Nordic rebrands as THQ Nordic
Swedish publisher has 23 projects underway, with a majority of them based on acquired IPs from THQ
Nordic Games is now THQ Nordic. The Swedish publisher announced the move today, officially taking the moniker of the company that created Nordic's best known franchises, like Red Faction and Darksiders.
"While 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," the company said. "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 IP. 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."
Nordic was founded in 2008, and found some success with its own titles, most notably We Sing on the Nintendo Wii. However, the company soon adopted an acquisition-focused strategy that saw it pick up JoWood and the Adventure Company, as well as retailer GAME's Scandanavian operations.
When THQ went bankrupt in 2013, Nordic aggressively bid on its assets at auction, landing Darksiders, Red Faction, the MX vs. ATV franchise, Frontlines, Destroy All Humans, Titan Quest, Juiced, Stuntman, Full Spectrum Warrior, Drawn to Life, and Summoner. Unsatisfied with that cross-section of the defunct publisher's catalog, Nordic then acquired the THQ trademark itself, and to cap things off, the de Blob series.
While the THQ purchases were the biggest of Nordic's acquisitions, they weren't the last. Since then, the company has also picked up Desperados and Silver from Atari, as well as the PC strategy series Jagged Alliance and Codename: Panzers.
THQ Nordic said it has 23 games in development at the moment, 13 of which are unannounced and a majority of which are based on THQ brands.