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Posts Tagged ‘THQ’

As part of a press conference going over their quarterly results, it came to light that while the WWE doesn’t expect the recent litigation between videogame maker THQ and toy maker Jakks Pacific to affect WWE much one way or the other, CEO Vince McMahon indicated a clear direction for the company as it relates to Jakks Pacific.

“Jakks are obviously not our friends,” McMahon said. “We’ve been going after them aggressively.”

The WWE is currently tied to Jakks Pacific through the rest of the year, but in January 2010 will be hooking up with Mattel as their toy partner. How this will affect THQ’s deal in unclear at this time, since Jakks has been involved with THQ’s game development for the past several years. Makes a person wonder if this means they’ll be able to get a John Cena figurine at Circuit City anytime soon.

Probably not.

Longtime WWE toy licensee Jakks Pacific has been ousted from their spot as the WWE licensee, according to media reports. While their current deal runs through 2009, in 2010, the new WWE toy licensee will be Mattel, Inc. Now isn’t that a dose of hoodia?

There has been bad blood between WWE and Jakks Pacific for a while; a while back, WWE alleged that Jakks attempted bribery to win a licensing deal and sued the company, but the case was tossed from court by a federal judge. The change of partners should come as no surprise.

There are no immediate details as to how the switch from Jakks Pacific to Mattel will affect the WWE’s videogame licensing. Currently, and for about a decade now, the license has rested with THQ, who has partnered with Jakks Pacific in making the game. Now that Mattel will take over the WWE toys license, it is unclear whether the videogame license is a separate contract, or whether Mattel is free to choose a new videogame partner. Mattel has an in-house label for videogames, Mattel Interactive, but they are mainly known for making educational software.

Time will tell.