THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) today
announced that Viva Piñata®:
Pocket Paradise™ is scheduled for release
this fall for Nintendo DS™. The game is based
on Microsoft Game Studios’ highly-rated
original Viva Piñata game for Xbox 360®
video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Viva Piñata:
Pocket Paradise features an array of content exclusive to Nintendo
DS and an intuitive control scheme designed to take full advantage of
the DS touch screen and stylus, making it a breeze to navigate through
the garden.
“Nintendo DS is the perfect platform for the Viva
Piñata franchise because players can have
direct interaction with the environment and their piñatas
using the stylus,” said Bob Aniello, senior
vice president of worldwide marketing, THQ. “We
are thrilled to introduce Microsoft’s
critically-acclaimed Viva Piñata series
to an entirely new segment of the gaming community.”
In Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, players
will inherit a neglected garden on Piñata
Island and turn it into a piñata paradise by
tending to all aspects of cleaning the garden, growing and maintaining
vegetation, caring for and breeding piñatas,
as well as attracting new piñata species. The
game features seven all-new piñata species,
each with new requirements, houses and unique cut scenes. Viva Piñata:
Pocket Paradise also includes twelve full motion video clips that
serve as tutorial levels within the game. The videos feature the stars
of the Fox 4Kids Viva Piñata TV
series, including Hudson Horstashio™, Fergy
Fudgehog™ and Paulie Pretztail™.
The brand-new Playground mode allows players to create a lush garden
full of exciting and exotic piñatas in a very
short amount of time. In addition, certain rare piñatas
can only be acquired by using the Nintendo DS local wireless connection,
where players can transfer items from their garden to a friend’s
garden.
Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise is
developed by Rare Ltd., one of the world’s
leading video game developers and masterminds behind some of the most
popular video games in history, including multi-million-dollar sellers “GoldenEye”,
“Perfect Dark”, “Banjo-Kazooie”
and the “Donkey Kong Country”
Series. From 2005 to 2006, Rare released “Perfect
Dark Zero”, “Kameo:
Elements of Power” and “Viva
Piñata” for Xbox
360. Rare continues to entertain the world with the release of “Banjo-Kazooie:
Nuts & Bolts” and “Viva
Piñata: Trouble in Paradise”
later this year. For more information on this game, as well as
additional THQ titles, please visit www.thq.com.
About THQ
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 and the
THQ logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc.
Viva Piñata © 2007
Microsoft Corporation. Viva Piñata and
related characters are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
4Kids TV © 2007 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. All
Rights Reserved. 4Kids TV is a trademark of 4Kids Entertainment, Inc.
Nintendo DS is a trademark of Nintendo.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
The statements contained in this press release that are not
historical facts may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates
and projections about the business of THQ Inc. and its subsidiaries
(collectively referred to as "THQ"), including, but not limited to,
expectations and projections related to the Viva Piñata:
Pocket Paradise video game, and are based upon management's current
beliefs and certain assumptions made by management. Such forward-looking
statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by
such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to,
business, competitive, economic, legal, political and technological
factors affecting our industry, operations, markets, products or
pricing. Readers should carefully review the risk factors and the
information that could materially affect THQ's financial results,
described in other documents that THQ files from time to time with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Quarterly Reports on
Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal period ended
March 31, 2007, and particularly the discussion of risk factors set
forth therein. Unless otherwise required by law, THQ disclaims any
obligation to update its view on any such risks or uncertainties or to
revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these
forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the
date of this press release.
