THQ discloses Relic purchase price

In documents filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, THQ noted the price paid to acquire Vancouver-based Relic Entertainment. The publisher says it tendered a cash payment of $6 million to Relic's owners during the most recent April-June quarter, with another $4 million and change to follow over the next two years.

THQ, which announced the purchase in April, broke down the price as follows: $547,000 in tangible assets, $1.3 million in intangible assets, and $8.85 million in goodwill. THQ also assumed $517,000 in debt that Relic carried.

Relic founder Alex Garden revealed to GameSpot in an earlier interview that total costs to start up the company were $5,000. Garden started the company in a cramped space above a Vancouver bar. Its first title, Homeworld, released in 1999, made a splash with critics. Discounting the Relic debt THQ assumed when it picked up the developer, the math says Garden made himself a tidy 100,000 percent profit on that first investment.