Just another day at Ubisoft HQ.

Ubisoft has fired the man responsible for the first two Assassin’s Creed blockbusters. As reported by Game Informer, the publisher has confirmed that Ubisoft Montreal creative director Patrice Désilets is no longer with the company. This isn’t the first time the two have parted ways. Désilets resigned in 2010 to take up a position with THQ Montreal. Ironically, THQ was then forced to sell the business to Ubisoft, bringing Désilets back into the fold.

According to an Ubisoft statement, the creative director “left” his position after “good faith discussions between Patrice and Ubisoft aimed at aligning Patrice’s and the studio’s visions” proved “inconclusive”.

Désilets’ account of the process, published by Polygon, differed somewhat from the official line. “I was notified of this termination in person, handed a termination notice and was unceremoniously walked out of the building by two guards without being able to say goodbye to my team or collect my personal belongings.” Désilets vowed to “fight for my rights, for my team and for my game”. As noted by Kotaku, Désilets later confirmed that producer Jean-Francois Boivin has also been shown the door.

At the time of its sale to Ubisoft, the studio was said to be working on unannounced properties Underdog and 1666. The future of these projects is now in question.

The TimeGate offices were alway pretty quiet on “Pizza Fridays”.

On our most recent podcast, we discussed the plight of TimeGate Studios, and speculated as to the likelihood of the developer surviving the two week period until our next episode. It appears that our fears were very well founded indeed because it has since emerged that the team partially responsible for Aliens: Colonial Marines has filed for bankruptcy protection.

According to court documents uncovered by Polygon, the Texan business owes between US $10m and $50m to its creditors, including the princely sum of $34.80 to a pizza restaurant.

The studio’s former publisher SouthPeak Interactive is also listed as a creditor. In light of recent events, this isn’t a terribly surprising revelation. In April, it emerged that a US court had ordered TimeGate to pay SouthPeak $7.3m after finding the former to be in breach of its contractual obligations.

The prospects for TimeGate’s recently announced Minimum project seem to be growing dimmer by the hour.

Serial killer chic?

How much weight should we assign to an apology? Apparently none if it comes from Deep Silver, the publisher of Dead Island: Riptide. Earlier this year Deep Silver was forced to apologise after a backlash against the headless female torso statue it intended to release in conjunction with the sequel to 2011′s Dead Island.

Numerous members of the press and gaming community considered the busty and bloodied statue offensive. This was news to Deep Silver which immediately issued an apology stating they it was “deeply sorry” and “committed to making sure this will never happen again”. One might assume that it then threw out the unsavoury collectables. That assumption would be incorrect.

As reported by CNET, the publisher has charged ahead with an “extremely limited quantity” for “customers who wish to purchase it”. What a relief – they’re not forcing us to buy it.

“Can we put our arms down now, or…?”

THQ has sold off a veritable laundry list of game properties to Gearbox Software, Nordic Games and 505 Games as part of its bankruptcy proceedings.

The soon to be defunct publisher is set to receive a combined amount of US $6.55m from the sale of its remaining titles, which include well known names such as Darksiders (which went to Nordic), Homeworld (Gearbox) and Drawn to Life (505).

The new owners of the various titles have already hinted at some of their plans for their acquired IP on their respective websites. Gearbox has communicated its intention to make the Homeworld series available on digital platforms with some input from their forum community, while Nordic has put it to its fans to provide some ideas for the direction of the Darksiders games.

Among other more obscure items picked up in the sale were All Star Cheer Squad (what were they thinking?), Summoner (a decade old hack and slash series) and military sim Full Spectrum Warrior.

It is always sad to see prolific games producers fall apart, but we can take comfort that some of THQ’s better loved creations will most likely survive, in one form or another, in the hands of their respective new owners. As for the other titles… Sadistic Santa lives in hope.