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What The New THQ Logo Means

When it comes to video game publishing, there are successively fewer players. The game is changing: digital distribution is strengthening empires and weakening others. On the bright side, the console makers, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, couldn't be healthier for the time being. 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. Issues for THQ in recent times included nearly half a billion of lost revenue and several layoffs.

THQ is a brand essentially known only by its acronym. Even industry insiders confess that they are ignorant of the fact that 'THQ' means 'Toy Head-Quarters'. Calling video games 'toys' is something of an industry taboo nowadays, and it clashes with a future release plan that includes violent titles like 'Saints Row 3' and the speculative fiction title 'Homefront'. In fact, the whole naming thing seems amusing when you consider that the 'Play THQ' spinoff are renowned for kid-friendly Pixar and Nickelodeon games. So, it's an inevitable do over for THQ's old Custom Logo Design, a somewhat forgettable sort-of-digital typeface with turn of the millennium italicisation. Frankly, the old design was a bit of a nineties relic and won't be sorely missed.

Is the latest logo design up to scratch though? The new design is prone to ageing and along the lines of everything you've seen in logo design for the last five years. Emphasising regular widths in every aspect of the lettering, it's a clean, uniform logo with a grey 'TH' and red 'Q'. 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. Citing 'change innovation and creative growth' for a 'new THQ', the logo also features tired rhetoric. In short, it's no objectionable. But it's not going to be another weapon in the arsenal of the brand either.