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Warhammer 40,000 series. WWE series. THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initially working in the toy business, it expanded into the video game ...
THQ was founded by Jack Friedman, a toy industry veteran. Friedman had entered the business with LJN Toys in the mid-1960s and had risen to the position of company president 20 years later. After LJN was purchased by entertainment conglomerate MCA, Inc., Friedman grew disenchanted with working for a giant corporation and left to start his own company.
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THQ Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher. Founded in 1989, the company developed products for home video game consoles and handhelds, personal computers and mobile devices. Its name derived from "Toy Headquarters" during its time as a toy manufacturer in the early 1990s. THQ had offices in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
The company published both internally created and externally licensed content in its product portfolio. THQ's internally created games included Darksiders, De Blob, Destroy All Humans!, MX vs. ATV, Red Faction and Saints Row series among others. The company also held exclusive, long-term licensing agreements with leading sports and entertainment content creators such as Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon, Pixar and WWE.
After years of financial struggles, stock value drop, and debt, THQ declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2012 and began liquidation of its assets the following month, with several properties either being acquired or auctioned to other developers. In addition, most of the remaining staff were laid off.
In 2014, the THQ trademark was acquired by Nordic Games, which had acquired some of THQ's properties in the auction. The company renamed itself THQ Nordic in August 2016.
Trinity Acquisition Corporation and founding (1989–1999)
In 1989, Trinity Acquisition Corporation was founded in New York as a shell corporation to raise money for a future venture in an unspecified field of activity. One year later in April 1990, former LJN co-founder Jack Friedman established the toy company, THQ, Inc., in Calabasas, California with a personal investment of $1 million. "THQ" was an abbreviation for Toy Headquarters. THQ acquired Brøderbund's video game division in September 1990 and released its first video game, Peter Pan and the Pirates, in January 1991. Though always formally called THQ, the company typically traded as T•HQ in video games' box arts and instruction manuals. In 1991, THQ agreed to be acquired by Trinity Acquisition Corp. in a stock swap valued at about $33 million with THQ's shareholders owning 51.7% of the new entity. THQ's name was retained for the new company and Friedman was named as its president. THQ then acquired video game developer Black Pearl Software of Chicago in 1993. THQ withdrew completely from the toy business in 1994 to focus solely on video game production. In addition, the company dropped the • from its label. Jack Friedman then left the company in 1995 to co-found the toy manufacturer Jakks Pacific. Brian Farrell became CEO of THQ in 1995. In 1997, THQ was reincorporated as a Delaware Corporation, and acquired San Diego video game developer Pacific Coast Power & Light.
Company growth and acquisitions (2000–2009)
In February 2000, THQ faced a class action lawsuit over federal securities laws violation due to nondisclosure of material information. In September of the same year, the company expanded its internal product development capabilities with the acquisition of Volition located in Champaign, Illinois. Since then, THQ's internal studio system grew to eleven studios across the globe with distinct capabilities across all viable gaming platforms. Some of these studios, such as Relic Entertainment, Vigil Games, Blue Tongue Entertainment, Juice Games, Kaos Studios and Volition, worked on games for next generation consoles as well as PCs. THQ went on to acquire Vigil Games in 2006. On May 10, 2007, THQ reported its highest annual sales figures and net profits ever for the fiscal year which ended on March 31. THQ's revenues reached over $1 billion. In March 2008, THQ announced the development of the world's first ever cheerleading game using the Wii Balance Board. Not long after, on November 3, 2008, the company closed five of its internal studios: Paradigm Entertainment, Mass Media Inc., Helixe, Locomotive Games, and Sandblast Games. In 2009, huge declines in sales prompted THQ to form a strategic plan to cut $220 million in annual costs by 2010 and invest in "fewer, better bets." Previously in 2007, THQ had a $68-million profit and $1 billion in revenue, which put it within range of their rival Activision. Many of its big-budget games sold poorly, despite having favorable reviews, as the recession hit. Its hold on kids' games based on Nickelodeon TV shows and Pixar movies slipped as kids turned to free online games playable on the Internet. With shares down 86% from the previous year and a market value of only $173 million, THQ had the possibility of being acquired by other companies. In March 2009, THQ spun off Heavy Iron Studios and Incinerator Studios as independent companies, and announced it was looking to sell Big Huge Games. Two months later in May 2009, THQ agreed to sell Big Huge Games to 38 Studios. In August 2009, THQ acquired Midway Studios San Diego for $200,000. The sale of the studio included all assets, except for the TNA Impact! video game.
Reorganization, financial struggles (2010–2012)
In February 2010, THQ announced that Juice Games and Rainbow Studios would be part of a reshuffle, and would now bear the title THQ Digital Warrington and THQ Digital Phoenix, respectively. It is said that 60 members of staff face redundancies between THQ's US Rainbow studio and the UK Juice Game's studio. In August 2010, THQ unveiled the uDraw GameTablet, a $70 accessory for Nintendo's Wii console that lets gamers draw and play on their television screens. The white, 9-by-7-inch peripheral houses a Wii Remote on the left, with a doodle pad and tethered stylus on the right. THQ said more software for the uDraw would launch every couple of months. In January 2011, THQ sold off its Wireless division to a Swedish mobile company called 24MAS. On January 12, 2011, THQ unveiled its new logo. In March 2011, THQ, after its game Homefront was released, suffered a 26% stock drop. The large drop was speculated to be a result of Homefront's poor reception. On June 13, 2011, THQ announced the closure of Kaos Studios (the developer of Homefront) and THQ Digital Warrington (formerly Juice Games). On July 27, 2011, THQ announced it was dropping the long running Red Faction franchise. This was believed to be due to the poor reception over the latest game in the franchise, Red Faction: Armageddon. In the same year on August 9, 2011, THQ announced it would shift its development focus away from licensed kids and movie-based titles by closing down THQ Studio Australia and Blue Tongue in order to focus on "high-quality owned IP." The company also closed down THQ Digital Phoenix (formerly Rainbow Studios), thus dropping the MX vs. ATV franchise. In November 2011, a uDraw for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 was released. However, it was a commercial failure, and is considered one of the main causes of the financial woes that broke up the company. In January 2012, THQ announced that it was exiting the licensed kids game business to focus on adult core gaming, but would continue to sell previously released titles. In February 2012, THQ also discontinued the uDraw GameTablet for the same reason. In May 2012, THQ reported a net loss of $239.9 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. The loss was $100 million more than the previous fiscal year's loss of $136.1 million. THQ filed a notice with the SEC on May 25 for a June 29 stockholder's meeting, where THQ asked stockholders to approve a reverse split of the company's common stock. On June 4, 2012, THQ announced a deal to turn over their license for UFC games to Electronic Arts. In July 2012, THQ reported that its stockholders had approved the 1-for-10 reverse share split of its common stock to avert a delisting from the NASDAQ.
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•The THQ company mainly works for sony entertainment and has a licensing deal with companies such as Nickelodeon.
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•THQ profile on MobyGames
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•THQ on Wikipedia
Franchises
Feb 6, 2013 · The beginnings of THQ technically trace back to early 1990, when Jack Friedman founded the company known as Toy Head-Quarters, or T*HQ. Friedman was experienced in gaming at the time, having co ...
Aug 9, 2024 · THQ (" T oy H ead- Q uarters") was an American developer and publisher founded in 1989 by LJN co-founder Jack Friedman. In 1990, THQ acquired the video game division of Brøderbund Software and released its first game Peter Pan and the Pirates (based on the Fox Kids TV series of the same name) in 1991. That same year, THQ was acquired by ...
Trinity Acquisition Corporation, founded in 1989, merged with Toy Headquarters in 1991 to form T.HQ. T.HQ, more commonly referred to without the punctuation, was added to the NASDAQ National Market in 1994. Toy Headquarters was founded in 1990 by Jack Friedman with his own money. THQ boasted two early successes in video games, Where’s Waldo ...
Feb 7, 2023 · THQ. THQ — an initialism for the company's full name Toy Headquarters — was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, a veteran of the toys industry and an entrepreneur in his own right. Friedman had just come from LJN, another game and toy publisher he founded that was then sold to Acclaim Entertainment, and was looking to establish a game ...
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