THQ Nordic is Still Apologizing for Last Week's Disastrous 8chan AMA

THQ Nordic's parent company is now apologizing for the controversial AMA.

News by Matt Kim, News Editor

Updated on 4 March 2019

Following THQ Nordic GmbH Vienna's decision to hold an Ask Me Anything on the online forum 8chan, parent company THQ Nordic AB has issued a statement. It is in response to complaints over the initial AMA which took place on a site known for racism, hate speech, and temporarily having been delisted from Google for hosting child pornography.

THQ Nordic GmbH (a subsidiary of THQ Nordic AB) hosted the AMA last Tuesday after having been assured that "nasty stuff" would be taken care of. THQ Nordic's marketing director Philipp Brock, who participated in the AMA, later issued a statement where he claimed ignorance of the site's history. Brock also had to make it clear that that he does not "condone child pornography, white supremacy, or racism in any shape or form."

THQ Nordic AB's co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors initially referred press to Brock's original statement but has since issued a separate statement six days later. Wingefors addressed the incident today in a letter addressed to THQ Nordic employees, partners, and consumers.

This letter is to offer my sincerest apologies and regret for THQ Nordic GmbH Vienna's interaction with the controversial website 8chan last Tuesday, February 26. I condemn all unethical content this website stands for. Even if no one within the THQ Nordic Group would ever endorse such content, I realize simply appearing there gave an implicit impression that we did.

As Co-Founder and Group CEO of THQ Nordic AB, I take full responsibility for all of THQ Nordic GmbH's actions and communications. I have spent the past several days conducting an internal investigation into this matter. I assure you that every member of the organization has learned from this past week's events. I take this matter very seriously and we will take appropriate action to make sure we have the right policies and systems in place to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

As a Swedish based, fast growing group, we firmly support equality and diversity. We are also working actively to combat discrimination, harassment, and misconduct. We are already in the process of developing new work processes, based on the United Nations' SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and using the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) standards, and we will accelerate this work going forward.

We have reached out to THQ previously for more explanation on how the situation arose. We've also contacted THQ partner Nickelodeon numerous times for a statement but have yet to hear back.

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Matt Kim

News Editor

Matt Kim is a former freelance writer who's covered video games and digital media. He likes video games as spectacle and is easily distracted by bright lights or clever bits of dialogue. He also once wrote about personal finance, but that's neither here nor there.