Video game publisher THQ canceled "Hellboy" film director Guillermo del Toro's video game project called Insane, and has given all rights and intellectual properties back to the filmmaker, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
THQ's president, Jason Rubin announced the news during a conference call with analysts.This is yet another cost cutting move by the publisher, in effort to slash the game company's annual spending on production, marketing and administration.
The gaming publisher has also decided not to release Devil's Third, a third person shooter by Valhalla Studios. The game was an original intellectual property from Tomonobu Itagaki, the former lead designer of Tecmo's Team Ninja game studios.
During this year's E3 gaming conference THQ ended an agreement to publish mixed martial arts games based on the UFC license. Unfortunately, the loss of the license caused THQ's San Diego studio to shut down entirely.
Insane was initially slated to be the beginning of a planned trilogy and was being developed for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with anticipated release date of 2013. The acclaimed director was billing the game as a stylized survival horror game.
Since the Insane's announcement almost two years ago at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, very little was known and the cancellation is not surprising considering the publisher's financial troubles.
Hopefully the creative del Toro will be able to secure a publishing deal with another gaming company and release Insane.