors’ complaints from last week. They said that the sale’s quick turnaround wouldn’t give adequate time for other potential buyers to make offers on portions of the company, says an article on Business Week.

Lawyers for Warner Bros. were present at the hearing, at which point it was revealed that WB Interactive is “interested in evaluating THQ’s assets if the sale process is extended.” And in recent months, Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot has expressed interest in acquiring some of THQ’s properties. Now that the quick sale to Clearlake has been put on hold, both companies—and more—will have an opportunity to explore possible partial or total purchases.

In addition, THQ sought approval for a $37.5 million bankruptcy loan to help the company keep operating until the sale had gone through. However, because THQ’s cash flow exceeded its projections, it will still be able to keep operating through the bankruptcy process.

It’s unclear at this point just what will happen in the next few weeks. But due to this latest ruling, it seems likely (to me at least) that THQ’s assets and IPs may get snapped up by separate companies. We may see Saint’s Row end up at Ubisoft, with Metro going to WB Interactive…all speculation, of course. But since the brakes have been put on the $60 million sale to Clearlake, I wouldn’t be surprised if these other companies manage to come up with the cash to take what they want from THQ.

Business Week via Joystiq

What’s that old proverb? Ah, yes: “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.” Simple wisdom from a simpler age.

It seems that Viacom and Harmonix, the former buying the latter after the explosion of popularity from the Guitar Hero games a few years ago, have been learning the aforementioned lesson the hard way in court for a little while now. Suits and counter-suits have been filed, Harmonix alleging that there are millions in unpaid bonuses from Viacom, and Viacom alleging that there have been millions in overpayments to Harmonix. It’s been a roller-coaster, for sure.

The latest twist in the drama comes as arbitration between the two companies (triggered by all the law-suiting, it seems) has resulted in an order for Viacom to pay Harmonix $383 million. The findings come from the work of a jointly-appointed accountant who handled the two companies’ arbitration, says a post on Gamasutra yesterday.

Of course, now Viacom has filed suit in Delaware looking to recalculate and/or throw out that figure with other evidence apparently not considered by the accounting firm.

So, in short, bleh. These damn music games. We’ll see over the next few weeks, months, and probably years, who winds up paying whom when all is said and done.

Via Gamasutra

As you sit in rapt anticipation to flail your arms in the motion enabled on everything Virtua Tennis 4, check out these ridiculously high-resolution tennis court screens.

I couldn’t tell you the first thing about tennis, but damn, those nets look good! Must be like x32 anti-aliasing or something. Too bad about the cardboard people and court-side clones, though.