Topic: RE: THQ and Nickelodeon Remain Buddies

[NewsBot]

The publisher might lose WWE, but it will have exclusive access to Nickelodeon's franchises until 2010.

THQ Named Nickelodeon's Master Interactive Licensee Through 2010; Companies Renew One of Industry's Most Prolific Relationships

Companies Announce Key Brands for Fiscal 2006

CALABASAS HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2004-- Nickelodeon, a division of Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B) MTV Networks, and THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) today announced that they have extended their long-standing master interactive licensing agreement through 2010. The exclusive worldwide partnership grants THQ rights to continue to publish games based on all existing and future animated TV and movie properties targeting kids ages 6-14 across all viable game systems.

"Since the inception of our partnership in 1998, THQ and Nickelodeon have pioneered kids gaming, releasing six number one titles and selling through more than 20 million units worldwide," said Leigh Anne Brodsky, President, Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products. "THQ has been a great partner to date and we look forward to building our videogame business into an even more important category for Nickelodeon."

"As proud as we are of our many achievements over the years, we are even more excited about what the future of this partnership holds," said Brian Farrell, President and CEO, THQ. "Nickelodeon's ability to identify, develop and market the best content for kids is unparalleled. We are thrilled with the ongoing success of brands like SpongeBob SquarePants and our jointly developed 'Tak' property and look forward to growing our business with the launch of several new Nickelodeon properties including Barnyard and Danny Phantom."

THQ and Nickelodeon Successes:

THQ and Nickelodeon first partnered for the 1998 release of Rugrats for the original PlayStation. Since then, the two companies have launched games based on more than 10 leading Nickelodeon brands in the interactive space including Jimmy Neutron, Nicktoons, The Fairly OddParents and the ubiquitous SpongeBob SquarePants. Through their unprecedented "games first" agreement, THQ and Nickelodeon launched original cross-media property "Tak and the Power of Juju" in October 2003 followed by its sequel "Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams" earlier this month. The two companies look forward to the worldwide cross-platform release of "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," to coincide with the first ever SpongeBob SquarePants theatrical release, this holiday. THQ develops and publishes wireless content based on selected Nickelodeon properties through a separate agreement with Nick.com.

THQ and Nickelodeon Announce 2005/2006 Key Brands:

THQ and Nickelodeon's fiscal 2006 line-up includes SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Nicktoons and Tak across multiple platforms; as well as games based on Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movie's holiday 2005 theatrical release, The Barnyard Movie. The two companies will also release games based on Danny Phantom and everGirl.

For more information about upcoming THQ and Nickelodeon projects, as well as THQ's other initiatives, please visit www.thq.com.

[Ian Sane]

While I normally don't like it when a licence is tied down to a sh!tty publisher (James Bond, WWE, The Matrix) in this case it doesn't really bother me.  No one is going to make good games out of Nickelodeon licences anyway so who cares if THQ holds on to it until 2010.

Now if they could just lose the WWE licence and we can get Aki working on them again then we'll be sitting pretty.

[Djunknown]

I guess its kind of late to ask for another Ren and Stimpy game. I'm sure they'll be kids who have no clue what I'm talking about...

Even if Aki by some stroke of luck start working on WWE games, who's going to publish it?If EA picked up the rights, I'm sure PGC'ers will go into their "EA's trying to take over the world" speech. I'm claiming ignorance on this one, but has Aki published their own stuff stateside? If so, I'll shut my pie hole

[nickmitch]

A Danny Fantom game could posibly work. I think that it has some potential but not a lot. . .

[KDR_11k]

I remember that I always hated Nickelodeon, especially as a kid. Not like it can get any worse.

[Aussie Ben PGC]

I saw that Invader Zim had a cameo in Freeze Frame Frenzy for the GBA, which is quite bizzare for Nickelodeon, who seemed to want to stamp him out of existance.  But then again, it did seem to be real half-assed, as Ms. Bitters was labelled "Mr. Bitters", the kid with the freaky webbed toes was labelled "Dib", and the Paranormal Investigator obsessed with Count Cocofang was called "Professor Membrane".