THQ Announce Partners Program

Following in the footsteps of publishers EA and Activision, THQ have set up their own partnership program with the intention of attracting the “best independent studios in the business.”

Similar in design to how EA work with developers such as Crytek and now Insomniac to leverage the distribution capabilities a major publisher can provide, THQ Partners will offer similar terms to studios with respect to the creators of games retaining ownership of their own IPs.

It’s important to note that deals struck between certain developers and publishers, like the recent agreement between Activision and Bungie, does not tie the development house completely to the publisher. The exclusivity arrangements are usually based on an IP basis. THQ Partners boss Tim Walsh has therefore not ruled out working with studios such as Valve, Ninja Theory, Epic or Remedy; all of whom are currently in cahoots with other publishers. He said.

“We are interested in working with the best in the business. We have not announced any specific deals yet.”

EA Partners boss David DeMartini has welcomed the announcement, claiming that further assistance to independent studios should be seen as a positive endeavour. “We welcome the competition as broad support for independent development is very healthy for our industry,” he told C&VG. “It’s great to see other publishers stepping up their support for independent developers like EA Partners has been doing for the past 15 years. Fortunately for us, publishing and sales excellence is key to the success of these programs – and that doesn’t happen overnight.”

THQ already has strong ties with studios such as subsidiaries Kaos (Homefront) and Yukes (the UFC Undisputed series) along with UK-based private firm Revolution (the Broken Sword series) and Kiev’s GSC Game World (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.).

Source: C&VG