Dark Horse Comics establishes gaming division

Dark Horse Comics has launched its own Dark Horse Games division, according to a VentureBeat report.

Founded in 1986, Dark Horse is best known as the publisher of Hellboy, and has also produced series like Umbrella Academy, Usagi Yojimbo, and Sin City.

The company plans to create its own games based on less established franchises and original properties, while partnering with external studios to bring its biggest brands to games.

Dark Horse Games will be led by general manager Johnny Lee, who previously held business development leadership positions at Docomo Digital and Improbable.

"We have evergreen properties, like Hellboy, where there will always be interest in making games and doing collaborations," Lee told VentureBeat.

"We and our partners can really evaluate if a story IP and character universe would be a good fit for games that they're internally designing and developing. I think most AAA devs that I've talked to prefer their game dev team to build core gameplay and then fit an IP to it, versus shoving an IP down their throats. We're sensitive to that."

Lee said the Dark Horse Games team will start small, with fewer than 10 people in its first year.