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THQ Nordic opens up shop in Japan

THQ Nordic opens up shop in Japan

European publishing company THQ Nordic is opening an operation in Japan.

THQ Nordic Japan KK has been incorporated in the region and will be handling PR, marketing and distribution of the company's titles - in addition to those of HandyGames - in Japan.

The operation is being headed up by Yuji Kato, who is taking on the role of managing director, while Junko Kato has come on board as a manager. They are joined by project manager Hiroshi Ogawa. All three previously worked at Yuji Kato's company Worker Bee.

“In our opinion, the only real way to truly embrace (pun intended) the Japanese market is to run it with a team of Japanese professionals, which was our approach for the new Japanese subsidiary. A warm, heartfelt welcome to the entire team based in Tokyo, Japan” THQ Nordic MD Klemens Kreuzer said.

“Good things come to those who wait and we took our time to realise it with the best setup possible.”

Kato added: “At this point, I would like to quote Persona 3: 'Two in Harmony Surpasses One in Perfection'. Our team is prepared, honoured and absolutely ready to kickstart THQ Nordic’s operations on the Japanese market. We are honoured that we were given this opportunity and can not wait to bring THQ Nordic content to our Japanese audience.”

This is the latest chapter in THQ Nordic's expansion. In August, the company purchased Milan-based racing studio Milestone in addition to Gunfire Games, the studio behind Darksiders. The company also bought investment outfit Goodbye Kansas.

It hasn't been the best year for THQ Nordic, however, with the company taking to controversial imageboard 8chan in February to do an AMA event.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.