And Internet rumour has surfaced that states that THQ now has the rights to include Nintendo characters such as Link and Zelda in its games.

The 'news' cropped up on a site dedicated to the defunct Philips CD-i console and is based on a THQ filing at the US-based, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). You can read that document here.

The blogging site - Interactive Dreams - states: "Producer and publisher THQ signed a deal with Nintendo where it gets the rights to use the characters like Mario and Zelda in their own games. Including the deal is that the games are to be published on Wii, advertised and traded in western half of the world until October 13, 2009."

This would be a coup of enormous proportions for THQ. It would, in fact, be a massive coup for anybody really, if you exclude SEGA and its Sonic & Mario At The Olympic Games outing.

The SEC filing is of a Form 8-K. According the the SEC, this, " Form 8-K is the “current report” companies must file with the SEC to announce major events that shareholders should know about". These events include, "Item 1.01 - Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement".

THQs Form 8-K, filed on October 12th states, in part:



So, you might, if pushed forget the words "Wii Console" and instead see the words, "certain of Nintendo’s intellectual property to develop..." as "Get the rights to Nintendo's most valuable IP in the biggest video gaming coup ever..."

You might...

We didn't. It looked to use like a standard development deal... so we asked Nintendo. Here's what its representative told us, "It's just a standard renewal of development agreement by THQ."

So, you can calm down, THQ shareholders. Although it might have been interesting to see Cryptosporidium 139 from Destroy All Humans versus Princess Peach, or The Saints from Saints Row going toe-to-toe with Link...


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