The Witcher 3 Switch Dev Saber Interactive Snapped Up By THQ Nordic Parent Company

They really love to buy companies. Makes Tencent look uninterested in the gaming industry.

Maybe that's why they erased all info about the Witcher 3 update. Maybe this deal spoiled the plans on that, or perhaps the update is on hiatus till they can get everything situated. I'm hoping it doesn't get canned all together.

@patbacknitro18 uh, the update just went live.

@nhSnork Was it a standard update, or was it THE update?

@patbacknitro18 It's still a valid thought on why they removed the content related to this latest update.

It was THE update: Cloud saves with GOG & Steam, graphical options...etc..

Will this mean they will not be hired to do more ports by other devs? That would be a shame

Good purchase by THQ Nordic.

@patbacknitro18 it is very much THE update.

Switch off AA and increase sharpening until your heart's content.

I'm honestly blown away with how good it looks now. No more momentary ponderings such as "hmm. Shame it looks so blurry"

I’m not entirely sure if this is a good purchase to be honest. What has attracted so much attention to Saber Interactive is the port work they’ve done- they don’t have IP or their own catalogue. The work is done by employees, who can and will eventually leave. So what THQ Nordic has paid for is some offices, some computers, and the name of the business.

I can’t help but think it would have been more cost affective to offer the really good staff jobs in THQ instead.

How much money does THQ Nordic have? They seem to have bought a lot in the last 5 years.

It is generally not a good thing when companies have so much money that they buy up all the smaller companies and grow even bigger. I'm not a fan of it TBH.

Aren’t these the people buying everyone up? How about releasing some of these properties? Like time splitters trilogy.

If THQ Nordic bankrupted, it would take a lot of games with it

@Gwynbleidd
No, but as usual as these things go we have no say in it.

@Octane
I agree, companies that build themselves up this way have a bad habit of turning into something that doesn't work well for consumers.

@Gwynbleidd Plain and simple, the saber owners sold out on their business. Money talks!!

Great...

So no more Saber games for me either.

@Coach_A Could you share your settings (especially for handheld)?

I wish Doom 2006 would give us similar options. I don't mind some ugly edges or textures – but man I hate over use of AA and Blur effects. Amazing as Doom is it feels like your watching a DVD – there is a disconnect because of the AA.

I'm not a fan of THQ Nordic, not in the slightest. It's quantity over quality with that lot. I remember reading last year they had over 80 games in development so it's no wonder nearly all their ports are rough. All they care about is getting as many games out there as possible. If I remember correctly, the original THQ were much the same.

Interesting news. Now birth us some new games with that bad boy!

Whats the version number post-update? Downloaded the game yesterday and mine is 3.6 now. No update found. Cheers!

At least they were not bought by one of the usual big companies like EA or Activision. That would be worse.

@OorWullie Well maybe now that they have an in-house team to take care of ports we will see some good ones.

@Jokerwolf Hopefully that's the case.

@sportvater 3.6 is the latest version.

Hey, if the head honchos of EA, Blizz/Acti, THQ and Tencent all come together we pretty much have our selves a monopoly.

THQNordic is my favorite 3rd party Dev for a lot of reasons, and I see this as only good news.

If they use the studio in the way I would, they would have them making comparable ports of their biggest games heading to PS4. This deal could bring us Biomutant, Destroy All Humans, and (this one is just for me I guess) Darksiders 3.

Aside from a few egregious collectors editions, I think that THQNordic has so much capital because of their smart release decisions so far. The overhead on ports is so low, and by all accounts their strategic releases mixed in with a few smart newer titles have bought them a lot of good will. I have 14 Nintendo published games and 7 THQNordic games, no other publisher even cracks 3 titles on my Switch!

So, this means that saber was learning how to port with Vampyr (that game's performance is really bad) and then moved on to Witcher.

I didn't know it was the same devs, but that explains a lot now.

It's a shame, I've finished Vampyr despite the graphics and performance being so bad and still loved the game, would replay it to get the other ending if not for those flaws.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the EXACT same mistake the original THQ made that led them straight into bankruptcy liquidation by overreaching and buying too many external companies too quickly?

Hoping for A Destroy All Humans Remake port for Switch. If Saber could bring TW3 to Switch, DAH may be possible too.

@Gerald THQ is a Nintendo supporter, so they might still port games.

@NEStalgia actually yes.

Which made me wonder if a lot of the same people who contributed to those decisions back then are still the same people who are repeating their mistakes.

@Razer It's technically a completely different company. Nordic bought the name and assets but not much else. Technically it's not a THQ only thing. That's how an overwhelming amount of companies seem to annihilate themselves. Investors love leveraged buyouts. The same thing that's been sinking American retail giants and malls since 1986. The store might make 100M a year, but they need to make 190M just to cover their own buyout debt + interest, which will never happen.

That's what sunk THQ. And "new" THQ apparently learned nothing and wants to do it again.

See you at the bidding war against Ubisoft for the IP. I call dibs on Darksiders.

@OorWullie tix!

All about WWZ. Even skipping Steam did not prevent it from becoming a hit.

@brunojenso been playing entirely in docked since the update just to take it all in, but my setting changes are as follows

Anti-aliasing off
Sharpness low
Blur off
Motion blur off

And then I've been experimenting with turning bloom on and off and Depth of field on and off but I've not noticed anything exceptionally better with them off.

Just experiment and enjoy

@Timppis Why come up to conclusions so quick?

@dew12333 I agree, companies that build themselves up this way have a bad habit of turning into something that doesn't work well for consumers.
That's more true one more then one way. Buying someone to make you look better will get mud in your face in the end.

@Coach_A Cheers for that - very kind

@IceEarthGuard

THQ empire has already shown out it's values and how it views different aspects of human life. They are in direct contrast of the values and respect I have for diversity and ethics.

@Timppis Still, they said "While Saber will remain a standalone company within Embracer Group, we look forward to collaborating with them to elevate their ability to create and market premier titles."

Pretty sure that means Saber is basically still in control and still make their own decisions. You should read the article before you come to such a conclusion if you haven't.

World War Z port on Switch!

@IceEarthGuard

Saber may make their own decisions, but my money goes partly to the corporation that stands for values that I can not support.

It's not about artistic freedom or such things. It's about rights, values and being decent.