When was thq founded

Even the most financially secure businesses suffered a blow. The economy ebbs and flows, and many THQ employees thought their stock would eventually recover. This was THQ, after all, one of the biggest video game publishers in the world. Everything would be OK. In the following years when competitors slowly regained their numbers, THQ's value kept dropping. First it lost a few cents per share each month.

This wasn't so alarming at the time because everyone was losing cents here and there. Then it lost entire dollars. The Agoura Hills, California-based video game publisher built a business on licensed kids games — and it was the biggest player in the category.

At its peak in , the company owned more than 15 game studios, most of which were part of the well-oiled licensed games machine. It was printing cash. Many blame the company's fall on the licensed games well drying up.

Others point to poor management and too many risky bets. We were a billion dollar company. It was complicated. By law, publicly-traded companies have to disclose to investors the potential financial risks they face. Knowing its own heavy reliance on the licensed kids games market, THQ detailed in its annual reports year after year that the company could face trouble if it bet on the wrong licensed kids games; worse if it failed to secure popular IP.

It wasn't until much later — in the company's final years — that the reports reflected the real risks facing the company: that the licensed kids games market could go away, and then that it was going away entirely. In the late s and early s, it made both toys and video games. A "nice guy," "super friendly," "soft-spoken" and down-to-earth, "like someone's granddad. Investing heavily in the licensed games business was a fool-proof strategy for the company in the s and early s.

While other game publishers took on licensed projects here and there, THQ made them its speciality. The company signed licensing deal after licensing deal, knowing any game it made would sell because kids who loved those licenses would buy the games attached to them.

There would never be a shortage of content for games because there were always new television shows and movies that would need video game tie-ins. The publisher had long-term licensing deals with Disney, Pixar and Nickelodeon, and also worked with Mattel on Barbie and Hot Wheels titles.

Former THQ employees speaking to Polygon say Farrell and his sales team knew the licensed kids market better than anyone else. Farrell built THQ from a relatively unknown toy and game publisher to a billion dollar company off the success of licensed products. He'd found a business model that worked. First, its audience had to own the consoles that played them — the boxes that cost hundreds of dollars that had to be plugged into the television.

Second, its audience had to want to buy and play licensed games on those consoles. And third, THQ had to sell enough copies to make up for the costs of the licenses. One of the mistakes former employees believe Farrell made was assuming conditions would always remain favorable to THQ's business model.

After all, in — the year the company reported a billion dollars in revenue — millions of people owned a PlayStation 2 or Xbox. Parents were buying licensed games for their children. And games like Pixar's Cars were among the industry's best-sellers that year.

By the end of , THQ faced a problem it hadn't successfully planned for. When the Xbox and PlayStation 3 launched in and respectively, not every PS2 and Xbox owner made the upgrade. It had dozens of licensed games in development for the new consoles. The company was banking on this strategy. Then its audience went somewhere THQ hadn't planned: mobile.

Developing for smartphones was cheap. Distribution was even cheaper. While the market was moving to mobile, THQ was stuck in multi-year deals that meant it had to continue making licensed games for a shrinking console audience.

White says THQ had entered into so many long-term deals with companies like Pixar and Nickelodeon that even when THQ was losing money on those titles, it still had to pay licensing fees.

Many of the deals also came with contractual obligations to produce a set number of games a year, which meant THQ was stuck developing games its executives knew would not sell. This was always a risk in the licensed games business. In an attempt to recoup the licensing costs, the publisher manufactured millions of game cartridges, hoping they would all sell. Only one million sold. Atari couldn't even sell the game at a discount, because the amount it would have had to pay in royalties meant it would have lost even more money.

Some of the unsold Atari games ended up in a landfill in a New Mexico desert. Many of THQ's games sat untouched on store shelves. We still owed a ton of money. White believes THQ stayed in the licensed kids market for three production cycles too long, with each production cycle for a licensed game ranging from months, give or take.

He describes the company like being on monkey bars, knowing where it had to swing next, but being too scared to let go of the bar it was hanging to. There was a divide within the company, where some people felt it had to pivot, while others continued to sign deals with Mattel and DreamWorks.

Looking at the market, former executives Polygon spoke to say two main paths emerged: embrace mobile, or shift its focus to AAA "core" games, bigger console and PC titles often based on original IP. THQ had no experience working with mobile games. Even if it did make that pivot, it could not support the thousands of people it had employed in its many studios. Many mobile games at the time were developed by teams of two or three people.

The entire company would have to restructure to go after the already-fickle mobile market. Core games seemed like the answer to many, but former employees say Farrell and the executives around him weren't ready to let go of licensed kids games. They believed there was still money to be made, and they hoped the market would rebound. In , Farrell decided to direct the company toward AAA games through the creation of a core games division, while keeping a firm grip of the licensed market through its kids and family division.

THQ's shift to core games attracted developers and executives who previously had never shown interest in the company. Bilson joined the company as an executive vice president to help it grow its core games division, but early on he also had a say in non-core game projects. He was a polarising figure within the company. Others who Polygon spoke to say he tried to have a say in too many projects, and stepped on some toes in the process. There was a divide within the company between those who held onto THQ's old business model, hoping for a revival of the licensed games market, and those who saw that it was gone for good.

One former employee says Bilson was the kind of exec who would come into work the day after the launch of a game like BioShock or Call of Duty and want to discuss it with staff. What did you think of it? Those who worked with him describe him as an exec who made decisions not based on spreadsheets but on what he believed gamers wanted. He plays because he's passionate.

The core games team had faith in Bilson, but many employees within the division believe THQ hamstrung itself by never completely letting go of its licensed games legacy. Bilson tells Polygon that when he joined THQ in , the company had more than 15 studios. Within six weeks of his joining, those above him closed five studios and cut the overall production budget by percent.

As the year ended THQ had its best Christmas sales season ever. The company had also moved to a new, larger headquarters site during the year. The game could be played on-line in real time against another player anywhere in the world. Other features included chat capabilities and a world ranking system. The volatile nature of the gaming marketplace was affecting THQ again, however, and the company announced in May that it would lose significantly more money than it had expected during the year.

A transition in game console technology was pegged as the cause. It still had new ventures in the works, including an investment in Japanese game developer Yuke's Co. The company also completed its largest acquisition to date, purchasing Volition, Inc. Volition was an established designer of original game concepts such as Descent and Freespace, and THQ had earlier teamed with the company to create Summoner and Red Faction.

In September, THQ announced it would begin developing games for the newly announced Microsoft Xbox game system, due out in the fall of In only ten years, THQ had grown to become one of the top three independent video game makers in the United States. It offered what proved a winning mix of sports- and entertainment-based titles along with select original concepts. The company was now reaping the benefits of the hard lessons learned during its formative years.

As the industry moved toward development of on-line gaming products, THQ appeared likely to remain a leader in its field. James Press, As consumers, we often take for granted all the hard work that goes into building a great company. We see them around but we don't know what goes on behind the scenes. Finally, we can read about how these great companies came about with Company Histories.

Copyright c Company-Histories. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy. Quick search. As of today, that's all over. But it doesn't mean that the games in development at THQ are going to disappear. Here's where they're going, assuming everything goes to plan:.

Showing that it is possessed of a keen sense of irony, it will also acquire the Montreal development studio headed by Desilets. Auction and bankruptcy documents have revealed the names of two games under development at the studio : Underdog and Sega will acquire Relic , the developer of the Warhammer 40, strategy games.