THQ (short for Toy Headquarters) was founded in 1990 by Jack Friedman. As the name implies they planned to create and distribute products designed for children, including toys, board games and video games. To accomplish the latter, they acquired the video games division of Broderbund Software. In 1991, THQ merged with Trinity Acquisition Corporation (hence the official founding date, 1989).

The company further expanded its business with new sports/racing titles licensed from other studios or produced in-house, like MX vs ATV, WWE, WWF or UFC. Currently, THQ is one of the biggest publishers on the gaming scene with 11 studios across the globe (among them are Volition Inc, Big Huge Games and Relic Entertainment) and with games covering all the existing genres (Company of Heroes, Dawn of War 40,000 series - Strategy; Red Faction series - FPS; Titan Quest - Action RPG; MX vs ATV series and Juiced series - Racing; etc)