THQ announced a deal with Random House Publishing Group today, creating a joint team to create new intellectual properties that will span video games and books. The companies hope that they can then extend the properties to other media as well, and they plan to make world bibles for properties through the Random House Worlds division.

The relationship builds on the one established with Homefront, which had a prequel novel (The Voice of Freedom) published through Random House subsidiary Del Rey Books. We've seen similar cross-media models from publishing giant EA, which has turned properties like Dead Space into games, books, comics, and movies.

"Working with the incredible team at Random House, we expect to build a huge IP universe from the ground up, exploring the characters, settings, and stories of these worlds in ways that let each medium does what it does best, and giving fans a truly unequaled experience," said THQ core games director Lenny Brown in the announcement.