The Death of THQ: From Billions to Bankrupt in 5 Years

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In 2007, THQ posted its first billion dollar year. In 2012, it was bankrupt. THQ's collapse is the story of a company caught in the crossroads of a recession, a new console generation, and an industry shakeup - all hitting at the peak of its business. It's the story of a company with two warring internal divisions, with a CEO that refused to break up the fights or make the hard decisions.. Unlike so many other game studios during this era, however...THQ should have made it out alive, and it almost did. It had a strategy in place should the licensed game well start to dry up, and it even executed on that plan; it just didn't fully commit.
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#THQ #TheGoldenBolt

[@TheGoldenBolt]

True THQties hit the subscribe button. Be a THQtie. Here's another docu-vid about weird hardware peripherals in the early 2010s: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmOVlYyAaciKpsU

[@BBWahoo]

Teeny hot cuties? ☠️

[@sgas]

Took me a second to understand that you didn't mean to say THQ-ite, but THQti π instead

[@Thrakus]

is THQ Nordic dead? After buying THQ they had very good years but then after 2018 very little then nothing after 2020 , But their net income is up , from what i can see they want to only work on remakes for now?

[@parkmallbaby]

I was a THQtie.

[@chandlerbing7570]

No

[@bloodCount8895]

I worked for THQ back in 2011-2012. The downfall was the CEOs decision to have the uDraw created for Xbox and Playstation when it was a Wii only device. Jason Rubin came into the studios and gave a speech on how he can fix and save the company b/c of his time at Naught Dog. We all knew he was full of sh**.

[@marcing115]

What games did you work on ?

[@joseecadequeiroz3190]

Not in the game industry, but having suits not listen to anyone actually making things and on top of it put all their chips on a personal whim hits way too close to home. Naturally they're not the ones really impacted by their own decisions.

[@bloodCount8895]

@@marcing115 Darksiders II when I was at THQ

[@mauriluciano1780]

@@bloodCount8895 where are you now if you don’t mind me asking

[@bloodCount8895]

@mauriluciano1780 I was at NetherRealm and then moved to Lost Boys Interactive.

[@robintst]

Strange to think that THQ was originally founded by the same guy who founded LJN, Jack Friedman.

[@Darkchao_berserko22]

It really is. From the infamous rainbow that gave titles on nes like, Roger rabbit and karate kid to a beloved 3 letter logo that brought classics like battle for bikini bottom and destroy all humans. Talk about redemption

[@Slender_Man_186]

That... actually makes a lot of sense considering LJN dominated the licensed game market during the NES and SNES era.

[@barkbush8048]

4:23 this was my first avatar game

[@TeamSoraPresents]

Always funny to think how one little mistake can completely destroy hundreds of lives/careers...

[@JayCeeSquared]

They did create the best Hot Wheels game ever. Stunt Track Challenge. Still my highest bar for Hot Wheels

[@erickschusterdeoliveira2662]

honestly, at this point it's good that THQ flopped. they never actually did anything besides throw money at people, and clearly they were terrible at it.

[@Tiblious]

I never even heard of that device.

[@Femaiden]

frankly, i'm confused how they made it as far as they did, been making subpar games for decades. .

[@SDChargers93]

Let’s do a Midway Documentary

[@thelazarous]

Kinda crazy to think I never heard of the uDraw

[@belstar1128]

did u mean tablet in 2010 corporate code or something ? wiiu udraw i think there was the sony vaio UX something windows xp tablet but that came out earlier .

[@garyforagerjr5074]

Got say wether intended or not that was great jab to throw in get more sub def made laugh till it hurt

[@BugsyFoga]

It honestly weird to think the thq of today isn’t the same as thq of yesteryear.

[@_-Lx-_]

The whole situation with the Embracer family is so weird. So many layers of companies puppeteering other companies, some wearing the skin of dead companies. They're to the point they buy entire studios of people just to imediately fire every single person there due to deciding they don't want to bother managing another branch.

[@Hellfire918]

THQ Nordic is not THQ....THQ Nordic was originally Nordic Games...they took the name THQ Nordic, to better reflect the Library they bought from the liquidation of THQ....and to be honest I kinda hoped Nordic would have gotten Relic or at least the 40k license as DoW3 may have been a better game under their stewardship than it did under SEGA's......

[@BugsyFoga]

@@Hellfire918 I'm aware, that's why I'm saying it's weird to know that isn't the same thq

[@TreesPlease42]

Corporate shell game

[@petercampi2840]

@@Hellfire918 Yeah, Sega hasn't been the best steward of RTS games since how they handled Universe At War: Earth Assault.

[@JomasterTheSecond]

The original uDraw was my first graphics tablet so I can't help but love it. It's a shame that the second version flopped so goddamn hard.

[@ShadowEclipse777]

Yeah the first one was a little risky, but overall a smart investment. HD was plain stupid

[@LonkinPork]

I just can't get over the level of hubris it would take to not realize the UDraw tablet was intrinsically a Wii peripheral

[@jacobkroehler9083]

bro stop trying so hard to sound intelligent

[@LonkinPork]

@@jacobkroehler9083 dont take pride in being a burnout

[@LonkinPork]

@@jacobkroehler9083 Read books.

[@UncommentedCode]

I like the idea that Drawn to Life is the cause of death for THQ, since the uDraw wouldn't exist, and therefore HD uDraw wouldn't exist

[@Soul_Devour]

When THQ did that pretty insane humble bundle you kinda knew the writing was on the wall.

[@jonnathonclayton5005]

the humble bundles were part of them trying to recoup money for the bankruptcy, it was already dead when they came out. i bought one for everyone i know, and had a few extras lol gave codes to my wife when we met a few years later.

[@the_numb_skull]

I know a friend of mine who has the uDraw on the Xbox and absolutely loved it as a kid and says it was the thing that got him into drawing and learning more about art. He is now a furry artist who makes upwards of $80 per commission so make of that what you will.

[@cabriskus4700]

I’d be devastated if I were you.

[@anonymouseovermouse1960]

​@@cabriskus4700 While i do agree, for 80 bucks a drawing i'd gladly draw ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, no questions asked lol

[@cabriskus4700]

@@anonymouseovermouse1960 That’s honestly a valid ass point

[@Tcgtrainer]

Lol

[@Darkchao_berserko22]

Thq have basically been my childhood company. SpongeBob Battle for bikini bottom, destroy all humans and red faction were my top favorites growing up

[@ElijahKMcCoy]

Same here, but for WWE games

[@theozziepotato]

as an australian who is passionate about video game development, i think it's awesome they had a studio here, even if it didn't last. video game development in this country still isn't big really, the only really well known titles made here were skyward sword hd and hollow knight. not much else.

[@Mienshaos]

amen, i'm always hoping more australian studios make it big with their own new titles. with so many indie titles becoming more popular, i'm surprised there aren't many aussie developers out there

[@crashed6510]

Honestly until literally right now fruit ninja was the only game I knew for sure was from Australia

[@asddw4998]

LA Noire was also made by an aussie

[@Yzozer]

What about Ty the Tasmanian Tiger? Ty games are being remastered for Switch now and also that commercial where Ty puts Dragon, Plumber and Bandicoot in hospital is well known isn't it.

[@ThePaperKhan]

@@Yzozer I was also about to comment this. Ty was one of the games I played endlessly on the GameCube. I sometimes like to look at the original trailers for the first and second games, as their is much cut content in them that was never implemented

[@KingKrouch]

Always found it crazy that the Drawn to Life game on the Wii didn't support the UDraw, as I found that attempting to draw anything on the Wiimote in that game was clunky at best. I had a UDraw, and is wasn't terrible for what it was sold as. Probably could be a decent Osu tablet now if you can get third-party drivers for it.

[@SianaGearz]

Yeah there isn't a proper driver but there's an application which uses windows messaging to create mouse events. So it can have hit or miss compatibility particularly concerning software that runs in a different user context, privileged context, or games with cheat detection and raw input routines. I guess with a strong enough desire, someone could add uDraw support into OpenTabletDriver making it fully functional, and the existing bridge application is an enormous help, but i'm not going to put up the effort.

[@skibot9974]

The Wii drawn to life game came out a year before Udraw and the end of the second DS kinda basically made any sequels impossible without heavy retcons

[@CatHerderCam]

So, I worked as QA on Homefront. I was part of the 3rd party multiplayer testing group, and worked directly with the devs and embeaded QA. We were working hard on the net code and balancing all the way up to a week of release. I was so excited to play the game with the general public, as there were several newer things that are now more common in the FPS space. Day of release, boot up the game... and the day one update game was from 4 months before, with all the major issues we had resolved. Not only did this kill KAOS but it was also one of the death nails for the QA firm I worked for. When we were working on Homefront, the feeling was even at the time was Homefront was make or break for THQ. It was one of the reasons that the marketing push at E3 that year was so over the top.

[@jonnathonclayton5005]

I remember playing Homefront at release, It really was fun, but not standout in any way, I could never shake the feeling it was too short tho, the entire game felt about 3 hours long, that was the biggest letdown

[@CatHerderCam]

@jonnathonclayton5005 I was on the multiplayer side, but from what I remember, they ended up cutting about 2 hours of the game out towards the end of development. Right before the helicopter part, if I remember correctly, but its was years ago, so I could be remembering that wrong.

[@taranvirsekhon1896]

Dude homefront was super underrated - literally one of my favourite games the newer one was dogshit tho

[@malazan6004]

Homefront 1s multiplayer had potential

[@kevinmajorca]

@@CatHerderCam Dude, multiplayer for the original Homefront and Frontlines was great. That fun Battlefield 2/ 2142/ Enemy Territory feel. Not a surprise, knowing the history of the developers. The campaigns though were kind of doo-doo, just like Bad Company 2. Shame that the guys at Kaos couldn't just put all their effort into making the pvp.

[@TheCamSays]

”Banking on an art accessory for 3 systems when all you’re known for is WWE video games.” - Scott The Woz

[@jakd.rabbit]

Sadly, I was one of those kids who bought the PS3 version of the tablet for launch and then got pissed literally 3 months later when Walmart had them down to $10 to get them out. There was a class action and everything where you could get refunded that difference but my parents threw the damn box away which had the receipt in it so I never got reimbursed that difference either, despite saving them both for that exact reason. 13 year old me really could have used that $50 to buy a better game too. This and Shadow the Hedgehog taught me to never buy games day one.

[@maximus4765]

Such a shame too. Imagine how many great games could have been made with them at the helm. They were THE publishers for Nickelodeon games.

[@Mariocat99]

Esspecially the hot wheels games too

[@daanyal6266]

I'm so happy they went bankrupt because when i was a teen, i pirated SR4 n they wanted me to pay up for it. First they wanted 900€, then after not paying it they wanted 1500. That was exactly around the time they went bankrupt, so this just ended in nowhere. Don't care about the lost jobs there, only care about me🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@zigmundo]

@@daanyal6266 hahahaha I love this

[@sleepykittyMMD]

I mostly remember them the GameCube Harry Potter games and the whisper “challenge everything”

[@squid_cake]

@@daanyal6266 how did they even know you pirated it?

[@PokeMaster22222]

The mobile market...it's a damn shame that it became practically synonymous with "shovelware" and "monetisation", instead of any actual "quality", like the console/PC market has (mostly) remained. If mobiles offered some actually-fun games of decent quality, that didn't try to force players to pay all the time, then it might've become a respectable branch of the industry - and companies pivoting to it wouldn't be seen as effectively selling their souls.

[@montanajackson3713]

My very first THQ experience was with the Tak games, mostly staff of dreams and the great juju challenge.

[@FrogJuiceJustice]

20 years from now theres gonna be a video exactly like this for GameMill

[@BBWahoo]

Not my glorified shovelware dev!!!!

[@FrogJuiceJustice]

@@BBWahoo poor skull island rise of kong and Nickelodeon kartz 3

[@SpeedsterBlur]

It still blows my mind they got the rights to publish Cruise N Blast. I finally played the original arcade version this year and yeah that game is fantastic!

[@BensyBens]

GameMill is the modern day LJN THQ at least had good games

[@BBWahoo]

@@BensyBens You gotta admit, they live up to their name lol

[@safebox36]

I think this is the first time I've heard the games industry called "recession-proof". If anything, it's one of the more volatile part of the entertainment industry.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

I'm sure somebody coined the idea before 2008, but it was a common enough phrase in articles and on TV during that recession that it imprinted on my early teenage brain. (Searching it nowadays brings back recollections of the 2008 GFC, when games were one of the few industries that saw their numbers hold steady or increase - only, it did so to fewer publishers, as others closed shop and things sadly consolidated. One of the first 2008 results, for historical reference: www.wired.com/2008/11/recession-proof ) I didn't see it in articles as much during early covid, but there was some commentary on it then as well when the Switch especially (and every console) had the unprecedented sales acceleration due to everybody being home more. Thankfully analysts are a bit more tuned in now, so any recent commentary I've seen has used the same caveat: We say that games are recession-proof, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of crossfire that harms studios _during_ one.

[@ChrisLejohn]

@@TheGoldenBolt You weren't wrong though. It's a statistical fact and has been. The problem, as you touched on here, is more the crossfire and volatility. But the industry as a whole is massive and generally grows even if slower some years. Frankly it's kind of like the adult industry in that way. People continue to spend more time indoors than ever.

[@safebox36]

I guess yeah it's immune to recessions per se because it's an entertainment medium that can be enjoyed without going out anywhere and even on a budget, by comparison to movies or even streaming services. But overall I'd have said it's more volatile because it's a very "fast" industry; a studio could be doing very well one year and the next they're facing bankruptcy and being bought out by EA or Microsoft.

[@loon1994]

The industry and the money it brings in is recession proof to a degree. The issue is game companies are all boom bust type companies. This means a few companies can make so much money that the industry looks exceptionally well off despite most studios struggling. With that all said, with the current budget and time it takes to release new titles from start of development to finish has me feeling that we are in a videogame bubble that might pop soon on the larger big budget developers

[@davidgrunga]

Honestly I think the closest hardware flop since this was Starlink. I remember seeing TONS of those for PS4 and Xbox One in every discount venue imaginable. The Switch one only sold decent cuz of the Star Fox collab.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Starlink is a good shout, certainly not as catastrophic but man, the amount of those things on shelves for $15-20 near the final clearouts was insane.

[@josephsmith794]

Typing this while using starlink, got a bid of 70k USD for wifi for be ran to my house and starlink is my only option… so far its been a life saver

[@JustWowNick]

@@josephsmith794 Not that Starlink. Remember, we're talking about gaming peripherals.

[@occono3543]

@@josephsmith794 LOL. They mean Starlink: The Battle for Atlas, it's a game.

[@SianaGearz]

Once you reach 10k items ordered for typical electronics manufacturing your scaling is already pretty good, you're not getting a very good nominal per item cost due to various up front costs at all, but you're also not losing much by cutting the order short at that point and ordering more later as-needed, just preserving the tooling for that follow up order; if you can push it to 50k initial order yeah that's better. But in what world does it make sense to order a million if all you might need is 50 or 100k? Oof.

[@dogma8538]

right just makes no sense.

[@WarioSaysSo]

THQ Nordic is not THQ of old. Nordic Games purchased THQ name, logo and a lot of there IP's such as; Darksiders, Red Faction, Company of Heroes, Blob, Destroy All Humans!, Drawn to Life, Homefront, Juiced etc. I never liked the last logo THQ had. There was nothing wrong with there prior logo they had had for years. To THQ's credit, they did produce some good licese based games, several of them was Disney & Disney Pixars IP's. There downfall was sadly similar to what Acclaim's downfall - wanting to grow too big and too fast (!) Not having the capacity and yet take the big gambles....

[@sniperfi4532]

Their biggest issue was the infighting between the two divisions. How on earth there was that little oversight for the kids division and for that tablet absolutely baffles me.

[@WarioSaysSo]

@@sniperfi4532 So true. It became really messed up.

[@CaptJABRONIE]

Speaking of a company known for SpongeBob games. THQ: Wanna see me speedrun bankruptcy? Embracer group/THQ Nordic: You wanna see me do it again?

[@Vandelorian]

I understood that reference.

[@evilchild1851]

@@Vandelorian It isn’t an obscure reference.

[@JohnSmith-xv1tp]

@@evilchild1851 You didn't understand that reference.

[@evilchild1851]

@@JohnSmith-xv1tp You mean that scene form the Avengers? Doesnt make the reply make more sense

[@dallacosta2868]

Hearing that games are considered recession-proof in 2023, with 6.000 highly skilled professionals being laid off globally, is funny, lol.

[@Mediados]

I mean it's true, Gaming isn't getting any less popular from here on out. The layoffs weren't due to companies making no profit, but because companies wanted to increase their profit to an unreasonable degree.

[@dallacosta2868]

@@Mediados recessions are not about popularity. In 2008 buying a house instead of renting wasn't any less popular, yet there was a global recession nonetheless. There has been massive malinvestment in the gaming industry, and the bill for their out of control spending is coming hard.

[@MuchWhittering]

6000 or 6,000. 6.000 in English is 6. English numbers don't work how German/French/Italian numbers do.

[@dallacosta2868]

@@MuchWhittering I apologize for using the decimal separator that is used in every single language and culture except the Anglo-Saxon ones.

[@ChristopherFodor]

@@dallacosta2868 gay

[@theultimatedriver3858]

I literally just got a THQ ad for SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake when the Battle For Bikini Bottom Commercial played! I loved a bunch of THQ games when I was little and the logo is super nostalgic to me!

[@mymomsaysimcool9650]

The hubris of THQ reminds me of that of Atari in the early 80’s. I still remember metal garbage cans (new cans used as totes) full of heavily discounted Atari products AND NO ONE WANTED IT.

[@ShadowThe771]

THQ gave us Smackdown so many amazing wrestling storylines and moments in their WWE games, like Teddy Long getting run by a mystery assailant to creating a better WCW invasion angle than the WWE did back in 2001.

[@Turk_2023]

Didnt THQ do twisted metal too

[@Tothemoon96]

Yeah there wresting games are missed, they was way better than wah 2k be putting out now

[@sailoreligaming]

I did QA for THQ back in 2008, and I can say for certain that it felt like the company was on rocky ground even for just the few months I was there. The game I worked on was Destroy All Humans 3, the developer of which was dissolved before the game was actually finished. I remember there were only a few devs still working on it by my final month on the project, at which point I was let go. It really didn't surprise me when I heard that they'd gone bankrupt.

[@skibot9974]

Intersting did you do QA at other companies

[@msavage960]

Damn that would’ve been nice. I just recently played DAH remastered on PC, love those games

[@AlexofZippo]

That would have been path of the furon, right? Oof, yeah that game had issues. It being orphaned before release makes total sense.

[@EmilioFigueroa]

Wow this was great. I remember playing the Scooby Doo Night of 100 Frights game way back in the early 2000s. Sad to see such a force in the gaming world disappear over night. Also I had no idea the first Metro game was them. I wonder what an alternate timeline would look like if THQ were still around, fully focused on core gaming and new IPs.

[@Themarcoalmonte]

This came with the name uDraw and following year, the Wii U came out. There’s a pattern when it comes it comes to U in the name of video game machines that causes companies to lose money

[@adamofblastworks1517]

O(u)ija

[@rtyuik7]

yeah, X or Z wouldve been much-cooler letters to assign instead...

[@Themarcoalmonte]

@@adamofblastworks1517 oh my God another one in the list

[@farbsworth526]

Don't forget about the Gamec(u)be, Virt(u)al boy, and Jag(u)ar.

[@skapokonroll]

Funnily enough I believe the uDraw also contributed to the Wii U's failure? One of the reasons the Wii U sold so little was the fact that many people thought it was just a peripheral for the Wii, and the fact that there was a precedent with a tablet peripheral with "U" in the name probably made some people think that it was something similar to that

[@fattiger6957]

My experience with the old THQ was pretty much limited to wrestling games. I may have played some of their other games, but the only games I specifically associated with them (from my experience) were wrestling games.

[@drallelgaming]

I remember playing wwe 2009 alot myself

[@fredyyycc]

I just came to learn with this video they made of all these kids games too

[@TruthTellerTV]

I had just returned to wrestling games with SVR 2011, and again with the would have been perfect turned unpatched mess that was WWE '13 (which is when they went bankrupt). Haven't touched a wrestling game since.

[@Mrnotpib]

Sony, Thq learned this before even Nintendo, do not imitate the Wii U. It is a literal siren death sound. It even *sounds* like a siren.

[@belstar1128]

The wii u ripped off thq clearly

[@qdakid7776]

@@belstar1128clearly wasn’t a good idea

[@grantmortensonva]

19:07 Neil Patrick Harris also voices the Amazing Spider-Man in "Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions"

[@glitchy_weasel]

Fantastic video, man, THQ was very unique - sure most of their games where licensed, but I still remember enjoying many licensed THQ games as a kid.

[@JessicaFEREM]

halfbrick developed fruit ninja as a hail mary because they were one bad decision away from bankruptcy. it was fruit ninja and jetpack joyride that allowed them to work on other games. apparently every game company in australia was basically either in the process of closing or in the same boat.

[@birdfish86]

I don't care how many Spongebob and Scooby Doo games they need to release. As long as it is funding Destroy all Humans I don't care! 😁

[@ThisIsCSDX]

I personally believe the WWe games would be in a much better state if THQ never folded, especially with what 2K's been doing to the games now that Yukes cut ties with them.

[@Demsky83]

THQ used to make the best wrestling games. Those WCW & later WWF games were something special.

[@1983jcheat]

Yeah, good times. 😊

[@crabman3144]

I wasn't even aware there were PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the UDraw. If that doesn't say just how bad it flopped, I don't know what does.

[@justyahz796]

i don’t think we measure success of a product based on if crab man has seen it before

[@mandalorianhunter1]

With how much i grew up with THQ through the wrestling games and more, knowing how far they have fallen similar to EA, Konami, Capcom sometimes and Activision.

[@_-Lx-_]

I wouldn't say Capcom has fallen the same way as any of those others, they're putting out pretty often fantastic games, just absurdly greedy and anticonsumer, with high unreasonable standards of profit. And THQ isn't at all the Demon companies like EA or espically Activision and Konami became They're an entirely different middle tier company wearing anothers skinsuit nowdays, and the OG's death was more comaparble to something like Telltale, overreliance in liscened brands combined with messy management and a decline.

[@mandalorianhunter1]

@@_-Lx-_ I said sometimes, that's why I put it Yeah I agree with that, now some of its stuff belongs to the embracer group

[@theozziepotato]

@@mandalorianhunter1 gotta be honest capcom nowadays is pretty good. monster hunter rise, the new resident evil games...

[@mandalorianhunter1]

@@theozziepotato didn't I just say sometimes? 2017 and before they were falling off a lot with a few hits

[@cooltwittertag]

@@mandalorianhunter1 this reads like you dont have a proper grasp on the english language

[@hoodiegal]

Excellent (and heartbreaking) breakdown of this whole mess. Goddamn I wish they had pulled their heads out of their asses and seen what a bad idea the uDraw HD was. So many great original games/franchises that lost their development teams because the company crashed just before they could be released.

[@Kaijudomage]

I would assume the Nintendo game you mention coming out not long after that Dood's Big Adventure game was Kirby and The Rainbow Curse, except that Kirby Canvas Curse came out in 2005 and already had similar drawing mechanics.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

I was speaking mostly hypothetically there, like it has the vibe of a first-party Nintendo IP, but you're definitely correct on the Kirby front now that you mention it!

[@ninjalemurdude]

Like most game developers, THQ was a great team with bad leaders. I don't know how or why, but the shotcallers in the AAA video game industry make bad decisions absurdly often. They either have a lack of understanding of video games or lack of understanding of business, both of which lead to miscalculating what the audience actually wants.

[@murrymirage5904]

THQ was so big especially in the 00s. All those wrestling games they've made since the N64/PS1 days, Red Faction, Destroy all Humans, Saints Row, Juiced, the SpongeBob games and all the other licensed kids games, Darksiders, Metro 2033. Sad how they fell off the last few years, I think years of their BS practices started to catch up to them as well as gaming in general massively changing after 2012.

[@MazeMe]

They should have remarketed the uDraw tablets for PS3 and Xbox 360 as the definitive way to play real time strategy games on a console. The Company of Heroes IP would've been ideal to spearhead this. Might not have worked out in the end, but it would have re-oriented their business towards core games (what they wanted to do to begin with).

[@maxleon61702]

Facts.

[@brettlawrence9015]

Also would have helped not producing so many 😂

[@cosmosofinfinity]

It strikes me as pretty hard to make an actually successful peripheral, and they managed to do one. The Wii U basically ripped them off, right down to the U Also, I actually liked Homefront, even though I played it on a subpar PC. The Team Fortress 2 bonus drew me to it

[@jamesredline1352]

I had literally never heard of the UDraw peripheral until watching this video. Never even seen one lol. I missed out on so much it seems.

[@Digiflower5]

Very informative video, I wanted to play with the Udraw tablet back in the day, but it did not work well for people who are left-handed, real shame,

[@kabob0077]

2:24 This feels like the Imperial Japanese Military and that is definitely not a good thing... For those who don't know one of the biggest enemies Japan had during WW2 _was their own military and its branches fighting each other constantly._

[@Edgemas67]

“Their own KFC” 💀

[@skibot9974]

Also you can’t use Drawn to Life music and not want me to get a retrospective on that series from you

[@vessellast836]

Hate to see thq are in bankruptcy. Here in the past couple years they've released some good ports. I'm hoping that they make up for it with the GOTHIC Remake

[@leandromafe]

Wow, has it really been this long since THQ went under? I'm old! Haha. I remember being so dejected for darksiders, one of my favorite franchises. Luckily it made a comeback.

[@ShadowDragon246]

Manta sound is amazing! I'm a nightshift worker, and the sound was worth the 150 bucks canadian I spent! no more ear plugs and and shitty masks or hoods to sleep in the daytime. need music to help me sleep, and I could only use ear buds for a few hours before my ears would hurt

[@KeiraLunar]

im very sure my ps2 collection had a major number of THQ games back in the day

[@Woobuggy848]

Thanks for tackling this topic about the original thq! Well, the part that made them kick the bucket...

[@tergish1]

11:10 So he’s the guy that made nfts…

[@Woud_]

11:09 Why that does remind of the NFT monkey xD Did we found the origins :O Nah jk. Great video!!!

[@Sneaky_racoon_sly]

udraw ist maybe also a reason why everyone thought the wii u is another wii periferall.

[@ActualRealityChannel]

I remember being 15 years old and starting to realize anything that they put out was not quality. I got sick of buying a game and immediately seeing THQ on the screen and always getting pissed. I started deliberately looking for them on the packaging and avoiding it.

[@hertogvandamme]

No, you can't just put the Drawn To Life OST in this video. That's broken me man

[@frank-bmtz]

THQ helped produce the greatest era or wrestling video games. Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain, Smackdown! Shut your Mouth, and SVR (Smackdown! Vs Raw of 04-11).

[@user-uu9ru3de1y]

not to be parasocial but love you, keep the hard work up

[@BitwiseMobile]

I worked for a mobile company in the early 00s. We did a few THQ ports for BREW handsets. The quality of code we saw as mixed. Compared to Gameloft though these guys were rookies. Gameloft code was pleasure to work with and porting was a no brainer most of the time.

[@axelbruv]

Didn't Gameloft make Smackdown? Great game.

[@casev799]

I had a few games from THQ on the WII. As fun as those were it's actually kinda depressing they went down the drain

[@AutoSia]

THQ bought so many IPs but never remade any of them

[@WarriorTier]

Great video!

[@vullord666]

THQ was the pinnacle of gaming quality for me growing up. It's sad how things turn out.

[@Mienshaos]

drawn to life was a huge part of my childhood, i can't believe it indirectly caused the death of THQ lmao

[@carterhunt548]

my favorite game from THQ apart from the SpongeBob ones was obviously saints row the third.

[@MisteRRYouTuby]

I used to work for their QA Department in Phoenix, AZ; The third floor of a small office building leased out by Camelback Road and (I think) 32nd Street.

[@krle7970]

AZ gang

[@brockobama257]

Listening to the layoffs from back then makes me realize the layoffs now are exactly as bad as I thought.

[@Yougottubed89]

The depressed Pikachu at 11:33 says everything you need to know about the uDraw.

[@happytoaster1]

It's unfortunately very common for companies to cling to an unprofitable core devision which strangles the new division they hope will save them. The obvious fix is to spin the new division off as a separate firm, but that requires giving up management control.

[@lostwheat5806]

19:09 Neil also voiced amazing spiderman in shattered dimensions so 2 video game credits

[@cinnamondan4984]

I remember just not being keen on THQ games. They always just felt bleh.

[@bigmyke2008]

Just goes to show you can do everything right and still fail if the wrong people have your back

[@dcorbe]

how is putting an $80m hole in your balance sheet for hardware that predictably won't sell "doing everything right"

[@fonesrphunny7242]

I happen to know somebody who worked for THQ until they shut down. I had the opportunity to look at some very unique production artifacts. Whatever you say about THQ is probably accurate, but a few forgotten people **really** cared. If you know where to look, and I'm not telling, the quality really shines through.

[@gauchegunawan7376]

All game in world had struggle because hoyoverse dominated game in console and mobile. 😢

[@crouse_2248]

I remember their Mx vs ATV games, and it is a shame to see what happened to them.

[@Penncentral-vr6mg]

No childhood game ever started till we heard T H Q Boom Game on

[@Darkchao_berserko22]

Got that right

[@davidthorne5715]

I’m still disappointed we never got a true red faction guerrilla sequel

[@staringcorgi6475]

Thq should’ve only focused their family divison on the handheld market because the budgets could be lower and have mass appeal

[@Splarkszter]

THQ made a LOT of the games I enjoyed on my childhood... OG Xbox era... that logo is stuck on my head.

[@Kass_onhisXbox_account]

I think 90% of the wii games i have are made by THQ tbh

[@emilyofjane]

THQ made my very first N64 game (and one of my all-time favorites), Rugrats in Paris, so it will always have a special place in my heart. O how the mighty have fallen 😔

[@REALLYWHYBecauseSirIdentifion]

Ahh, so many years of great and equally as shit games

[@iculas]

12:10 Challenge accepted. I'm doing my part! o7

[@HCG]

It also didn’t hello that their games were low quality garbage

[@dankmemer4778]

Can we just Take a second to say Thanks to Goldenbolt for Providing High Quality Content for Years. 🙌 (edit) FOR FREE

[@Truecaveman1999]

I just want Timesplitters 4. Please