THQ Abandons Licensed Kiddie Games

THQ has announced that it will exit the children’s game market in order to focus more on its core franchises. The success of Saint’s Row: The Third has inspired the publisher to continue targeting older gamers.

According to a statement issued during an investor meeting, THQ wants to focus only on its strongest franchises in the future. They specifically pointed to Saint’s Row, Darksiders, Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000, UFC, and inSane as their top “core” titles going forward.

Not all kid-friendly games will be cut from THQ’s library as a result of the strategy shift. The company specifically plans to eliminate licensed children’s content including SpongeBob, Barbie, and Disney titles. While this is a devastating blow to the gaming community, we can take solace in the fact that original family-friendly IPs are likely to remain in production.

Licensed children’s games still make up a pretty large chunk of THQ’s offerings, so it will be interesting to see how much this impacts the company’s future. Personally, I welcome any change that focuses more resources on Darksiders or Saint’s Row development. I guess the world will just never learn what happened after the events of the original Barbie Jet, Set & Style.