Philipp Brock invited followers of the publisher’s franchise series such as Kingdoms of Amalur, Darksiders, de Blob, TimeSplitters and so on, by the official THQ Nordic Twitter, to his online discussion on 8chan, promptly answering their questions.
THQ Nordic Director Apologize For Child Pornography And Racism
An unknown 8chan account questioned him about “lolis”. This word is known referring to the drawings of sexual underage children. Together with the question was an extremely sensitive picture having 2 young girls, whose breasts are touched by an adult male. Surprisingly, Brock answered the question that “You got them already we’d say”.
Another 8chan user also said that: “Please don’t censor any games nor appeal to the SocJus crowd”. This time, Brock responded: “Thanks, we’ll try to stay that way”.
In half an hour of the discussion, Philipp Brock replied to all rising doubts on Twitter.
"The opportunity was here and we took it, we got approached in a very friendly and polite manner and were assured, said a person (shoutout to Mark) will take care of the nasty stuff. So here we are." And then, Brock continued with the AMA.” Then, Brock kept going with his AMA discussion.
After two hours, he had ended posting anything and finally, using the official THQ Nordic Twitter account to publish his swift apology for things that happened.
He wrote: "I personally agreed to this AMA without doing my proper due diligence to understand the history and the controversy of the site. I do not condone child pornography, white supremacy, or racism in any shape or form”, “I am terribly sorry for the short-sightedness of my (!) decision, and promise to be far more vigorous in my assessment of these activities in the future”, and “This was not about being edgy, this blew up and I very much regret to have done it in the first place.”
Brock said sorry on THQ Nordic Twitter account
THQ Nordic hasn’t left any further comment on this scandal. Brock hasn’t explained clearly enough the reason why he didn’t “do proper due diligence” researching 8chan, but still, at the same time, recognized some 8chan users would have to “take care of the nasty stuff”. He didn’t give an explanation for the engagement with users, chatting and uploading sensitive loli pictures. He also hasn’t clarified the reason why agreed with posting “SocJus crowd”, which should be used only to raise extraordinary campaigns of irritation.
And, most importantly, why THQ Nordic could think that someone who has any thoughts like this is still at the helm of its PR and marketing division.
The boss of Goat Simulator studio Coffee Stain, Anton Westbergh, was asked about this matter this morning. Coffee Stain and THQ Nordic are both have the same mother company called THQ Nordic AB. He was asked about what his feelings were when his studio has a connection with the bigger THQ Nordic name these days.
He began with a confirmation: “Just to be very clear: we publish our own games under the Coffee Stain brand," Westbergh began”. He also said, “Regarding whatever is going on in THQ Nordic GmGH, they clearly made a mistake. I don't know how they came to the conclusion this would be a good idea.”
As the result, it is trying to make a clear difference to THQ Nordic GmBH through Twitter.
Coffee Stain posted this picture on Twitter to make a clear distinction for followers
However, after this apology, on its Twitter account, THQ Nordic still share a link for the followers to connect to Brock’s 8chan AMA discussion. That tweet has been removed now. Coffee Stain posted this picture on Twitter to make a clear distinction for followers
At the moment, on the front page of 8chan, it is representing threads on rational anti-semitism called Nazism, as well as Pakistan and Indian military tension, which is currently using some racist terms. 8chan’s front page is also including the link to zoophilia and loli image broads.