THQ Nordic

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THQ Nordic GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 2012
Seat Vienna , Austria
management Klemens Kreuzer (CEO)
Reinhard Pollice (Business & Product Development Director)
Branch Computer and video games
Website thqnordic.com

Former logo until August 2016

THQ Nordic GmbH (2016 Nordic Games GmbH ) is an Austrian Computer Games - publisher based in Vienna . The company is part of the Swedish Embracer Group , which was called THQ Nordic AB until 2019 , and emerged from the takeover of the insolvent publisher JoWooD .

history

Beginnings

In 2011 Nordic Games AB took over part of the workforce of the insolvent Austrian game manufacturer JoWooD Entertainment AG . These were transferred to the newly founded Nordic Games GmbH based in Vienna. In addition, Nordic Games acquired the JoWooD product portfolio and the naming rights to the JoWooD, The Adventure Company and DreamCatcher Interactive brands , which the new subsidiary continued to use as a publishing label. As a result, Nordic also got some unpublished development work from Jowood. Nordic Games launched the already completed Fall of Setarrif add-on for Arcania - Gothic 4 as the first release in September .

On February 16, 2012, Nordic Games brought the PC version of the action thriller Alan Wake from Remedy Entertainment , which had previously only been available for the Xbox 360 and as a PC download, in brick- and-mortar stores. In June, Nordic Games published the standalone add-on Faith in Destiny for Spellforce 2, which Jowood had already commissioned from Mind over Matter . With Dungeon Lords MMXII , another Jowood title was released in September 2012 in a third version, revised by the original developer Heuristic Games. Nordic Games had previously announced in April that it would be working again on the game, which was released in 2005 with numerous bugs.

In July 2013, Nordic Games released the first of three episodes of the adventure title The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief , developed by King Art . The other episodes were published monthly. At the Gamescom computer game fair in August, the company announced for the first time that it would continue the Aquanox series. This came from the Jowood brand portfolio, but Nordic also had access to the preparatory work for a never-started underwater shooter from 4A Games through its THQ brand share . In September, Nordic Games also announced the third and final stand-alone add-on to Spellforce 2 , Demons of the Past , which, like Faith in Destiny, was developed by Mind over Matter. At the same time, without further details, the continuation of the Spellforce series was indicated with a third part. For this purpose, a team of developers from the former Coreplay Studios ( Jagged Alliance: Back in Action ) was recruited in Munich , which formed the core of the later Grimlore Games studio. With the announcement of a new game in the MX vs. ATV by the original development team, the development studio Rainbow Studios in Phoenix (Arizona) , which was closed by THQ in 2011, was revived.

Demons of the Past was launched in January 2014. In February King Art Games started a crowdfunding campaign for a sequel to the adventure game The Book of Unwritten Tales . The developers asked for money for additional development work. The core development was already financed by Nordic Games.

Takeover of THQ and change of name to THQ Nordic

In June 2014 Nordic Games announced that it had also acquired the brand name THQ and that it wanted to publish its games under this label in the future, as the company had not previously been able to build up sufficient awareness of its original name. On the Gamescom in August Nordic Games announced The Guild 3 at. Aquanox 3 was presented to a specialist audience under the new title Aquanox: Deep Descent , which the Serbian contract developer Digital Arrow was responsible for creating. Since the author of the predecessor, Helmut Halfmann, had already passed away, Deep Descent should not tie in with the story of the predecessor. In September 2015, the first chapter of The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 appeared in the Early Access program of the online provider Steam . In February 2015, The Book of Unwritten Tale 2 ended the early access phase and was therefore also available in stationary retail.

Together with the development studio Piranha Bytes , Nordic Games announced the science fantasy role-playing game ELEX in July 2015 , which was published on October 17, 2017. In November 2015, the publisher released a revised version of Darksiders 2 by Gunfire Games called Deathinitive Edition for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows. In December, the fourth, revised version of Dungeon Lords finally followed on the Steam distribution platform.

On August 12, 2016, Nordic Games announced that they would be renaming themselves THQ Nordic and thus bring the old THQ brand back to life. In this context, the company released a revised version of the former THQ title Titan Quest in early September of the same year , which was marketed as the Anniversary Edition.

Further acquisitions and in-house productions

In May 2019, THQ Nordic acquired the developer studio Piranha Bytes ( Gothic , Risen ) and the associated trademark rights. Piranha Bytes, who had previously developed a title for THQ Nordic with ELEX , have been a subsidiary of THQ Nordic GmbH since then. On December 13, 2019, THQ Nordic released the prototype of a remake of the first Gothic part. The remake is in development at the newly founded studio THQ Nordic Barcelona. Together with Gunfire Games, consisting of former developers from Vigil Games, THQ Nordic announced work on the third part of the Darksiders series in May 2018 .

In August 2019, the Swedish umbrella group THQ Nordic AB announced that it would rename itself to the Embracer Group in order to better differentiate between the activities of the publishing subsidiary and the group. THQ Nordic GmbH in Vienna will continue to operate under its previous name.

On December 13, 2019, THQ Nordic published the prototype for a remake of the computer game Gothic from 2001. The remake is under development at the subsidiary THQ Nordic Barcelona.

Internal development studios

THQ Nordic has several development studios around the world. In addition, games are also developed by external contractors.

The following development studios belong to THQ Nordic GmbH:

  • Rainbow Studios ( Phoenix / USA, founded in 2013)
  • Grimlore Games ( Munich / Germany, founded in 2014)
  • Mirage Game Studios ( Karlstad / Sweden, founded in 2016)
  • Black Forest Games ( Offenburg / Germany, takeover 2017)
  • Experiment 101 ( Stockholm / Sweden, acquisition 2017)
  • Pieces Interactive (Skövde / Sweden, takeover 2017)
  • Bugbear Entertainment ( Helsinki / Finland, takeover 2018)
  • HandyGames ( Giebelstadt / Germany, takeover 2018)
  • Piranha Bytes ( Essen / Germany, takeover 2019)
  • Gunfire Games ( Austin / USA, takeover 2019)
  • THQ Nordic Barcelona ( Barcelona / Spain, founded in 2019)

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nordic Games Holding AB Group Acquires JoWood & The Adventure Company . Nordic Games. August 16, 2011. Archived from the original on August 17, 2011. Retrieved on August 17, 2011.
  2. ^ Nordic Games Holding AB Group acquires DreamCatcher . Nordic Games GmbH. November 17, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2011. Retrieved on December 11, 2011.
  3. ↑ About Nordic Games GmbH
  4. ↑ Arcania: Fall of Setarrif - Addon for Gothic 4 appears via Nordic Games . In: PC GAMES . ( pcgames.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  5. ^ Richard Mitchell: Alan Wake getting boxed PC version from Nordic Games ( Memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Joystiq . January 27, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2019 (American English).
  6. ↑ Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny: Postponed due to Diablo III - 4Players.de . In: 4Players . ( 4players.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  7. ↑ BuckGB: GameBanshee. Retrieved June 20, 2018 .
  8. ↑ RPG classic Dungeon Lords gets remake - Title: Dungeon Lords MMXII . In: PC Games Hardware . ( pcgameshardware.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  9. ↑ The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief Tested - The Ugly Duckling - GameStar . ( gamestar.de [accessed on June 20, 2018]).
  10. ^ AquaNox reboot in development at Nordic Games . In: polygon . ( polygon.com [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  11. ↑ Aquanox - Possibly a new offshoot at Nordic Games in progress (update) - GameStar . ( gamestar.de [accessed on June 20, 2018]).
  12. ↑ SpellForce 2: Demons of the Past: Third and also last add-on announced . In: 4Players . ( 4players.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  13. ↑ Spellforce 3 - Nordic Games announces third episode of the strategy game series . ( gamestar.de [accessed on June 20, 2018]).
  14. ↑ Marcel Kleffmann: SpellForce 3: Developed by Grimlore Games. In: 4Players . Retrieved October 4, 2019 .
  15. ^ Brian Crecente: MX vs. ATV Supercross is playable at E3. In: polygon . May 15, 2014, accessed October 4, 2019 .
  16. ↑ SpellForce 2 - The last standalone addon "Demons Of The Past" is now available . In: GameStar . ( gamestar.de [accessed on June 20, 2018]).
  17. ↑ The Book of Unwritten Tales 2: Adventure sequel officially announced - Financing via Kickstarter . In: PC GAMES . ( pcgames.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  18. ^ THQ trademark acquired by Nordic Games . In: polygon . ( polygon.com [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  19. ↑ Gamescom: Nordic Games shows Aquanox 3, Die Gilde 3 and Spellforce 3 at the Cologne fair . In: PC GAMES . ( pcgames.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  20. ↑ Aquanox Deep Descent: Underwater crawl in the Wild West - Golem.de . ( golem.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  21. ↑ The Book of Unwritten Tales 2: Available for download from 4 p.m. on Steam Early Access . In: PC GAMES . ( pcgames.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  22. ↑ The Book of Unwritten Tales 2: Adventure will be released later - details on the Almanac edition . In: PC GAMES . ( pcgames.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  23. ↑ Elex - Sci-Fi meets Fantasy: The new Piranha Bytes game is coming to Gamescom . In: GameStar . ( gamestar.de [accessed on June 20, 2018]).
  24. ↑ Here Is Why Darksiders 2 Does Not Run At 60fps On PS4 / Xbox One, Would Have Caused Drop In Resolution, Video Game News, Reviews, Walkthroughs And Guides - GamingBolt. Retrieved June 20, 2018 (American English).
  25. ↑ BuckGB: Dungeon Lords Steam Edition Released, Changelog Available . ( gamebanshee.com [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  26. ↑ Nordic Games - Will revive 13 old THQ brands and become THQ Nordic. In: GameStar. August 12, 2016. Retrieved August 13, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition - On Steam and GOG, possibly free - GameStar. Retrieved September 3, 2016 .
  28. ↑ THQ Nordic acquires legendary game studio Piranha Bytes. May 22, 2019, accessed on May 22, 2019 .
  29. ↑ a b Andreas Bertits: Gothic: Remake announced, playable prototype published. In: PC Games . December 13, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019 .
  30. ↑ Alanah Pearce: Darksiders 3 Announced - IGN First. In: IGN. Retrieved May 2, 2017, June 18, 2018 (American English).
  31. ↑ Embracer Group: New name for THQ Nordic AB. In: Games Economy. August 14, 2019, accessed August 23, 2019 .
  32. ^ Announcement from THQ Nordic's annual general meeting. In: Embracer Group. September 17, 2019, accessed on September 22, 2019 .
  33. ↑ Andreas Bertits: Gothic: Remake announced, playable prototype published. In: PC Games . December 13, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019 .
  34. ^ THQ Nordic Barcelona. Retrieved December 14, 2019 .