Publisher THQ went bust last year, bringing to an end a story which dates right back to the days of the NES and Game Boy. The company's assets were sold off at auction and Nordic Games came away with plenty — including the rights to franchises such as Red Faction and Darksiders.
Nordic Games general manager Klemens Kruezer has now revealed that it also owns the rights to the THQ name, and will be publishing games under it in the near future:
The challenging fact is nobody has ever heard about Nordic Games before [the THQ auction]. There were so many articles with the headlines 'Who the f*** is Nordic Games?' [that] we said, 'Okay they were right. We have seen an uplift in the name of Nordic Games, and what we have also done is we have made a second deal with THQ where we bought the THQ trademark.
Kruezer also says that the Darksiders franchise will make a return, but the company wants to avoid making a poor sequel and tackle the game when the time is right. Darksiders II was of course a Wii U launch title.
[source eurogamer.net, via polygon.com]
Comments 36
Oh please let this happen! Darksiders is amazing.
Probably won't come to Wii U so I don't really care.
I passed on Darksiders II for Wii U because it didn't have the first Darksiders. Why Nintendo thought it was a good idea to have a launch line-up of sequels to games that most of their audience had never played is still beyond me.
@CaviarMeths I doubt Nintendo had a huge amount of say over what third party developer/publishers bought to the console at launch to be fair.
THQ was one of my favorite developer/publisher. They released solid games almost always bug free. Plus they owned the rights to a lot of amazing Warhammer games ^_^
@FragRed That's true, but that just makes me wonder why Nintendo decided to launch the console at all at that time without at least a couple of system sellers. All it had for almost half a year was NSMBU.
@CaviarMeths That is very true and it was the same with me, though I did get the ZomiU pack, I got bored of the game pretty quick. Nintendo needs to come out all guns blazing with the next system I feel if they are to stand any chance as they will be going up against consoles that have been on the market for a good 3 or 4 years.
That reminds me. I've still yet to play my version of the game I bought like 3 to 4 months ago. I blame other games for that. I really want to play this and see for myself how good it really is. Seems right up my alley!
The Four Horseman ride again!
@CaviarMeths
Didn't really matter. Darksider's 2's story does continue on from the original but it follows a different character and I never felt like I was missing out on things from the first one. Here are 5 reasons why you should get it:
1) Incredibly cheap (I got it for less than £10)
2) Fantastic soundtrack by Jesper Kyd (Borderlands, Assasin's Creed, Hitman)
3)Great overworld exploration
4) Huge variation in environments across 5 "worlds"
5) Great Zelda style dungeons with meaty puzzles and fun boss battles
Not a perfect game but fantastic value if you missed it.
Darksiders was a brilliant franchise,though I echo other comments,releasing darksiders 2 but not darksiders 1 wont have won over many nintendo only fans. Hope darksiders 3 comes out. What would be a great move by nordic games I think would be to rerelease d1 and 2 in a repackaged pack for wii u. Id pay full price for that...but who am I kidding
@CaviarMeths playing the first game was not important. I am glad they brought all these games because I really enjoyed them especially with gamepad features.
I... doubt it's a good idea to use a name with bad reputation as means of a marketing boost. Keep your own name out on front, Nordic! And please, by all means, plan carefully once you guys get working on a new Darksiders. There's a lot of trial and error involved with continuing a series from others, and Darksiders is a very difficult case.
I think it would be a better idea to repack the first two games as remakes and bring some new elements in them to get a feel for it first, and make a new entry only with the original writers and artists!
I think you are all missing the point - it doesn't matter if you needed to play Darksiders 1 or not to enjoy D2, the fact is people weren't given the chance and they know it was a sequel. It's not like Wii U got Final Fantasy 47 and people would just know it's a new unrelated game, it was Darksiders 2, it was related to 1. And it was all part of Nitneod's misguided strategy to appeal to "hardcore" gamers at launch - Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3, Batman Armored Core, and Assasin's Creed all launching alongside the Pro controller, it's very existence at launch signaling a problem for the Gamepad.
Well that was half the launch strategy, an all out blitz on the hardcore w/ "adult" games and a Pro conroller - all looking very much like the PS3s ad Xbox360s they all already owned, so no sales there except for people who really wanted another zombie game. The other half strategy being the asynchronous gameplay of Nitnedo Land, and nobody knew what that meant, let lone wanted it. Hence the slow start to Wii U sales. It wasnt the Gamepad, it was that half the games didn't use it, and the other half used it poorly, the Gamepad itself is fine. Though that unused TV button is a sore spot for some.
Thank goodness those days are behind us w/ MK8, SSB and Zelda, I'ld like to forget all about them.
And probably THQ is best forgotten as well, a bankrupted company. Nordic Games sounds a whole lot better to me. I wonder if they can use "Winter is Coming" as a company slogan?
I thought THQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States, which I understand means they have not strictly stopped operating, but in fact are in a state that should they be reorganised and able to pay off debts, are able to come back to life in the same manner as Interplay did. If that is the case then I guess selling their own name's trademark pretty much means that will never happen.
Come on, Nintendo.... try to get your hands on Darksiders...
I hope that includes the drawn to life series too. First one was excellent but the second was badly let down by the ending. The series still has big potential. I hope it's given another chance!
If it comes to Wii U i'll get excited. Until then, talk is CHEAP. I own Darksiders II but i don't play it anymore, mainly out of disgust that i can't play the first and no more were coming. We'll see.
Darksiders 2 is brilliant. I've only done 2 or 3 dungeons so far though, had to break for exams. And Mario Kart. And Wind Waker. And Deus Ex. And GTA V.
But, does anyone know, who bought de rights to de Blob?
Even though it will have the THQ name it wont be the same as THQ. Look at Acclaim games for example they were a powerhouse in the 80s and 90s until they went bankrupt. Then someone bought the name and now all they do is f20 MMOs.
Still even if the bring back the THQ name they already lost a good amount of the licenses that THQ had that people know them for like WWE and UFC for example.
Love Darksiders, i hope they can keep the same quality.
I'd like to know if they own the Aidyn Chronicles franchise.
Never played Dark Siders. I have a feeling it's a overhyped game just like Halo! Which was a big let down as well. Guess there's a game for everyone, but this is not for me
I look forward to a potential continuation of Darksiders. I enjoyed the series, and being able to see the story continue to play out would be awesome. I do wish Darksiders 2 for Wii U could've pulled a Bayonetta 2 and had the first game available with it as well.
Hopefully Nordic idea of putting Darksiders 2 Wii U on sale worked for them. If it sold they would bring games to Wii U
Pointless, despite their reasons given. Let THQ die already and let Nordic games be known around the world. It actually doesn't make sense. Is Nordic Games the Toy HeadQuarters now?
I rather we know of a new face if people weren't paying attention to THQ they wouldn't even tell they were bankrupt
Never played 1. Bought 2 for a tenner, loved it! Nuff said.
@C-Olimar
I think Nordic has the rights to de Blob. They also have rights to Deadly Creatures.
@FragRed I hope they don't come out with a new home console for at least 4/5 years, nintendo will never be on the same graphical level as the competition if the stick to Yokoi's ethic (take proven,cheap hardware and make good content with it) and to be honest i think the WiiU can provide interesting experiences my PC can't offer
Back on topic, DARKSIDERS WOO! i don't care if it isn't on WiiU (id play it on PC anyway ) but Darksiders is one of my favourite franchises, Zelda mixed with God of War combat!
They should bring the Darksiders collection over to Wii U just like the PS3 and 360 have, that would be a good start... oh and fix the game crashing and god awful framerates
@Alucard83 Well, then you missed out on something, because Darksiders is anything BUT overhyped and it's a great game with more than enough hours of puzzling, exploring and fighting to do, so if you like anything that crosses a Zelda like adventure with a dungeon crawler that also has ridiculously large end of level bosses in it, then you should pick this up if you have an Xbox 360/PS3 (or PC). It should be in the bargain bin by now, so it shouldn't cost you more than 10 to 15 bucks. As for Halo: I could agree with you to some extent if not for my idea that a lot of people always seemed to expect so much more from the series while it's basically just a sci-fi fps with a bit of a story tacked on for good measure. If you accept it for what it is, then most games in the series can actually be quite enjoyable. Just don't expect something epic. My opinion and recommendation on Darksiders stands, though. And for the meager price that you should now be able to get it for it will never be a miss, because if you try it and still don't like it then it definitely won't break the bank, unless it hurts you to spend 10 bucks...
Nordic Games is the absolute opposite of the bee's knees, as far as publishing/software development houses go, so I for one am quite sad that they were able to pick up a great series like Darksiders because frankly, they don't deserve it. For the Nintendo Wii they've given us "glorious" titles such as kart racer, truck racer, Sprint Cars, Super Truck Racer, Jungle Kartz, Rally Racer and Crash Car Racer. All of them complete and utter garbage and all made with the same lousy engine so if you own any one of these titles, then you can skip all the others because the only thing that's different is the type of cars and the tracks. All the interfaces and menus are an interchangeable, bland rehash of basic menus found in a lot of sub-par games from the 80's and 90's and the gameplay in all games is EXACTLY the same, so them picking up a title that is actually WAY too big for them to even lay their hands on, hardly inspires me with any sort of confidence. In my humble opinion Platinum Games should have won Darksiders. At least they would know what to do with it and they would certainly do right by the series...
I hope this does happen!
Darksiders is f#ckin brilliant couldn't get enough and I can't wait to play the next one!
If nordic games can't do it then I hope they sell it to someone else
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