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THQ Lives Again As Nordic Games Rebrands Itself THQ Nordic
Out of the ashes of THQ’s second bankruptcy auction, a dark horse emerged to snap up much of the company’s back catalog. Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Red Faction, Destroy All Humans, and more ended up with the little-known Nordic Games.
Everything comes full circle as the company has now fully reincorporated as THQ Nordic. Founder and owner Lars Wingefors will lead the new company as he did Nordic Games before it. This isn’t a simple rebranding and aligns with the publisher’s significant growth over the past eight years, though prior to this Nordic did announce its plans to publish under the THQ name.
During that time, THQ Nordic has grown from two employees to eighty-four, with studios in Phoenix, Arizona (Rainbow Studios), and Munich, Germany (Grimlore Games). When we first spoke to Nordic after its acquisition of dozens of THQ properties, the company shied away from in-house development.
That has clearly changed, with the owned studios, but THQ Nordic is also continuing to work with development partners. Currently, the company has 23 games in development, 13 of these haven’t been announced.
THQ Nordic will make its debut at Gamescom. There, the company is showing off Battle Chasers: Nightwar, ELEX, Spellforce 3, Darksiders Warmastered Edition, The Dwarves, Warhammer: Vermintide, Aquanox, and We Sing.
Our Take
I expressed my surprise and concern when Nordic picked up much of THQ’s library. However, the company has grown since then, and has partnered with studios to deliver high quality collector’s editions (including the Quantum Break PC edition announced this week). THQ’s fall was tragic, and I’m hopeful Nordic is up to the challenge of redeeming its name.
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