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Nordic Games Finishes Acquisition Of de Blob Franchise
Today, Austrian publisher Nordic Games announced that it has acquired the de Blob IP from defunct publisher/developer THQ.
Last April, according to court filings Nordic bid $4.9 million for "substantially" all of THQ's IP (with exceptions like Homeworld, which went to Gearbox). de Blob was one of the properties picked up at the time, but a representative for Nordic Games told us that while the property was in one of the lots acquired, "we did not acquire entire lots, rather some titles which were in our focus." The representative continued, "One year ago, de Blob was not one of them. Well, time has passed and the conditions were right, so de bBlob found a new home today."
This appears to go against what Lars Wingefors, Nordic CEO, told us in an interview the day after the auction. "We had to bid on each lot," he said, "but we told them that we would pay a premium for the whole thing." Nordic later acquired the rights to publish under the THQ name, also.
Either way, the series is Nordic's to use. Although no specific news was announced regarding the company's plans for the franchise, Reinhard Pollice, business and product development director at Nordic, said in today's press release, "We will evaluate opportunities with the existing games, as well as potential sequels."
Our Take
Seeing as the series has appeared on myriad platforms, it will be interesting to see which ones Nordic thinks are a good fit for the franchise – either for a brand-new sequel or a re-release. The first game got attention for being on the Wii, but given that it can currently be difficult for some third-parties to thrive on the Wii U, perhaps a return to Wii U wouldn't be the best fit. That system would also be an interesting choice given that Splatoon – a title that appears to have been influence by de Blob – is already slated for the platform.
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