A giant has fallen. Video game developer and publisher THQ filed for Chapter 11, and like the death of any loved one, it seemed to come out of an impossible nowhere. Right now, video games have bigger budgets than NASA and use more advanced technology. THQ was a billion-dollar company. It had the exclusive license to Disney, Pixar, and WWE games. Selling fake fights to wrestling fans is how you switch your target market to easy mode.



It's also the Konami Code of dick jokes.

THQ wasn't some dot-com disaster or a fartbubble in the filthy shared bathwater of social network gaming. No one's surprised that Zynga is now hemorrhaging money and employees. Zynga's core strategy was "Find the most easily distracted people in the world, then try to hold their attention for several years."

Zynga

The average FarmVille player can't even pronounce "Zynga."

THQ lost money so quickly and impossibly that Donald Trump thought he was CEO and declared bankruptcy again. I've spent more time with products of THQ than some products of my own family tree, so I'd like to say a few words.