Gold-Plated “Royal Wii” Created for Queen Elizabeth II is Being Sold on eBay

Like Acclaim and Sega before it, no marketing stunt was ever considered too outlandish for the original incarnation of THQ.

Before the publisher went bankrupt in 2012, it used its marketing budget to hire expensive Hollywood talent like Guillermo Del Toro (who consulted on the story for the never-released Insane), while also doling out a few bucks to hire an army of porn stars to promote Saints Row 2 and Saints Row: The Third. But THQ’s marketing department had to get extra creative when promoting the company’s more family-oriented titles.

Sticking with the “family” theme, THQ tried to recruit Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the Royal Family in the marketing effort for 2009’s Big Family Games, a budget title that was similar to Wii Sports. While they were likely hoping for a slew of “Royal Wii” headlines, it was not to be, as Her Royal Highness was obviously not going to just stop off at the studio for a commercial shoot. So THQ went to her…

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What Happened? The Stories Behind Duke Nukem Forever, Street Fighter: The Movie, Madden NFL 06, and THQ

In his introduction to Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier wrote that a game developer once told him it’s a miracle when a team manages to complete a game. But not every team is so lucky, and the development cycle for even the most well-funded games can often turn into a comedy of errors.

In his introduction to Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made, Jason Schreier wrote that a game developer once told him it’s a miracle when a team manages to complete a game. Over the next 300 pages, developers from Blizzard, Bungie, and Naughty Dog reinforce this point again and again. Using brutal honesty, they all discuss how close they came to disaster.

But not every team is so lucky (including the members of LucasArts that Schreier interviewed for his last chapter), and the development cycle for even the most well-funded games can often turn into a comedy of errors.

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