THQ

THQ

Founded	1990-04-??
Closed	2013-01-23
Headquarters	Agoura Hills, California, US
Other Names	*T•HQ, Inc. T•HQ Software Malibu Games Black Pearl Software Kokopeli Digital Studios THQ, Inc.

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 business through several acquisitions before shifting its focus away from toys entirely. THQ continued its trend of acquiring companies through the 2000s.

The company published both internally created and externally licensed content in its product portfolio. THQ's internally created game series included Darksiders, De Blob, Destroy All Humans!, MX vs. ATV, Red Faction, and Saints Row, among others. The company also held exclusive, long-term licensing agreements with sports and entertainment content creators, such as Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon, Pixar, and WWE.

The company is mainly known for publishing NES, SNES and Game Boy games in its earlier years.

Music Development

SNES

At Black Pearl Software, a division of THQ, composers uses Bitmasters's SLICK/Audio sound driver by David O'Riva.

Port of Total Carnage uses early version of Sculptured Software's Berlioz sound driver by Bill Williams and David Ross.

Genesis

At Black Pearl Software, a division of THQ, Phil Crescenzo composed music using GEMS.

On Time Killers, David Thiel and Kyle Johnson used non-working custom sound driver.

Game Boy

Stephen Curtis used Sculptured Software's sound driver by Ken Moore.

On Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf, audio was outsourced to Ocean Software. Jonathan Dunn wrote music using assembly and then converted to his own sound driver.