Today THQ and World Wrestling Entertainment announced that they've extended their licensing agreement. THQ will have exclusive worldwide rights to create games based on WWE for eight more years.

"This agreement ensures that WWE games will continue to be an important cornerstone of THQ’s annual release schedule for the long term,” THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell said. “We look forward to working directly with WWE to expand their brand in the video game space through continued game play innovation and increased online delivery of WWE content.”

The eight year deal will cost $13.2 million dollars in total. It's a big sum of money but as the press release notes, WWE video games have racked up over $1.4 billion in sales since the nineties. It's one of the top 10 selling brands in the North American gaming market since 1995 according to the NPD group.

Fighting games are a big chunk of THQ's business. The publisher also owns the exclusive rights to create Ultimate Fighting Championship games. That license is set to expire in 2011 so perhaps they'll look to re-up that one soon, too.