Nordic Games buys brand name THQ

Austrian developer Nordic Games has acquired the brand name THQ. Klemens Kruezer, CEO of Nordic, informed Polygon on Friday. Acquiring the brand name would be outside of last year’s sales of THQ parts.

A possible reason for the purchase of the brand name is that the Austrian publisher itself does not have a great reputation. “It was a fact that hardly anyone had heard of Nordic Games before the THQ auction. There were so many articles after the auction with the headline: Who the hell is Nordic Games?” said Kruezer. By acquiring the brand name, Nordic Games has been given the opportunity to release games under the name THQ.

The fame of Nordic has increased since the auction of THQ parts, according to Kruezer; but that would also have negative sides. He says that as soon as the developer posts something about a new project on his Facebook page, the first reactions are immediately about the status of Darksiders III. “We ask the fans to be a little more patient with this. We want to have the time to develop a game that isn’t a bad sequel to the previous installment.” He says that next August there will be more clarity about the new Darksiders game at Gamescom.

Nordic Games bought the rights to Darksiders, Red Faction and MX vs ATV in the second auction of THQ parts last year for $4.9 million. The developer’s next upcoming game will be a new MX vs ATV. Nordic Games’ portfolio currently consists mainly of titles acquired through the acquisition of JoWood Entertainment. Through that studio, Nordic added the Guild and SpellForce series to its range, among other things. Nordic himself is best known for his Alan Wake games.

THQ was a game studio from America that produced the Saints Row and Company of Heroes series, among others. The company was declared bankrupt in early 2013. After the bankruptcy order, Sega and Ubisoft, among others, took over parts of THQ.