Assassin's Creed Creative Director Patrice Desilets Begins at THQ

Patrice Désilets has had a pretty extended vacation. Former Ubisoft employee and creative director of the Assassin's Creed franchise, Désilets announced last October that he was leaving Ubisoft Montreal to go work over at THQ Montreal. Désilets would once again serve as a "creative director" over at THQ Montreal, tasked with building an internal development team as well as creating a new IP for the studio.

Désilets unfortunately couldn't begin his new job at the time of the announcement. Thanks to Ubisoft's non-compete clause he hasn't actually start his position at THQ for the last nine months.

Yesterday though THQ officially announced that Désilets non-compete clause is over, and he has started his new position.

"The creative freedom that THQ gives its artists and developers--and their willingness to make games that truly reflect an artistic vision--really drew me to THQ," said Désilets in the press release. "I plan to build an incredibly talented team at THQ, and am very anxious to get started on creating a new project."

While it sounds like his new game is a ways off, THQ Montreal will be a two-team studio. A two-team studio who recently took over development of the Homefront sequel from the soon to be shutdown Kaos Studios.So it's safe to assume that Désilets will be dividing his time between development of the next Homefront and his new project.

THQ Closes Kaos Studios

It's a hard world for developers out there. THQ announced today that Frontlines: Fuel of War and Homefront developers Kaos Studios has been closed-and UK based company THQ Digital Warrington-has been closed.

Homefront had reviews that ran the spectrum with most being middle of the road. The game did however sell well over a million copies and THQ shipped more than 2.6 million out to retailers. Lackluster word-of-mouth did little to help the games sales past its initial release, and development of the Homefront sequel has been given to THQ's Montreal Studio.

The only statement THQ gave on the matter was from the press release they sent out, branding the move "a strategic realignment." THQ also issued in this statement that they were hiring at their Austin, Vancouver, and Montreal studios, and anyone who was affected by the layoffs would be able to reaply elsewhere within THQ.

The last development efforts Kaos put into the Homefront series was the "Fire Sale" map pack, which will release tomorrow.

THQ Claims 375K First Day Sales for Homefront

THQ is claiming rather impressive first day sales for Homefront. The company claims that it sold approximately 375,000 copies, and that's sold through to consumers not sold to retailers. Brian Farrell, CEO, said the company is "delighted with first day sales" and preparing to ship more copies out to retailers.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, THQ's (THQI) stocks fell 20% on the Nasdaq. This could be because of the mixed and mostly lackluster reviews.

With server issues for many gamers, relatively poor reviews, and other big games still out there, it will be interesting to see if these sale sustain themselves, once we get NPD numbers next month.