Canonical should look at purchasing THQ

I do realise that this statement is quite far out there but the more I think about it the more it makes sense. If you think about it the company that pushed Windows as a gaming platform the most back in the day was Microsoft itself with Golf, Flight Simulator, and that Entertainment package with all the old arcade games coded for Windows. This continued with Age of Empires, Monster Truck Madness, Hellbender, Motocross Madness etc...

Canonical can buy THQ and then re-brand it as a division of Canonical. More important than the actual games, is porting all THQ's technologies over to Ubuntu Even if they bring out something like one game a year, they can use things like game engines (if THQ own any) and other technologies that exists such as OpenGL, OpenAL etc... and use it to setup a set of standards for all game developer companies to use. This division can then work closely with Valve on the steam box and help update and refine other technologies such as SDL 2.0 etc...

And even if they don't purchase THQ setting up a division like this would still be great I reckon. What do you guys think?

I do see how this helps get Ubuntu toward the more-usage goal...but I consider Ubuntu and Canonical to have different (complementary) goals.
I don't see how this gets Canonical any closer to it's goals.

Buying a company often makes sense if your business plan is to sell it's products, or keep those products proprietary. That does not match Ubuntu's community philosophy of open software, nor Canonical's business model.

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Originally Posted by Cheesehead

I do see how this helps get Ubuntu toward the more-usage goal...but I consider Ubuntu and Canonical to have different (complementary) goals.
I don't see how this gets Canonical any closer to it's goals.

Buying a company often makes sense if your business plan is to sell it's products, or keep those products proprietary. That does not match Ubuntu's community philosophy of open software, nor Canonical's business model.

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As a user of Ubuntu I agree with this. That being said, as a gamer, I also love the idea of THQ being a Ubuntu company. I suppose since Valve has announced that they are making a stand-alone PC with Linux for gaming, it would definitely cement Ubuntu as the distribution to use for gaming (not to mention I would imagine Valve would love to help port those THQ games to Ubuntu for their own purposes).

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Originally Posted by Romeo9

I do realise that this statement is quite far out there but the more I think about it the more it makes sense. If you think about it the company that pushed Windows as a gaming platform the most back in the day was Microsoft itself with Golf, Flight Simulator, and that Entertainment package with all the old arcade games coded for Windows. This continued with Age of Empires, Monster Truck Madness, Hellbender, Motocross Madness etc...

Canonical can buy THQ and then re-brand it as a division of Canonical. More important than the actual games, is porting all THQ's technologies over to Ubuntu Even if they bring out something like one game a year, they can use things like game engines (if THQ own any) and other technologies that exists such as OpenGL, OpenAL etc... and use it to setup a set of standards for all game developer companies to use. This division can then work closely with Valve on the steam box and help update and refine other technologies such as SDL 2.0 etc...

And even if they don't purchase THQ setting up a division like this would still be great I reckon. What do you guys think?

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Not too sure about others, but Flight Simulator was originally a product of the SubLogic company, which was purchased by Microsoft back in the days when they were buying up every company they could get their hands on (nicely satirized by the Simpsons about 15 or so years ago (just checked it, and it WAS 15 years ago, almost exactly, 2/98).

How time flies...

Good idea but impractical compared to the size of both companies. We live in the real world, and all the buying up of companies doesn't make sense. It would be nice to think of it, but Ubuntu needs to push more for mobile exposure. It could make waves in that area, and introducing their new phone has helped. Providing a good user experience without the user ever realizing their using Ubuntu or linux does wonders. We should see what happens in the future.

Not a smart idea. Buying THQ would probably be the death of Canonical. They might have the money to buy them, but they surely don't have the money to keep THQ running.

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Originally Posted by R33D3M33R

Not a smart idea. Buying THQ would probably be the death of Canonical. They might have the money to buy them, but they surely don't have the money to keep THQ running.

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I was going to say I didn't think Canonical had the capital to make such a purchase.

I quite like this idea as well but the it just seems unrealistic unfortunately. Wish it could happen, though...

I actually think it would be a good idea for Canonical to do something like this, gain a game development team that would make high quality Ubuntu exclusives. Whether buying THQ is the best way to do it is another question.