THQ: South Park marketing will be ‘shocking and disruptive’

South Park: The Stick of Truth will be backed by a ‘irreverent, shocking and disruptive’ marketing push.

THQ has promised to reflect South Park’s humour in its activity, which included a show-stealing appearance at the Video Game Awards in the US last week.

It would be pretty difficult to market and PR a game like South Park without being irreverent, shocking and disruptive,” said THQ’s European marketing director Jon Rooke.

After all that is the nature of the show. It is also a key pillar of the South Park brand’s marketing success to take relevant news stories and give them the South Park treatment – the opener to the VGAs, where Cartman beats the living snot out of Bilbo Baggins is just one example of how we are following that marketing execution into the video game campaign as well.”

THQ is very confident about the South Park game, insisting it’s not just a licensed cash-in.

The perception is that a lot of licensed games are poor or lazy. With The Stick of Truth and the deep level of involvement we have from [franchise creators] Matt and Trey, not only is this an authentic interpretation of the licence but it is also a quality game in its own right.”