THQ follows Philips-Nintendo deal *update*
>> Friday, October 19, 2007
Producer and publisher THQ signed a deal with Nintendo
where it gets the rights to use the characters like Mario and Zelda in their own games. Including the deal is that the games are to be published on Wii, advertised and traded in western half of the world until October 13, 2009. This deal sounds like the Philips-Nintendo deal as was announced in 1991 although you know Philips never signed a deal to use the Nintendo characters. Let me point back to a quote made by a very close source:
"The deal to do the deal with Nintendo was given to us. It was in essence a gift as a result of other negotiations that Philips and Nintendo were having. Philips was to produce a gaming system for Nintendo that was CD based. There were significant discussions on this and in fact, at one point and announcement that there was joint development. Nintendo changed their mind pure and simple and elected to go another no CD based route."
As with the Zelda CD-i titles, Nintendo always kept the veto right for usage of their IP, and even the CD-i got approved by Nintendo, according to another CD-i developer: "I remember that Nintendo had final approval rights over the product, and they did see and approve all the Zelda games, but I think they thought of CD-i as some little niche product that they could safely ignore."
Thanks to: Aart, Tweakers, and our own sources for the quotes.
UPDATE: A THQ representative has since stated that the filing is a standard Wii developer agreement, suggesting that there is no specific Nintendo character/franchise being licensed.
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Spong takes up the news: "And Internet rumour has surfaced that states that THQ now has the rights to include Nintendo characters such as Link and Zelda in its games.
The 'news' cropped up on a site dedicated to the defunct Philips CD-i console and is based on a THQ filing at the US-based, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). You can read that document here.
The blogging site - Interactive Dreams - states: "Producer and publisher THQ signed a deal with Nintendo where it gets the rights to use the characters like Mario and Zelda in their own games. Including the deal is that the games are to be published on Wii, advertised and traded in western half of the world until October 13, 2009."
This would be a coup of enormous proportions for THQ. It would, in fact, be a massive coup for anybody really, if you exclude SEGA and its Sonic & Mario At The Olympic Games outing.
The SEC filing is of a Form 8-K. According the the SEC, this, " Form 8-K is the “current report” companies must file with the SEC to announce major events that shareholders should know about". These events include, "Item 1.01 - Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement".
THQs Form 8-K, filed on October 12th states, in part:
"On October 12, 2007, Nintendo of America Inc. (“Nintendo”) and THQ Inc. (“Registrant”) entered into a Confidential License Agreement for the Wii Console. The agreement grants the Registrant the right to use certain of Nintendo’s intellectual property to develop, have developed, have manufactured, advertise, market and sell video game software for play on Wii until October 13, 2009 in all countries within the Western Hemisphere (including possessions and territories) in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
"Nintendo charges the Registrant certain amounts under its current pricing schedule, which includes the cost of manufacturing and a royalty for the use of Nintendo’s intellectual property. Nintendo has the right to approve each game, including the game’s packaging, all printed materials distributed with the game and all marketing materials."
So, you might, if pushed forget the words "Wii Console" and instead see the words, "certain of Nintendo’s intellectual property to develop..." as "Get the rights to Nintendo's most valuable IP in the biggest video gaming coup ever..."
You might...
We didn't. It looked to use like a standard development deal... so we asked Nintendo. Here's what its representative told us, "It's just a standard renewal of development agreement by THQ."
So, you can calm down, THQ shareholders. Although it might have been interesting to see Cryptosporidium 139 from Destroy All Humans versus Princess Peach, or The Saints from Saints Row going toe-to-toe with Link..."
link: http://news.spong.com/article/14064?cb=955
Wow, this post triggered an enormous amount of visitors to this site! As you know, we contacted a representative of THQ to respond on the news and their reaction is posted above. Still it sounds strange to me, while they claim it's a regular developing deal. So every company who develops for Wii is able to use Nintendo characters, as long as Nintendo approves the quality of the game? True point, it happened with more companies, like Hudson (Mario Party), Capcom (Zelda), Bandai/Namco (Soul Calibur), Sega (Mario & Sonic at the Olympics). Anyway, Philips remains the only company who published games with Nintendo characters on a different console.
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