THQ

THQ (Toy Headquarters) was an American video game company best known for publishing games based on licensed franchises. Founded in 1990, THQ filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and went defunct in 2013; their properties would get sold off to other companies, with some purchased by Nordic Games, which renamed themselves to THQ Nordic in 2016. After Microsoft purchased Rare Ltd. in 2002, Rare Ltd. was still allowed to develop games for competitors' handhelds, including Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, as Microsoft had no stake in the portable console market. THQ published Rare Ltd.'s original games for these systems; in the case of Banjo-Kazooie, these games were Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge and Banjo-Pilot.