The name THQ has been out of the spotlight for a while, as the publisher declared bankruptcy in December 2012 and its assets were auctioned off to various developers a month later.
Following the demise of THQ, Crytek acquired Homefront, Sega snapped up the Warhammer 40,000 series, and South Park: The Stick of Truth went to Ubisoft — while Metro and Saints Row were bought by Deep Silver. Many of the remaining IPs, including Darksiders, Red Faction, and Destroy All Humans!, were auctioned to a little known publisher called Nordic Games.
In addition to acquiring many of the company’s major franchises, Nordic Games bought the rights to the THQ trademark. In order to more closely associate itself with the the recognizable brand, the publisher will now operate under the name THQ Nordic.
Addressing the decision to rebrand, CEO Lars Wingefors said:
“Whilst we take great pride in our Swedish roots and accomplished a great deal under the Nordic Games masthead, we decided it was time to incorporate the THQ name. Those key brands will continue to shape our business in a meaningful way going forward, and THQ Nordic represents a core approach of doing much more than “owning” a highly competitive portfolio of IPs. We cherish them, and align them with the very best development resources to expand upon them with the level of experience that communities and established fan bases expect and deserve.”
THQ Nordic has reportedly 23 games in development, 13 of which have yet to be announced — with the majority of these based on former THQ-owned franchises. Given the recent emphasis on the Darksiders series (Darksiders 2 got a remaster last year and the original is set for the same treatment with Darksiders: Warmastered Edition) our money’s on Darksiders 3 being among them.
