At a time when publishers and developers (with an emphasis on the latter) are being heavily impacted by the effects of the economy, do we really need these persistent doom and gloom reports by "analysts"? In case Mr. Hickey hasn't figured it out, there are a lot of us in the development community who don't savor the thought of waking up every morning to this particular form of speculative ambulance chasing. With things truly as bad as they are, some amount of optimism isn't unwarranted especially when employees and their families can suffer the results of consistently negative press.

Jason, I completely agree. I think too much negative press is in some ways hurting these companies by eroding stockholder confidence, sometimes unnecessarily.

I would be extremely surprised to learn if Mr. Hickey has actually played enough THQ games to roundly declare, "You have mediocre product." The company has put out a lot of interesting and well-reviewed material recently.

I agree with Jason as well as my colleague Brandon--this kind of sensationalistic grandstanding isn't really doing any good.

Lesson one: unless you're getting beaten by a cop, the press is not your friend.

They can be useful, but they are not there to help you. The press is there to sell advertising space in their newspaper/broadcast/website, which requires viewership, and good news does not generate viewership. The press corps counts their successes in how many takedowns they trigger, and if a hundred others lose their jobs because of it, "so what". Integrity seldom matters, truth seldom matters, and ethics never matter. Being king-makers... and king-breakers... is what the press is all about, and "collateral damage" never enters into it. You hear that gleeful cackling in the bankruptcy court foyer? It's someone with a press pass with visions of being the next Bob Woodward dancing in his/her brain.

So when you deal with the press, keep in mind that you are dealing with a serpent. No matter what they tell you, whatever you give, leak, imply, or even omit will be twisted in the most harmful manner possible, and while you're tearfully delivering pink slips they're off sabotaging some other company. After all, tomorrow's a new newspaper, and a fresh takedown is needed.

"I make my living on the evening news, just give me something, something I can use. People love it when you lose, give us dirty laundry!"

50/50 odds? Is that the best prediction Hickey can make? THQ's either going to be okay or it's not. Given the current economic climate, this is hardly a blinding insight.

I guess this sort of opinion-based stunt only works if you're an "analyst", as opposed to an actual journalist. If he worked in any other field, Hickey would be looking for a new job.

"Let's check in with Matt and the Dopler 5000 for this weekend's forecase. Matt?"

"Thanks, Angie. We're either going to have nice weather or bad weather. Back to you."

lesson for you lance: analysts are not journalists. they sell no advertising space, they have no accountability.

if you think press count their successes by how many takedowns they trigger, you're some kind of crazy person. there's no money in a corporate takedown for a journalist. One story out of 10 in a day does not keep a website afloat.

A financial analyst is making an educated opinion but is not always correct. It's about predicting the future, after all.

As for stock market buys and sells, yes, people listen to analysts.

Interesting. It seems one of those "mediocre products" is #1 on the NPD list this week.

Dawn of War 2 or Blood on the Sand?

DOW II.

Although I heard Blood on the Sand was off the register, yo.

:)