129-616: 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 throughout
258-593: A Delaware Corporation , and in 1999 acquired San Jose video game developer Pacific Coast Power & Light . In June 1998, the company entered into a ten-year 50/50 joint venture with Jakks Pacific (entitled THQ/Jakks Pacific LLC) to acquire the WWF (later WWE) video game license, previously held by Acclaim Entertainment . The deal, which would begin in October 1999, would correspond with two titles per year that THQ would handle product development and sales for. In 1999, it signed
387-487: 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
516-435: 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
645-597: A cave system inside Mars. A third game in the Saints Row franchise, Saints Row 3 , was announced in February 2009. The game stripped away many features included in its predecessor to make for a more focused but overall still "over-the-top" experience. Under the name Saints Row: The Third , the game was released in November 2011. In December 2010, at that year's Spike Video Game Awards , film director Guillermo del Toro took
774-430: A deal to publish Power Rangers video games. Also that year, it signed a licensing agreement with British game developer Codemasters to bring their titles to their handheld market. In February 2000, THQ faced a class action lawsuit over a violation of federal security laws due to nondisclosure of material information. In September of the same year, the company expanded its internal product development capabilities with
903-648: A deal with Fox Interactive to bring five of the titles to the Game Boy Color market, such as the Croc franchise. In 2001, THQ obtained an extended agreement with Nickelodeon to produce video games based on their franchises, as well as computer game rights to Rugrats , SpongeBob SquarePants and Rocket Power and console and computer rights to other Nickelodeon shows like Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and The Wild Thornberrys . The agreement also covered games based on original intellectual properties, such as Tak and
1032-402: A five-day global record for a movie, book or video game. The game's income was more than the opening weekend of Spider-Man 3 and the previous title holder for a video game Halo 3 . Many individuals have also benefited from the economic success of video games including the former chairman of Nintendo and Japan's third richest man: Hiroshi Yamauchi . By 2014, the global video game market
1161-401: A graphics design package from a different firm, the total number of employees involved in the video game industry rises above 220,000. Traditionally, the video game industry has had six connected layers in its value chain based on the retail distribution of games: As games have transitioned from the retail to more digital market, parts of this value chain have become redundant. For example,
1290-428: A licensed game. The publisher suggested that they would create a game around Marvel Comics character Punisher , who had a movie coming up, which the studio agreed to. The development team had excursed to Marvel's film studios and were on set, talking to stage designers and witnessing some of the scenes being shot. Meanwhile, in 2003, as the studio grew to 30–40 employees, Kulas hired Dan Cermak as vice-president for
1419-457: A new studio, Revival Productions, in 2014. The new company went to develop a spiritual successor to Descent named Overload , which was funded through a crowdfunding campaign held on Kickstarter and released in May 2018. In December 2012, THQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy . As the publisher's assets were to be sold off, Koch Media offered a $ 22.3 million bid for Volition. While
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#17328528057671548-489: A posting on Twitter on January 23, PlatinumGames ' producer Atsushi Inaba expressed interest in acquiring the Darksiders franchise from THQ. On February 26, THQ announced that it would sell off its remaining properties – the Darksiders , Homeworld , Red Faction , and Destroy All Humans! franchises, as well as its licensed and original properties – in a court-approved auction which would be held from April 1 to 15, with
1677-660: A professional European video game industry also began taking shape with companies such as Ocean Software and Gremlin Interactive . In 1987, Nintendo lost a legal challenge against Blockbuster Entertainment , which continued game rentals in the same way as movies. In 1989, the Game Boy handheld system was launched. Video games transitioned from having been showcased at general trade shows like Consumer Electronics Show , to dedicated shows like Nintendo Space World and Electronic Entertainment Expo . Game related technology advances of
1806-464: A purchase, spending $ 11,050 on the bundle. On December 19, 2012, just days after the Humble THQ bundle ended, THQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the intention of selling THQ and all of its assets to Clearlake Capital with Centerview Partners handling the sale. Skip Paul, a former colleague of Jason Rubin, helped orchestrate the proposed stalking horse bid from Clearlake Capital Group. However,
1935-411: A result Volition could not publish Descent 4 with a different publisher. Instead, they reused much of the code and tools they had created for the game and used it to create Red Faction . Summoner , unlike other games by Parallax and Volition, was developed as a role-playing video game , a genre the development team had no experience with. The team were later provided with a development kit for
2064-417: A result, Volition's operations were transitioned into a new legal entity, named Deep Silver Volition, LLC. In April 2014, DS Volition sought "incentives" from Champaign to remodel. If it met the city's goals, it could have received up to $ 200,000. Several IPs owned by THQ, including Volition's Summoner and Red Faction , were acquired by Nordic Games (later known as THQ Nordic) for $ 4.9 million in
2193-499: A revenue of $ 2 billion (equivalent to $ 6.31 billion in 2023) in quarters . Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS (later known as Atari 2600), becoming the first " killer app " and quadrupling the console's sales. The success of the Atari 2600 in turn revived the home video game market during the second generation of consoles, until the video game crash of 1983 . By
2322-465: 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. On November 13, 2012, THQ reported that they could not repay a $ 50 million loan from Wells Fargo , and were on
2451-719: A second auction held in April. With the purchase of Koch Media by THQ Nordic (now Embracer Group) in February 2018, Volition and their IPs were reunited under one company; responsibility for the Red Faction franchise would be moved directly into Deep Silver in May 2020. A fourth Saints Row game, Saints Row IV , was released in August 2013. In September 2014, creative director Steve Jaros left Volition to join Valve . An expansion to Saints Row IV , titled Saints Row: Gat out of Hell and developed in partnership with High Voltage Software ,
2580-478: A third of the global video game market, the Entertainment Software Association estimated that there were over 2,300 development companies and over 525 publishing companies, including in hardware and software manufacturing, service providers, and distributors. These companies in total have nearly 66,000 direct employees. When including indirect employment, such as a developer using the services of
2709-462: A total of six groups— Warner Bros. , Electronic Arts , Take-Two Interactive , Ubisoft , Koch Media, and an unnamed group from Chicago—were interested in purchasing the studio, the only other bid submitted was Ubisoft's for $ 5.4 million . As the sale closed, Volition and the Saints Row IP were sold to Koch Media for a total of $ 22,312,925 , and became part of its Deep Silver division. As
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#17328528057672838-473: A traditional publishers, and some of these grew substantially. Spurred by some initial events in the late 2000s, eSports centered around professional players in organized competitions and leagues for prize money, grew greatly over this decade, drawing hundreds of millions of viewers and reaching nearly $ 500 million in revenue by 2016 and expected to break $ 1 billion by 2019. The next generations of Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 were planned for 2020, but
2967-402: A troubled development cycle, Summoner eventually hit the intended release date in October 2000, but shipped in a flawed state that resulted from the technical discrepancies between personal computers and PlayStation 2, between which the studio had to port the game. After Volition had started to develop Red Faction out of what had been Descent 4 , many people on the team felt like the game
3096-613: A year, collected more than $ 1 billion in quarters; in total, Pac-Man is estimated to have grossed over 10 billion quarters ($ 2.5 billion) during the 20th century. In the early 1980s, 8-bit home computing and home-made games boomed. This was especially in Europe (with the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 ) and in Asia (with the NEC PC-88 and MSX ). Video game journalism arose at that time, which
3225-564: Is an initialism for "Toy Headquarters". THQ acquired New Ventures, a division of Broderbund , in September 1990. In 1991, Trinity Acquisition Corp agreed to acquire and merge with THQ in a reverse merger takeover . The deal was 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. Following
3354-431: Is easier to create a startup, resulting in many successful companies. The console industry is more closed, and a game developer must have up to three licenses from the console manufacturer : In addition, the developer must usually buy development systems from the console manufacturer in order to even develop a game for consideration, as well as obtain concept approval for the game from the console manufacturer. Therefore,
3483-453: Is the "original" independent developer Activision , founded by former Atari developers. Activision grew to become the world's second largest game publisher. In the meantime, many of the original developers left to work on other projects. For example, founder Alan Miller left Activision to start another video game development company, Accolade (now Atari née Infogrames ). Activision was popular among developers for giving them credit in
3612-542: 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
3741-639: The TNA Impact! video game. In December 2009, following many lawsuits between the three companies, THQ signed a standalone eight-year deal with the WWE , replacing the THQ/Jakks Pacific joint-venture deal. 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. The merger reportedly led to 60 job losses between THQ's US Rainbow studio and
3870-520: The 2021–2022 cryptocurrency crash , computer parts such as GPUs have become more affordable as of August 2022. Early development costs were minimal, and video games could be quite profitable. Games developed by a single programmer, or by a small team of programmers and artists, could sell hundreds of thousands of copies each. Many of these games only took a few months to create, so developers could release multiple games per year. Thus, publishers could often be generous with benefits, such as royalties on
3999-637: The PlayStation 2 , and were tasked with making Summoner a launch title for the console. Meanwhile, the four-game deal with Interplay was winding down, and Volition required a new publisher for Summoner . On August 31, 2000, they were acquired by THQ , who also overtook the game's publishing duties. In exchange for the ownership of Volition, Volition received one million shares of THQ's common stock and THQ assumed about $ 500,000 in net liabilities for Volition's operations. THQ also acquired Outrage in April 2002, though closed that studio by 2004. Following
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4128-464: The Saints Row intellectual property (IP) were sold to Koch Media (now Plaion) and became part of the company's Deep Silver label. Meanwhile, Nordic Games acquired other THQ assets, including Summoner and Red Faction . Volition reconnected with these IPs when Koch Media was acquired by Nordic Games' parent company (later known as Embracer Group ) in February 2018. The studio developed two less successful games with 2017's Agents of Mayhem and
4257-400: The modding communities. Prior to the 1970s, there was no significant commercial aspect of the video game industry, but many advances in computing would set the stage for the birth of the industry. Many early publicly available interactive computer-based game machines used or other mechanisms to mimic a display; while technically not "video games", they had elements of interactivity between
4386-412: The music recording industry ), but the video game industry in particular has been accused of treating its development talent poorly. This promotes independent development, as developers leave to form new companies and projects. In some notable cases, these new companies grow large and impersonal, having adopted the business practices of their forebears, and ultimately perpetuate the cycle. However, unlike
4515-555: The 1950s and 1960s, with mainframe computers becoming available to campus colleges, students and others started to develop games that could be played at terminals that accessed the mainframe. One of the first known examples is Spacewar! , developed by Harvard and MIT employees Martin Graetz, Steve Russell , and Wayne Wiitanen. The introduction of easy-to-program languages like BASIC for mainframes allowed for more simplistic games to be developed. The arcade video game industry grew out of
4644-402: The 1951 Festival of Britain . The development of cathode-ray tube , the core technology inside televisions, created several of the first true video games. In 1947, Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann filed a patent for a "cathode ray tube amusement device". Their game, which uses a cathode-ray tube hooked to an oscilloscope display, challenges players to fire a gun at target. Between
4773-402: The 1990s include these: Aside from technology, in the early part of the decade, licensed games became more popular, as did video game sequels. The arcades experienced a renaissance in the early 1990s following the release of Street Fighter II (1991), which led to a number of other popular fighting games such as Fatal Fury (1991) and Mortal Kombat (1992). The arcade resurgence
4902-687: 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 , and WWE . After years of financial struggles, stock value drop, and debt , THQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2012 and commenced liquidation of its assets
5031-470: The 2022 Saints Row reboot . The studio was transferred from Deep Silver to Gearbox Entertainment in November 2022, and later, on August 31, 2023, as part of a larger restructuring within the Embracer Group, Volition was shut down, with Volition's intellectual property moved to Plaion . Parallax Software was founded on June 14, 1993, by Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog. The company was incorporated under
5160-563: The Australian retailer Game would purchase twice the games per year as non-trade-in customers. The sale of pre-owned games kept retailers in business, and composed about a third of Game's revenue. Retailers also saved on the UK's value-added tax, which only taxed the retailer's profit on pre-owned games, rather than the full sale on regular games. The former trade-in retail executives behind the trade-in price comparison site Trade In Detectives estimated that
5289-451: The ESRB with a "Mature" rating. At one point, Volition held a design exercise, inviting staff members to submit ideas for a new game. One such idea was a hybrid between a first-person shooter and a "gang simulator", a genre unexplored by most games at the time. A trailer was put together by taking snippets from various movies and games, underlaid with the song " Fuck tha Police ", and after it
THQ - Misplaced Pages Continue
5418-540: The Power of Juju , with the potential that THQ would release a game first, followed by an animated cartoon on Nickelodeon. In 2004, THQ signed an agreement with MGA Entertainment to publish video games based on the Bratz fashion doll line. 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
5547-736: The THQ trademark , allowing the studio to publish games under the THQ name. In August 2016, the company was renamed THQ Nordic in an effort to better associate itself with the historic brand. Video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary and quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the development , marketing , distribution , monetization , and consumer feedback of video games . The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niche to mainstream. As of July 2018 , video games generated US$ 134.9 billion annually in global sales. In
5676-498: The UK Juice Game's studio. In August 2010, THQ unveiled the uDraw GameTablet , a $ 70 accessory for Nintendo's Wii console that let 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 THQ Wireless division to
5805-517: The US, the industry earned about $ 9.5 billion in 2007, $ 11.7 billion in 2008, and US$ 25.1 billion in 2010, according to the ESA annual report. Research from Ampere Analysis indicated three points: the sector has consistently grown since at least 2015 and expanded 26% from 2019 to 2021 , to a record $ 191 billion ; the global games and services market is forecast to shrink 1.2% annually to $ 188 billion in 2022;
5934-504: The United Kingdom's trade-in industry was about a third of the size of its new games business. They figured that sites such as eBay , which convert used games into cash, compose about a quarter of the UK's trade-in market, but do not keep the credit within the industry. While consumers might appear to receive better offers on these sites, they also take about 15 percent of the selling price in fees. Alternatively, some retailers will match
6063-612: The United States alone, in 1994, arcades generated $ 7 billion in quarters while home console game sales generated $ 6 billion Combined, this was nearly two and a half times the $ 5 billion revenue generated by movies in the United States at the time. In 2000s, the video game industry was in heavy development; profit still drove technological advancement used by other industry sectors. Technologies such as Smartphones , virtual reality , and augmented reality were major drivers for game hardware and gameplay development. Though maturing,
6192-528: 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. In 2000, it signed
6321-593: The acquisition, THQ would use the Black Pearl Software name for their Sega games, while the Malibu Games name would be used for the Nintendo games. THQ withdrew completely from the toy business in 1994 to focus solely on video game production. Around the same time, the company entered into a deal with Electronic Arts to license five titles for various consoles. Jack Friedman then left the company in 1995 to co-found
6450-417: The arcade video game industry was generating an annual North American revenue of $ 5 billion (equivalent to $ 16.8 billion in 2023). In 1982, the arcade video game industry reached its peak, generating $ 8 billion in quarters, surpassing the annual gross revenue of both pop music ($ 4 billion) and Hollywood films ($ 3 billion) combined. This was also nearly twice as much as the $ 3.8 billion generated by
6579-510: The bid was ultimately denied by Judge Mary F. Walrath and creditors instead approved an individual auction of THQ's properties, which went ahead on January 22, 2013, one day prior to closure. At the auction, the Homefront franchise was acquired by Crytek (and was later acquired by Koch Media ), Relic Entertainment and the video game rights to the Warhammer 40,000 series were sold to Sega , and
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#17328528057676708-405: The business; consequently, should any business matter come up, his portion of the programming work stood still. FreeSpace was the last Volition game Kulas would significantly do programming work on. Following the release of FreeSpace , Volition began work on four projects— FreeSpace 2 , Descent 4 , Tube Racer and Summoner . The first, FreeSpace 2 , was developed within a year. When
6837-636: The company as Parallax Software in June 1993, developing Descent and Descent II . By the time the sequel was completed, Toschlog had relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan , with some employees to operate a satellite studio for Parallax. Kulas and Toschlog decided to split up the company, with Toschlog establishing Outrage Entertainment and Kulas staying with Parallax, which was renamed Volition in November 1996. With publisher Interplay Entertainment , Volition created Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War and its sequel, FreeSpace 2 . The two companies parted ways during
6966-421: The company's official plan of liquidation. The liquidation of THQ also affected other studios; British developer Blitz Games Studios shut down in September 2013, citing financial difficulties. The company's CEO Philip Oliver said that the demise of THQ, who was a major client for the studio, was one of the major contributing factors to the closure. On June 12, 2014, Nordic Games announced that it had acquired
7095-534: The company, so they instead opted to split the company in half, a move they were able to pursue due to Descent 's success. Thus, half of Parallax' employees followed Toschlog to Michigan, where Toschlog formed Outrage Entertainment , while Kulas stayed with the main Parallax office in Champaign. As Kulas' company was to receive a new name, he asked the remaining team for ideas. When he found that he liked none of
7224-527: The company, who then implemented a new company structure to replace its previous flat hierarchy . As the game neared completion, it was submitted to the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which, as the game re-enacted the Punisher's violent interrogation methods, deemed the game to be more of a torture simulator than a game. Some elements were adjusted so that the game could pass
7353-616: The console market surpassed arcade video games for the first time around 1997-1998. Arcade systems such as the Sega Model 3 remained more technologically advanced than home systems in the late 1990s, but the gap between arcade and home systems began narrowing in the late 1990s. The video game industry generated worldwide sales of $ 19.8 billion in 1993 (equivalent to $ 41.8 billion in 2023), $ 20.8 billion in 1994 (equivalent to $ 42.8 billion in 2023), and an estimated $ 30 billion in 1998 (equivalent to $ 56.1 billion in 2023). In
7482-583: The continued development. Funds provided by Apogee, Interplay and the two founders totaled to about US$ 450,000 . Inferno , now titled Descent , was released in March 1995 to widespread attention. By the time Parallax began development on another Descent game, the team had grown to about 14 people. Interplay wished for the studio to develop a " CD -enhanced" version of the game, which would include high-resolution textures, cutscenes and Red Book -quality audio, as well as several new levels. Interplay marketed
7611-432: The cost of development. Traditionally, the video game monetization method is to sell hard copies in retail store. Cheaper production and distribution methods include online distribution . In the 2010s, the video game industry had a major impact on the economy through the sales of major systems and games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops , which had over $ 650 million of sales in the game's first five days and which set
7740-491: The developer normally has to have a publishing deal in place before starting development on a game project, but in order to secure a publishing deal, the developer must have a track record of console development, something which few startups will have. An alternative method for publishing video games is to self-publish using the shareware or open source model over the Internet . Gaming conventions are an important showcase of
7869-504: The development of Summoner . Volition found a new publisher in THQ , which acquired the studio in August 2000 and released the game shortly thereafter. Under THQ, Volition created the Red Faction and Saints Row series, developing four entries in each series. During the development of Saints Row IV , THQ filed for bankruptcy in December 2012. In the subsequent proceedings, Volition and
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#17328528057677998-473: The development of Descent II , he and three designers moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan , to open a second office for Parallax. At the new office, Toschlog also hired two further programmers. After Descent II had shipped, the team came to the conclusion that working on the same game out of two distant offices had adverse effects on the team, where Toschlog and Kulas agreed to move the company to one office. However, they could not decide on where they should move
8127-509: 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
8256-429: The distributor may be redundant as a function of either the publisher or the retailer, or even in some cases as the case of indie games , the function of the developer themselves. Ben Sawyer of Digitalmill observes that the development side of the industry is made up of six connected and distinctive layers: The game industry employs those experienced in other traditional businesses, but some have experience tailored to
8385-499: The end of the 1970s, the personal computer game industry began forming from a hobby culture. In the early 1980s, the golden age of video arcade games reached its zenith. The total sales of arcade video game machines in North America increased significantly during this period, from $ 50 million in 1978 to $ 900 million by 1981, with the arcade video game industry's revenue in North America tripling to $ 2.8 billion in 1980. By 1981,
8514-627: The first time in twenty years. The industry's shift from brick and mortar retail to digital downloads led to a severe sales decline at video game retailers such as GameStop , following other media retailers superseded by Internet delivery, such as Blockbuster , Tower Records , and Virgin Megastores . GameStop diversified its services by purchasing chains that repair wireless devices and expanding its trade-in program through which customers trade used games for credit towards new games. The company began to produce its own merchandise and games. In Britain,
8643-416: The first time that Embracer Group had transferred a studio between one of its operative groups. In June 2023, Volition's parent company Embracer, following the collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal, announced wide-ranging plans to restructure the company that would include studio closures and staff layoffs. Volition was shut down on August 31, 2023, as part of Embracer's restructuring, with Embracer moving
8772-451: The following month. Several properties were auctioned to other companies, while the remaining staff were laid off. The "THQ" trademark was eventually acquired by developer Nordic Games (which had also acquired some of THQ's auctioned-off properties) in 2014 and assumed the name " THQ Nordic " in 2016, while continuing a variety of their franchises under said name. THQ Inc. was founded by LJN co-founder Jack Friedman in April 1990. "THQ"
8901-405: The game as a new game, Descent II , so they could make more profit than they would have from a simple derivate version of the same game, and could publish a new game under the same contract they had with Parallax. As a result, Parallax profited heavily from Descent II 's success. Although Toschlog had moved to Champaign from Boston, he did not want to stay in Champaign long-term. During
9030-465: The game industry. Some of the disciplines specific to the game industry include: game programmer , game designer , level designer , game producer , game artist , and game tester . Most of these professionals are employed by video game developers or video game publishers . However, many hobbyists also produce computer games and sell them commercially. Game developers and publishers sometimes employ those with extensive or long-term experience within
9159-415: The game's development had about three months to go, Interplay, who had recently become a public company , urged Volition to complete the game within a month. While the game was completed within the month, Interplay did not adjust their advertisement strategy. As a result, the game sold poorly and was only marginally profitable. Tube Racer was canceled about six to nine months in development. Descent 4
9288-553: The games retailer Game revamped its stores so customers would spend time playing games there. It built a gaming arena for events and tournaments. The shift to digital marketplaces, especially for smartphones, led to an influx of inexpensive and disposable games, and lower engagement among gamers who otherwise purchased new games from retail. Customers also shifted away from the tradition of buying games on their first day of release. Publishers often funded trade-in deals to encourage consumers to purchase new games. Trade-in customers at
9417-888: The games sold. Many early game publishers started from this economic climate, such as Origin Systems , Sierra Entertainment , Capcom , Activision and Electronic Arts . As computing and graphics power increased, so too did the size of development teams, as larger staffs were needed to address the ever-increasing technical and design complexities. The larger teams consist of programmers, artists, game designers, and producers. Their salaries can range anywhere from $ 50,000 to $ 120,000 generating large labor costs for firms producing video games which can often take between one and three years to develop. Modern budgets typically reach millions of dollars and use middleware and pre-built game engines . In addition to growing development costs, marketing budgets have grown dramatically, sometimes two to three times of
9546-442: The home video game industry that year; both the arcade and home video game markets combined in 1982 total of $ 11.8 billion (equivalent to $ 37.3 billion in 2023). The arcade video game industry would continue to generate an annual revenue of $ 5 billion in quarters through to 1985. The most successful game of this era was Namco 's Pac-Man , released in 1980, of which more than 350,000 cabinets were eventually sold, and within
9675-412: The industry is not recession -proof. The industry has influenced the technological advancement of personal computers through sound cards , graphics cards and 3D graphic accelerators , CPUs , and co-processors like PhysX . Sound cards, for example, were originally developed for games and then improved for adoptation by the music industry . In 2017 in the United States, which represented about
9804-399: The industry was one of the few to actually thrive from a home-bound population using video games to cope. The market had a 20% year-to-year growth from 2019, reaching over $ 179 billion in global revenue in both hardware and software for 2020. Easily learned games with high social interactions were popular, including Animal Crossing: New Horizons , Fall Guys , and Among Us . As
9933-522: The industry. The major annual video game conventions include Gamescom in Cologne (Germany), E3 in Los Angeles (US), Penny Arcade Expo , Summer Games Fest , Tokyo Game Show(TGS) , Brazil Game Show (BGS), and etc. As with other forms of media, video games have often been released in different world regions at different times. The practice has been used where localization is not done in parallel with
10062-405: The introduction of the personal computer, Western Europe also became a major center for video game development. Since then, the industry is primarily led by companies in North America, Europe, and Japan, but other regions, including Australia/New Zealand, and other East Asian countries including China and South Korea, have become significant sectors for the industry. International video game revenue
10191-420: The late 1960s, a college student named Nolan Bushnell had a part-time job at an arcade where he became familiar with EM games such as Chicago Coin 's racing game Speedway (1969), watching customers play and helping to maintain the machinery, while learning how it worked and developing his understanding of how the game business operates. In 1971, the first commercial arcade video game , Computer Space ,
10320-678: The main driver but significantly impact the industry, such as Spelunky , Fez , Don't Starve , Castle Crashers , and Minecraft , with millions of dollars and users. In the 2010s, the shift increased to casual and mobile gaming , and in 2016, the mobile video game market was estimated at $ 38 billion in revenues, compared to $ 6 billion for the console market and $ 33 billion for personal computing gaming. Virtual reality and augmented reality games arose during this decade. As of 2014, newer game companies arose that vertically integrate live operations and publishing such as crowdfunding and other direct-to-consumer efforts, rather than relying on
10449-507: The market and led to the video game crash of 1977 . The crash eventually came to an end with the success of Taito 's Space Invaders , released in 1978, inspiring the golden age of video arcade games . The game's success prompted the prevalence of arcade machines in mainstream locations such as shopping malls , traditional storefronts, restaurants , and convenience stores during the golden age. More than 360,000 Space Invaders arcade cabinets were sold worldwide, and by 1982, generated
10578-452: The more profitable industries during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Video games are seen as a low-cost vice and entertainment for consumers when approaching recession. However, in 2022, atop pandemic economic fallout including chip shortages, supply chain disruption, and consumers preferring outdoor activities, the industry started to indicate recession with global revenues falling for
10707-583: The most unpopular with gamers, as a measure to counter piracy. The most popular and effective strategy to counter piracy is to change the business model to freemium , where gamers pay for their in-game needs or service. Strong server-side security is required for this, to properly distinguish authentic transactions from hacked transactions. On various Internet forums, some gamers have expressed disapproval of publishers having creative control since publishers are more apt to follow short-term market trends rather than invest in risky but potentially lucrative ideas. On
10836-461: The music industry, where modern technology has allowed a fully professional product to be created extremely inexpensively by an independent musician, modern games require increasing amounts of manpower and equipment. This dynamic makes publishers , who fund the developers , much more important than in the music industry. In the video game industry, it is common for developers to leave their current studio and start their own. A particularly famous case
10965-410: The name Parallax Software Corporation. Both founders were programmers who had previously worked together on Car and Driver . This led them to consider launching their own game development company, knowing that, should they fail, they would have to return to working for other's companies. To reach a lower cost-of-living, Toschlog moved from Boston to Champaign, Illinois , where Kulas resided, and
11094-408: The name and its definition to the company's employees, asking them to create a suitable logo. Of the many entries submitted, the one that was chosen was designed by Whiteside and inspired by the logo of Wax Trax! Records , while Pletcher created a font to display the company name with. The logo has been in use since. Formally, Volition was founded in October 1996 with twelve members, and the split
11223-408: The other hand, publishers may know better than developers what consumers want. The relationship between video game developers and publishers parallels the relationship between recording artists and record labels in many ways. But unlike the music industry , which has seen flat or declining sales in the early 2000s, the video game industry continues to grow. In the computer games industry, it
11352-461: The packaging and title screens for their games, while Atari disallowed this practice. As the video game industry took off in the mid-1980s, many developers faced the more distressing problem of working with fly-by-night or unscrupulous publishers that would either fold unexpectedly or run off with the game profits. The industry claims software piracy to be a big problem, and takes measures to counter this. Digital rights management have proved to be
11481-647: The pandemic wore on from 2020 into 2021, a secondary effect was the impact of the global semiconductor chip shortage on hardware manufacturing. The three major console vendors, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, were impacted by availability of supply of core components, and for the latter two, limited the launch of their new consoles. The chip supply shortage also affected personal computer gamers, coupled with demand for computer parts to be used in cryptocurrency mining , which artificially raised prices and made it difficult to purchase newer components. However, after cryptocurrency mining started paying out less during and following
11610-515: The player and the machine. Some examples of these included the 1940 "Nimatron", an electromagnetic relay-based Nim -playing device designed by Edward Condon and built by Westinghouse Electric for the New York World's Fair , Bertie the Brain , an arcade game of tic-tac-toe , built by Josef Kates for the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition , and Nimrod created by engineering firm Ferranti for
11739-486: The poor reception of Red Faction II , the team had learned that destruction-based gameplay was not a good fit for a shooter set in narrow, enclosed corridors, wherefore the team opted for an open world instead. The game's development cycle lasted roughly five years. While Guerrilla was set on the Martian surface, the next installment in the franchise, Red Faction: Armageddon , went in the other direction by being set inside
11868-415: 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
11997-408: The pre-existing arcade game industry, which was previously dominated by electro-mechanical games (EM games). Following the arrival of Sega 's EM game Periscope (1966), the arcade industry was experiencing a "technological renaissance" driven by "audio-visual" EM novelty games, establishing the arcades as a healthy environment for the introduction of commercial video games in the early 1970s. In
12126-610: The process completed by May. Around the same time, THQ shut down the servers to the 2012 remake of Nexuiz , which was developed by IllFonic . In June 2013, Interplay Entertainment acquired the rights to the Freespace franchise from THQ. All of THQ's remaining franchises, including the remainder of its original IPs (aside from Homeworld , which was acquired by Gearbox Software , and Drawn to Life , acquired by 505 Games ) and licensed software, were auctioned to Nordic Games for $ 4.9 million in April 2013. The Nickelodeon game license
12255-429: The proposals, he sat down in his living room, pulling books from a shelf and looking through dictionaries and reference books ' glossaries for a possible name. In one such glossary, he found the word " volition ", described as "an intense active will to accomplish something". As he drew a connection between this definition and the act of software development, he chose "Volition" to be the new company name. He pitched
12384-612: The publishing rights to Turtle Rock Studios ' Evolve and the WWE series were acquired by Take-Two Interactive . Ubisoft acquired THQ Montreal and the publishing rights to South Park: The Stick of Truth while Volition and the publishing rights to the Metro franchise were acquired by Koch Media . Vigil Games and THQ's publishing unit were still included in the Chapter 11 case, although all employees related to these entities were laid off . In
12513-522: The rest of development or where the game must be encoded differently, as in PAL vs. NTSC . It has also been used to provide price discrimination in different markets or to focus limited marketing resources. Developers may also stagger digital releases so as not to overwhelm the servers hosting the game. The video game industry had its primary roots in the United States following the introduction of arcade games and console systems, with Japan soon following. With
12642-430: The same point in the seventh generation-console cycle seven or eight years earlier. By 2018, the United States video game industry had matched that of the United States film industry on basis of revenue, with both having made around US$ 43 billion that year. Since 2000, the video game industry was considered recession -proof, having thrived compared to other industries during the 2008 Great Recession , and as one of
12771-578: The stage to announce Insane , a horror game developed in partnership with Volition, projecting a 2013 release date. del Toro later revealed that Insane would become a trilogy, with total development time spanning one decade. However, in August 2012, THQ announced that Insane had been canceled. In April 2011, it was announced that Kulas was retiring from the company, effective on May 2, with Cermak taking over his position as general manager . Following his retirement, he "goofed off" for about four years before he got back together with Toschlog, founding
12900-505: The studio overspent its budget of $ 8–9 million and brought up its headcount to over 100. After the game, now titled Saints Row , was finished, the team was asked to write postmortem documentations , which presented a lot of negative views on the game, as well as criticism with the management. When the game was released and sold well, it was decided that Volition would develop another such game, which would become Saints Row 2 . Saints Row 2 differed from its predecessor in that it
13029-530: The team lacked an artist, Adam Pletcher was hired in January 1994. Shortly thereafter, Apogee dropped the project after it had been in development for seven months, though leaving Parallax with an already funded, functional prototype. Subsequently, while the studio was slowly running out of money, they produced a demo reel of the game and set it as a VHS tape to various publishers. Three companies— Accolade , Trimark Interactive and Interplay Productions (where it
13158-521: The toy manufacturer Jakks Pacific . At the Winter CES 1995, THQ signed an expanded deal with Electronic Arts to develop games for their 16-bit and 8-bit home consoles and handheld titles. From then on, the Black Pearl Software name would be used for 8-bit and 16-bit games, while THQ introduced the Kokopeli Digital Studios brand name for their 32-bit games. In 1997, THQ was reincorporated as
13287-455: The trade-in values offered by their competitors. Microsoft's original plan for the Xbox One attempted to translate trade-in deals for the digital marketplace, with a database of product licenses that shops would be able to resell with publisher permission, though the plan was poorly received or poorly sold. Video game industry practices are similar to those of other entertainment industries (e.g.,
13416-406: The two launched Parallax Software. Early on, they hired programmers John Slagel and Che-Yuan Wang, of which Wang also worked on level design. The team developed a rough concept for a game called Inferno , which they pitched to Apogee Software , the primary publisher of id Software . Apogee began funding the game's development, though the funds did not suffice for the company over time. Because
13545-466: 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. That same month, Jason Rubin was appointed president of the company. THQ filed a notice with the SEC on May 25 for a June 29 stockholder's meeting, where THQ asked stockholders to approve
13674-605: The verge of Chapter 11 bankruptcy . With its stock price plummeting from early November values bordering on $ 3 down to $ 1.16 and with long-term liabilities of $ 250 million, THQ was forced to delay the release dates of its flagship titles Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light to March 2013. On November 29, 2012, THQ partnered with Humble Bundle to launch the Humble THQ Bundle in an effort to raise more money. By December 12, 2012, THQ sold nearly 800,000 bundles, raising around $ 5 million; THQ President Jason Rubin also made
13803-401: The video game industry was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that had a worldwide impact starting in March 2020 due to forced stay-at-home orders by governmental regulations. There were similar impacts to the video game industry as with other industries, such as cancellation of in-person trade shows, conventions and esports events, and the delay of many games into late 2020, 2021, or beyond, and
13932-475: The video game industry was still very volatile, with third-party video game developers quickly cropping up, and just as quickly, going out of business. Nevertheless, many casual games and indie games became successful, such as Braid and Limbo . Game development for mobile phones (such as iOS and Android devices) and social networking sites emerged. For example, a Facebook game developer, Zynga , raised more than $ 300 million. Indie games are not
14061-469: Was "deep in development" on a new installment in the Saints Row franchise, later revealed to be a reboot of the franchise . At this time, it had 174 employees, and had close to 230 in March 2021. In November 2022, after the Saints Row reboot was met with a mixed and "polarized" response from fans, Embracer announced that it would transfer Volition from Deep Silver to Gearbox (which it acquired in 2021) to leverage its resources and expertise. It marked
14190-435: Was 148. In January 2019, Kulas announced his return to Volition as general manager. At the time, Revival Productions was winding down, and when Kulas wondered what to do next, fearing he would end up not doing anything for four years, he decided to re-join the studio after eight years. According to Kulas, his time as an indie developer at Revival helped him "come up to speed on all kinds of stuff". By August 2019, Volition
14319-494: Was a "ground-pounder", a game they would work hard on just to get an unpleasant result. The game shifted from a space combat game to a first-person shooter with a heavy focus on environmental destruction. Much like Summoner , Red Faction was first developed for personal computers before moving to consoles. When Kulas attempted to write a part of the game's code, he found himself writing code for personal computers, having to rewrite everything should it work on consoles. The game
14448-450: Was acquired by Activision . This would later expire, with Nickelodeon licensing out their franchises through various smaller publishers, including Nordic. Creditors initially said the proposed sale of THQ in the bankruptcy court benefited current THQ management, including Rubin. Presiding Judge Walwrath called these criticisms a "conspiracy theory" on record. Creditors ultimately released THQ management, including Rubin, of any malfeasance in
14577-503: Was also canceled. Following these cancellations, their teams started development on a heist -style game called Underground . The team worked on the game for about twelve months, but when Grand Theft Auto III was released, the marketing department at THQ pushed the expectations for the game so high that they could not be met, wherefore Underground , too, was canceled. Following Underground 's cancellation, THQ approached Volition and asked them whether they were willing to create
14706-456: Was announced on December 1, 1997, with both companies having been organized into new corporate entities (wherein Volition was Volition, Inc.) and wholly owned by their respective leads. Following the split, Volition and Outrage signed with Interplay for two further projects each. Their first project under the new name was Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War (or simply FreeSpace ), a game that
14835-500: Was championed by Rusty Buchert)—offered to publish the game, of which Parallax chose Interplay. Jasen Whiteside then became Parallax's eighth employee, working on level design while studying industrial design at school. With the studio lacking a quality assurance department, the game was tested by the entire team. As Interplay's funds had also dried up, Parallax refused to ask them for more, not wanting to show signs of weakness. Instead, Kulas and Toschlog invested their own money into
14964-455: Was delayed for two months shortly before release to allow the team to polish the game before it shipped. The game went gold shortly thereafter, and received positive reviews, much to the surprise of the development team. Following Red Faction , Volition developed Summoner 2 , aiming at fixing all flaws made in the first game. While it was received better than the first game, it also sold fewer copies. After that came Red Faction II , which
15093-512: Was disliked by many of Volition's employees who either did not want to be associated with a gang simulator or thought that their work on the game was not worthwhile. The studio faced further trouble as they switched from the PlayStation 2 to the Xbox 360 , because the documentation provided with the Xbox 360 was incomplete, and the final hardware specifications for it is unknown. During the game's development,
15222-504: 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
15351-455: Was further driven by increasing realism, with the "3D Revolution" from 2D and pseudo-3D graphics to true real-time 3D polygon graphics , following the release of games such as Virtua Racing (1992) and Virtua Fighter (1993). In the late 1990s, there was a transition away from arcades to home systems. Until about 1996-1997, arcade video games represented the largest sector of the global video game industry, before arcades declined and
15480-636: Was later expanded to include covermounted cassettes and CDs. In 1983, the North American industry crashed due to the production of too many badly developed games (quantity over quality), resulting in the fall of the North American industry. The industry would eventually be revitalized by the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System , which resulted in the home console market being dominated by Japanese companies such as Nintendo , while
15609-427: Was more sandbox -oriented and more infused with humor, which the first game almost completely lacked. Kulas had wished to return to developing a game centered around destruction, either through Red Faction or through a new intellectual property , now that console hardware had been advanced enough to handle such gameplay. Thus, the studio decided to develop a new Red Faction game, Red Faction: Guerrilla . From
15738-466: Was over $ 142B in 2022. This is almost double the revenue of the international film industry in 2023. The largest nations by estimated video game revenues in 2016 are the United States ($ 46.4B), China ($ 44B), and Japan ($ 19.1B). Volition (company) Deep Silver Volition, LLC (formerly Parallax Software Corporation and Volition, Inc. ) was an American video game developer based in Champaign, Illinois . Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog founded
15867-562: Was released in January 2015. Following Saints Row IV , Volition developed Agents of Mayhem , a game set in the Saints Row universe, featuring similar gameplay mechanics while being unconnected to the main series. The game released in August 2017 to mixed reviews and poor sales. As a result, about 30 positions, including Cermak, were cut from the studio's previously 200-people-strong workforce. Jim Boone, who had been part of Parallax in 1994, succeeded Cermak as studio development director in October. On December 31, Volition's staff count
15996-473: Was released. The following year, Atari, Inc. released the first commercially successful video game, Pong , and 19,000 arcade cabinets of the original arcade version were sold. In that year, video games were introduced to the home market with the release of the early video game console , the Magnavox Odyssey . However, both the arcade and home markets would be dominated by Pong clones, which flooded
16125-417: Was set to improve on the concepts of games like Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: TIE Fighter . During the development of FreeSpace , the Volition team doubled in size, adding about five or six people to the studio. During this time many team members were allocated to training the new employees. Meanwhile, Kulas, as the sole manager of the company, had to divide his time between programming and managing
16254-500: Was showcased in their board room , THQ's chief financial officer stepped forward, stating that this would be a game they were willing to develop. Volition imposed several rules on the game, such as the exclusion of children and the inability to kill the police, so to not generate too much controversy. The team shifted away from developing in wide arrays of genres, instead focusing the entire studio's talent on one design principle: open world . The game, initially known as Bling Bling ,
16383-471: Was to be the fourth main entry in the Descent series (the third game, Descent 3 , was in development simultaneously at Outrage). As the Descent 3 release date came closer, Interplay began having financial difficulties. When the game launched in June 1999, it also did not sell well. The two companies separated on Volition's suggestion. Interplay owned the publishing rights to the Descent franchise, and as
16512-430: Was ultimately not reviewed as good as the first game, again to the team's surprise. Internally, Red Faction II was considered a failure, and the series was halted. Ports of the game, released in 2003, were developed by fellow THQ studios Outrage (for Windows and Xbox ) and Cranky Pants Games (for GameCube ). A third Red Faction game was already in development, but was consequently canceled. A third Summoner game
16641-414: Was valued at over $ 93 billion. The industry wide adoption of high-definition graphics during the seventh generation of consoles greatly increased development teams' sizes and reduced the number of high-budget, high-quality games under development. In 2013 Richard Hilleman of Electronic Arts estimated that only 25 developers were working on such games for the eighth console generation, compared to 125 at
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