It appears as though recent reports were incorrect, as Midway confirmed to Joystiq this morning that the studios not picked up by Warner Bros. in the acquisition bid have 60 days until they're out of work. From Midway Newcastle (Wheelman, Necessary Force) to Midway San Diego (TNA) and various "old sports titles" (Blitz, NBA Ballers) in between, anyone looking to pick up the remaining studios has roughly two months to do so.

"We had a court hearing yesterday and the end result of that is the sale was approved and the closing will occur within the next 10 days," a Midway representative told us, continuing, "Since we didn't get any bids for the San Diego assets, we actually gave the employees a required 60-day warning." According to the US Department of Labor, employees of 100 or more person companies must be warned 60 days prior to being let go due to "plant closure" (or studio closure, in this case).

Midway remains positive on the San Diego studio, saying, "For now those employees are continuing to work and it's still entirely possible that a bidder could come in and acquire the San Diego assets." When asked what would happen to the TNA license if the studio did go under, Midway was unsure. Maybe THQ and its fancy new business plan can help a brotha out?

JAKKS is more than happy to reenter into its WWE licensing deal with THQ, but the gaming company isn't so sure it's ready to make a commitment. After JAKKS signed on the dotted line to extend its gaming agreement with the wrestling group for five years, THQ sued the toymaker, saying it wasn't ready to make a decision and that JAKKS had no right to sign the agreement without THQ's consent.

There were some reportedly shady dealings when JAKKS originally got the contract -- perhaps THQ wants to get the whole pie for itself. Who knows? Either way, the two companies have entered into arbitration, so hopefully the tiff won't have an impact on releases.

Rainbow Studios' Deadly Creatures apparently didn't work out at retail. For whatever reason, the Wii audience just wasn't excited about a game featuring a scorpion and a tarantula having adventures and getting into fights, despite how awesome that premise is.

THQ CEO Brian Farrell, however, isn't dwelling on the sales or declaring no more Wii development. He offered a surprisingly positive outlook on the situation in an interview with G4's Feed. "... we have great Wii technology there now and so we're developing other games -- stay tuned for the announcements," he said, "but we intend to leverage that great technology on the Wii in the future."

Having a well-designed Wii engine is good news indeed, especially since Deadly Creatures was a pretty nice-looking game (well, actually it was disgusting, but in a technically impressive way).

MTV Games has hired two new high-level execs to manage its growth. First up is former senior Sony sales and merchandising executive, David Cox, who'll become the company's senior vice president of sales. At the same time, MTV Games has appointed Scott Guthrie as executive vice president and general manager to lead the "fast-growing video game publishing group's management team."

Guthrie's former position was that of executive vice president of publishing at embattled publisher THQ. You know, that company that had to do an executive overhaul and is currently altering its image to forget its past, along with last year's $431 million loss. Hopefully things will go a little better at MTV Games.

Danny Bilson, who is now the executive VP of Core Games at THQ following last week's shuffle, says that shutting down several studios and dismissing 550 employees was necessary to create the "new THQ." He explains to GI.biz that the surviving studios were given more money to enhance the "quality" (another buzzword around THQ lately) of the titles in development. Bilson notes Red Faction: Guerrilla was given four extra months and millions in cash, which he believes was "worth every penny" -- reviewers apparently agree.

The full interview with Bilson is quite notable for how frankly the executive discusses the prior state of the company, which lost $431 million last year. He explains that convincing executives that change was necessary wasn't difficult because THQ was in a "failure state." He also continues to drum home the point that the company is invested in focusing on the quality of its future core titles.

With Microsoft revealing Project Natal earlier this month, we've seen some of the things Microsoft and its studios are doing with the peripheral (not to mention the talent enlisted), but what about third parties? We know of at least one developer who has had Natal, and that's THQ. CEO Brian Farrell reveals (via G4) that his company has "had kits for some time," somewhere around "4, 6 weeks, however long they've been available."

While not confirming any projects yet, Farrell did say that top men (top men) in his company have been checking out Natal and brainstorming.

Is something in the air? While this week saw ZeniMax's acquisition of industry legend id Software, last month saw newcomer 38 Studios' acquisition of Big Huge Games, THQ's troubled developer that, like id, has rockstar status of its own. We had a chance to talk with 38 Studios' CEO Brett Close shortly after the announcement last month. On the plate: What will Big Huge be working on now? What's happening to the two titles BHG was working on for THQ? And when could we see something Copernicus-themed from Big Huge Games?

Joystiq: Why Big Huge games? And were you looking or considering any other developers to bring into the 38 Studios family?

Brett Close: Well, we've got 36 studios to go, of course.

The "New THQ" keeps rolling forward as the company reorganizes to support three key strategies: Core, "Kids, Family and Casual" and Online. The business units will each have an executive vice president who reports to THQ CEO Brian Farrell.

The new alignment certainly makes it very clear whose head goes on the platter when a division is failing. Or, in the more polite words of CEO Farrell, "The new structure specifically aligns our primary business units with our product strategy, enabling each team to focus on planning and execution in highly defined product areas with full profit and loss responsibility." Of course, if all three divisions fail -- which has been THQ's fate of late -- we expect those new branches of the company will be getting a new boss.

Along with working on two major current-gen games in Darksiders: Wrath of War and a Warhammer: 40K MMO, THQ-owned Vigil Games is packing up its stuff and moving to a brand new 33,000-square foot studio in another part of Austin, TX. Unsurprisingly, in confirming the move to Kotaku, THQ reiterates its desire to attract new employees as development ramps up on the aforementioned titles.

Though the move was likely decided well before UFC 2009 Undisputed hit store shelves -- and quickly went flying right off those same shelves -- the 1.01 million unit sales of the game couldn't hurt the moving situation. Plusher couches at the new offices, perhaps? If it happens, remember: you heard it here first!

Update: Microsoft has confirmed that Rocket Riot will release tomorrow for 800 ($10). See original post below.

So, um, apparently there's another game hitting Xbox Live Arcade this week. The thing is, you see, Microsoft apparently left it out of the announcement press release. The game in question is Rocket Riot, which, appropriately enough, involves plenty of riotous, rocket blasting action. Codeglue, the game's developer, has announced that the game will release tomorrow alongside the previously announced titles.

Now, we would be remiss if we didn't point out that developers have been wrong about XBLA release dates before. As a general rule, we don't accept releases as fact unless Microsoft announces them. Alas, we've yet to receive confirmation from Microsoft about Rocket Riot. Still, even Xbox.com states the game is out tomorrow (for 800), so we'd say it's probably a safe bet. Probably.

This "new THQ" that Senior VP of Creative Development Danny Bilson recently discussed in an interview with IndustryGamers is totally freaking us out. Although we've yet to really see the great turnaround at the beleaguered publisher -- which took a $431 million loss last year -- Bilson is talking a good game. He's using words like "quality" and saying the publisher will stop a title in the early research and development phase if it's not looking good.

THQ has been discussing a focus on the core and upping its quality levels for a while now. The company is also altering its image from being the king of licensed titles, to focusing on original IP (Darksiders) with "transmedia" opportunities. A fancy term, that at its core, means using original IP and selling it in various media streams like movies, comics and whatever else.

Although the interview doesn't reveal anything new, it is interesting to see THQ actually learning from its lower quality titles and heavily licensed past. Now we'll have to wait a while to see if consumers reward the "new THQ" with sales.

You can understand, for upcoming Kaos Studios-developed Homefront, how it might be hard to live up to the '80s film, hinged on fears of nuclear war, Red Dawn. But it's a similar premise (and the same writer!) that holds together the trailer you see above, peppered with "Resist!" signs and talk of an occupied United States.

Considering the game's coming from the same studio that developed Frontlines: Fuel of War, you can appreciate that we're a bit trepidacious when approaching another FPS in Homefront. Still, it remains to be seen whether or not Kaos Studios can pull out the big, anti-occupational guns this time around, so we're remaining cautiously hopeful for Homefront.

Sorry, we couldn't help but reference Volition's absolutely brilliant April Fools video in the headline. Anyway, the reviews for Red Faction: Guerrilla are fairly solid. The Mars liberation simulator is being recognized as good summer fun with plenty of explosions. Now, "get your ass to Mars."

• 1UP (A-): "Guerrilla isn't a terribly deep game, but as a "summer blockbuster," it works just right. It doesn't expect you to get lost in a deep, engaging sci-fi world -- you're on a mission to Mars to watch stuff explode. A deeper story might have made it more enjoyable in some respects, but it might also have killed the momentum of the demolition action."
• GamePro (5/5): "It's become a rare thing for me to actually stop playing a game to call one of my friends and gush about something amazing that happened, or how much they need to play it when it comes out, but I did this countless times while playing Guerrilla"
• GameInformer (90/100): "The single-player campaign is lengthy, and continually rewarding. Don't be surprised, however, if you shun this experience for multiplayer. ... No matter what mode you enter, Red Faction: Guerrilla delivers on its promise of destruction, and offers an experience unlike anything else out there."
• Giant Bomb (4/5): "While there are clunky bits at the fringes of Red Faction: Guerrilla that give it a handful of frustrating or disappointing moments, the core moments of the game are exciting and well-conceived."
• Edge (7/10): "Red Faction plays its hand early, letting you blow a building to pieces in the first few minutes of the game. Though the explosions scale with progress, and the act of detonation continues to be a giddy pleasure, Mars could do with a thicker atmosphere."

During our hands-on experience with Darksiders, Joe Madureira joked that he could hide all of Battle Chasers #10 throughout the game. Cruel, Madureira, cruel. If you're a fan of the comic, then you'll know that issue has been a long time coming. Like eight years long. Eight. very. long. years. Even at the glacial pace the book was used to, that's been more than enough time to finish the series.

We asked Madureira if there would be any hidden easter eggs featuring his artwork through the game, and he joked "Yeah, actually Battle Chasers #10 is scattered throughout the levels! Maybe I can finish it before the game comes out." We won't hold our breath, Joe. But seriously, when this game goes gold, please think about returning to the drawing board and putting that thing to bed. We'd love to read it.

5TH Cell received a lot of attention at E3 for its DS platform adventure Scribblenauts, but that wasn't the only DS game 5TH Cell brought to the show. THQ had a demo station set up running the DS sequel to the company's first DS hit, Drawn to Life. Planet Moon's (different) Wii version of Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter was also on display, but we were unable to spend any time with it.