THQ acquires publishing rights to Juiced

The tumultuous times of Juiced seemed to have finally rested in a happy spot today, with THQ announcing that it's bid for Juice Games' mod-mad street racer has been successful. Since the demise of Acclaim, who had previously owned the publishing rights, Juice's future was up in the air: and as one of the stongest products left in the wake of Acclaim's deconstruction, that was a bit of a worry.

It's all back on track now though, with THQ saying that it will launch the game for PC, PS2 and Xbox at some point during next summer. The final price for the publishing rights hasn't yet been disclosed, but Take Two's earlier, apparently unsuccessful bid had been in the region of $10 million.

No reason has yet been given for Juiced's postponement until next summer. Review copies are already doing the rounds, and it had been thought that Juiced was a near-complete game, and not a bad one at that. Presumably THQ will have a bit of re-scheduling to do in order to accomodate Juiced's release; so hopefully during this time, UK developers Juice will be able to make a few extra enhancements.

Most importantly for the game's possible success (or lack of), its release date is now clearly separated from EA's Need For Speed Undergound 2: a title which covers much of the same territory and launches this November. Juiced will now avoid direct competition with this, but NFSU2's headstart might work to THQ's detriment. On the other hand, the extra development time could make Juiced a clearly superior game. Only time (in conjunction with SPOnG) will tell.