THQ looking to offload the Itagaki-developed Devil's Third

Devil's Third, the third-person action game from former Ninja Gaiden director Tomonobu Itagaki, no longer has a home at THQ, as the publisher recently revealed that it's looking to offload the title to another company. During THQ's recent financial earnings call, CEO Brian Farrell said the company is in discussions with other publishers regarding the future of Devil's Third. He added that the game no longer "fits THQ's profile." Farrell explained that the company chose to let go of the title as it wasn't in a good position to make a profit. Farrell said that the game had to switch engines mid-development, which introduced some unforeseen financial burdens in the middle of its production cycle. According to Farrell, the company behind the original Devil's Third engine went out of business, and THQ had to help the game transition to new tech. At TGS 2011, Itagaki told Gamasutra that the game was using a customized version of Relic's proprietary engine. "When we ranked all of our product releases when we underwent our restructuring, the profitability of Devil's Third wasn't comparable with our other franchises," Farrell added. Devil's Third was first announced at E3 2010, and is being developed by Itagaki in conjunction with Valhalla Game Studios. In a previous interview with Gamasutra, Itagaki said that the title would draw inspiration from real-world military scenarios and technologies. During its last fiscal earnings report, THQ made a similar move when it reported that it was seeking a partner for its upcoming Warhammer 40,000 title Dark Millenium Online. While the company has yet to reveal a partner for Dark Millennium, THQ recently made some significant changes to the title, transforming it from an MMO into a standard single-player and online multiplayer game.