Like Ubisoft before it, THQ seems to be swearing off the movie-licensed projects for good. The family division of the developer-publisher has be the company leg most devoted to the tie-in games, most notably ones based on Pixar movie franchises, but a recent “slowdown” of licensed properties has THQ corporate re-assessing its priorities.
“We have re-evaluated our kids movie-based licenses and have lowered our expectations for games in this segment,” said CEO Brian Farrell during the company’s call to investors. “The single-player kids’ games, particularly those based on movie licenses, were the ones that showed the most weakness. What we learned this holiday season is new stuff, innovative stuff… you do something new and consumers, especially kids, respond to that.”
This sounds good, as THQ’s studios can now focus on making other games better. Most of their movie-licensed games have been pretty weak, so this is probably for the best.