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CALABASAS, Calif. – June 3, 2009 – Emergent™ Game Technologies today announced that THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) has signed a master licensing agreement for the use of Emergent™ development products, including Gamebryo® and Gamebryo LightSpeed™. The deal will allow THQ’s internal and external developers to effectively create high-quality titles for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Nintendo Wii™ video game system and PC.

“We were impressed by Emergent’s approach of providing a single development environment that we can use to create any title on our product schedule,” said Roy Tessler, senior vice president, production and worldwide studios, THQ. “Their technologies will allow us to reduce the time we spend in redundant recreation of core technology.  Through rapid prototyping and rapid iteration, we can build better games with less risk by redirecting development resources to allow our designers to concentrate on innovating original game play.”

“THQ’s new license for Emergent’s development tech speaks to one of the main advantages of using Gamebryo and LightSpeed, which is the ability to quickly integrate game specific custom tech,” said Scott Johnson, president, Emergent. “Once developers and publishers realize they can spend their time on creating better entertainment and minimize risk by having the ability to create games in all genres and popular platforms on the same core development engine, they choose our technologies again and again.”

By providing core technology that is powerful and flexible enough to create titles for any game genre on multiple platforms, Emergent plans to help THQ lower the mounting costs associated with creating high quality assets, by building tech for multiple platforms and developing title-specific technologies.  Studios can use the time and money saved to improve game play, graphics and the overall quality of the title.  Gamebryo and LightSpeed offer numerous competitive advantages, including their open framework that can enable studios to plug in internally and externally created tech, have prompted studios across the globe to choose Emergent’s platform for more than 300 successful projects. 

Gamebryo provides a seamless and efficient framework coupled with the flexibility to quickly incorporate in-house and other third-party tech. The recent launch of the Gamebryo LightSpeed game development system brings studios the ability for rapid prototyping, iteration and development.

THQ is one of the world’s most prolific publishers with eight internal studios. The publisher is responsible for a diverse range of titles from quirky de Blob® to real-time-strategy Company of Heroes® to sandbox-style action-adventure Saints Row® 2.

 

For pricing information, please visit www.emergent.net/contactus

THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) is a leading worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software.  The company develops its products for all popular game systems, personal computers and wireless devices.  Headquartered in Los Angeles County, California, THQ sells product through its global network of offices located throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.  More information about THQ and its products may be found at www.thq.com. THQ, de Blob, Company of Heroes, Saints Row and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc.

About Emergent
Emergent Game Technologies works with developers and the industry’s top middleware providers to create state-of-the-art software and services needed to rapidly move from prototype to final product. These proven, stand-alone solutions include the award-winning Gamebryo software platform. Emergent helps developers fulfill their maximum creative potential by giving them the power to endlessly – and efficiently – iterate development.

Emergent is headquartered in Calabasas, California, and has offices in Chapel Hill, NC; Austin, Texas; London; Tokyo; China and Korea.  To learn more, visit www.emergent.net. 

Emergent Game Technology’s Gamebryo is used to create high-quality titles for PLAYSTATION 3 system, Xbox 360, PC and Wii. Publishers that have used Gamebryo in the past include: Disney, Google, Electronic Arts (EA), Take Two, Namco and THQ to name but a few.  Gamebryo has been used as the core tech in high profile titles such as EA-Mythic’s Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Firaxis’ Civilization Revolution. Gamebryo LightSpeed, the next leap forward in game development technology, offers game designers a cross-platform, cross-genre solution that has rapid prototyping, rapid iteration and real-time updates to simplify game technology creation and open the door to exciting gameplay possibilities.

To date, Gamebryo has been used in more than 250 shipped games titles from downloadable casual games to first-person shooters to massively multiplayer online games.  Another 150 titles are currently in development.