Games Toys

Video Game Publishing: The Game Changes

Once it was big business, but now, the number of players in the video game publishing game are getting progressively fewer. Digital distribution may be creating one or two new ‘publishers’ in the traditional sense, but for every ‘Valve’ there are a dozen box-based publishers going out of business because they can’t adapt quickly enough. Stability in the sector is in the hands of the first parties, the console makers: Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. But without a decent third-party selection, any console is likely to have a limited lifespan and user-base. Activision, now merged with Blizzard (among others) are an industry constant, the very first ‘third party publisher’. Along with Electronic Arts, they remain unchallenged. The smaller publishers like Take Two and THQ are the ones to watch out for. In their slightly more perilous situation, THQ are leading that charge by re-branding their  Logo after having had a few rough years. They wish to rebrand particularly after a period that saw them deal with layoffs and a significant, half billion dollar loss.

Even when changing its logo, THQ has a existing problem. The brand isn’t actually all the recognisable, and most people would be shocked to hear that ‘THQ’ stands for ‘Toy Head-Quarters’, a relic of the days when the brand made dolls and board games for properties like Home Alone. The association with ‘toys’ is particularly unfortunate for a brand associated with mature franchises like ‘Red Faction’, ‘Saints Row’ and ‘Homefront’. It’s a name that THQ are so ashamed of, that when they do put out child-friendly games (licensed spin-offs from Pixar and Nickelodeon properties), they do so under the ‘Play THQ’ label. Regardless, it’s chop chop time for THQ’s old Custom Logo Design, a serifed, monochrome digital style acronym in full ‘dynamic’ italicisation. Frankly, the old design was a bit of a nineties relic and won’t be sorely missed.

Is the latest logo design a step in the right direction? Here too, THQ seem to have just gone with a design that will date imminently. Serifs were outlawed by some obscure design decree apparently. ‘TH’ is blocky and grey, and the curled ‘Q’ shows a consistent, solid width. The Q looks like a half-hearted question mark for some indiscernible reason. Grey usage in company logos seems to be a fetish of video game companies at the moment. It’s supposed to suggest the maturation of the field, but it generally just comes off as uninspired. Here, we’re supposed to believe that the new logo will be ‘the new THQ’, a place of ‘change, innovation and creative growth’. With publishers like this labouring under industry conditions, such an unobjectionable yet completely forgettable logo is only going to harm a company.

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