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

Nick Eastridge created THQ's SNES sound driver. Later it was updated to use the SLICK/Audio driver from Bitmasters.

GEN

THQ used GEMS.

GB

Nick Eastridge also created THQ's Game Boy sound driver.

Audio Personnel

(Note: Since THQ is not a game developer and outsourced games, the composers will be listed with their companies listed.)

Eastridge Technology/Development composers/Solid Software

• Nick Eastridge - Primary composer/SNES sound driver creator.
• Peter Stone
• Byte Size Sound
  • Mike Cihak
  • Matt Scott
• Phil Crescenzo
• Chip Level Designs
• Manfred Linzner - Game Boy Color/Game Boy Advance composer

Natsume

• Kinuyo Yamashita
• Iku Mizutani
• Hiroyuki Iwatsuki

Rare

• David Wise
• Eveline Novakovic
• Robin Beanland

Radiance Software

• Doug Brandon - Composer
• Mike Riedel - NES sound driver

Sculptured Software

• Paul Webb
• Kingsley Thurber
• Mark Ganus
• Steve Aguirre

Imagineering

• Mark Van Hecke - Composer
• Stuart Ross - Sound driver provider.
• Jim Wallace

Bethesda Softworks

• Julian Lefay
• George Sanger
• Randy Linden

Software Creations

• Tim Follin
• Geoff Follin
• Mike Webb
• Paul Tonge

Radical Entertainment

• Paul Wilkinson

Equilibrium/Halestorm

• Ed Bogas
• Gary Clayton
• Jeff Lefferts
• Christian Dana Perry
• Steve Kirk

Tiertex

• Mark Ortiz
• John Prince
• Donald Campbell
• Jason Anderson
• John Schappert

Malibu Interactive

• Audio Cyber Factory
• Richard Joseph

Unexpected Development

• John Loose

Darkblack

• Tommy Tallarico

Probe Software/Crawfish Interactive

• Steve Rockett - Main composer
• Andy Brock

Picture Gallery

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  THQ's earliest known logo from the 1990s

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  THQ logo from 1994 to 1997

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  THQ logo from 1997 to 2000

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  THQ's main logo from 2000 to 2011

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  Alternate THQ logo from 2000 to 2011

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  Alternate THQ logo from 2000 to 2011, stylised in 3D

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  THQ's alternate logo used for Darksiders II from 2012