THQ Nordic / Nordic Games

THQ Nordic / Nordic Games is a developer and publisher.

THQ Nordic / Nordic Games Webpage, Facebook

THQ Nordic (formerly known as Nordic Games) is an Austrian publisher of PC and console games and is part of the Swedish holding company Embracer Group (formerly known as Nordic Games Group AB), headed by the company's founder and majority shareholder, Lars Wingefors. THQ Nordic is headquartered in Vienna, and its managing director is Klemens Kreuzer.

As a publisher, THQ Nordic owns a number of development studios:

1. Alkimia Interactive – founded in 2018 by THQ Nordic;
2. Appeal Studios – operating from 1995 to 2002 and revived in 2015 and then acquired by THQ Nordic in May 2021, known for the Outcast franchise;
3. Ashborne Games – founded in 2020 by THQ Nordic;
4. Black Forest Games – founded in 2012 and acquired by THQ Nordic five years later, known for Fade to Silence and Destroy All Humans!;
5. Bugbear Entertainment – founded in 2000 and acquired by THQ Nordic in 2018, known primarily for the three parts of the FlatOut series and Wreckfest;
6. Experiment 101 – founded in 2015 and acquired by THQ Nordic two years later, known for Biomutant;
7. Gate21 – founded in May 2021 by THQ Nordic;
8. Grimlore Games – founded in 2014 by Nordic Games and known for, among others, Spellforce 3;
9. Gunfire Games – founded in 2014 and acquired by THQ Nordic five years later, known primarily for Darksiders III;
10. HandyGames – founded in 2000 and acquired by THQ Nordic in 2018, whose portfolio includes games such as Jagged Alliance: Rage! and SpellForce: Heroes & Magic;
11. Kaiko – operating from 1990 to 1995, and then reactivated in 2015 and acquired by THQ Nordic in May 2021;
12. Mirage Game Studios – founded in 2016 by THQ Nordic, whose portfolio includes Little Big Workshop;
13. Nine Rocks Games – founded in 2020 by THQ Nordic;
14. Pieces Interactive – founded in 2007 and acquired by THQ Nordic 10 years later, developed, among others, the Magicka series and console versions of Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition and its expansions;
15. Piranha Bytes – founded in 1997 and acquired by THQ Nordic in 2019, creators of cult RPGs, led by the Gothic series;
16. Pow Wow Entertainment – founded in 2020 by THQ Nordic;
17. Purple Lamp Studios – founded in 2018 and acquired by THQ Nordic two years later, the developers of, among others, The Guild 3 and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated;
18. Rainbow Studios – founded in 1996 and acquired by Nordic Games after the bankruptcy of THQ; known mainly for series such as Motocross Madness and MX vs. ATV.

In just a few years, THQ Nordic has become one of the largest video game publishers not only in Europe but also globally. The vast majority of the company's publishing portfolio, however, consists of franchises and game series acquired from other publishers – either bankrupt or experiencing temporary financial difficulties, such as JoWooD Entertainment, Atari/Infogrames, or THQ. The foundations for THQ Nordic's current position, however, were laid by nearly two decades of development by the Nordic Games group, managed consistently by its original founder, Lars Wingefors.

THQ Nordic's operations do not focus on specific gaming platforms or genres. The company's portfolio includes classic productions from the late 1990s and 2000s, as well as newer, still-developing franchises such as the Darksiders series, Spellforce, The Guild, Desperados, Gothic, and MX vs. ATV. THQ Nordic's first original AAA title was the 2017 post-apocalyptic action RPG Elex, created in collaboration with the German studio Piranha Bytes.

History

Although THQ Nordic has only been operating in its current form since 2011 (previously as Nordic Games), the company's history stretches back much further, to the early 1990s. It was then that the current head of the Nordic Games group, Lars Wingefors, founded LW Comics, a small company specializing in the sale of pre-owned comic books. In 1993, however, his company shifted its focus to video games, focusing on pre-owned software and cartridges. At the same time, the new name, Nordic Games, was established; over the next few years, the company added new products to its portfolio and opened several more stores in Scandinavia.

In 2000, the British store gameplay.com (now game.co.uk) acquired Nordic Games for the considerable sum of nearly 6 million pounds. However, the new owner soon encountered serious financial difficulties, and Lars Wingefors capitalized on this by purchasing the company from him for a symbolic 1 Swedish crown. In 2004, he expanded the company's operations with a completely new project: a chain of video game outlets. This subsidiary, Game Outlet Europe AB, remains within Nordic Games Group to this day. Four years later, the company entered the publishing market, establishing its own subsidiary, Nordic Games Publishing, one of whose early successes was acquiring the distribution rights to the We Sing and Dance Party series for Wii and PlayStation 2.

The real breakthrough for Nordic Games, however, came in August 2011, when Nordic Games Holding announced that it had acquired the rights to all products and brands from the bankrupt JoWooD Entertainment, including productions from its subsidiary Dreamcatcher/The Adventure Company. This added several established brands to the publisher's portfolio, such as Spellforce, The Guild, Painkiller, and Gothic/Arcania, which were distributed by a newly established subsidiary of Nordic Games GmbH. Publishing rights for these games were transferred to Nordic Games Austria, while licensing agreements were concluded with the Swedish Nordic Games Licensing AB.

The aforementioned acquisition, however, was only the beginning of the company's true offensive. In February 2012, Nordic Games acquired the distribution rights to the boxed version of Alan Wake for PC from Remedy Entertainment, and a few months later, it acquired over fifty Scandinavian physical and online stores from its former owner, game.co.uk. In the following years, the company acquired the rights to other classic titles, such as Silver and the Desperados series, from Atari/Infogrames, and the licenses for several popular adventure games (including Overclocked: A History of Violence, The Moment of Silence, and The Black Mirror series) from the bankrupt German company DTP Entertainment AG. In December 2013, Nordic Games established the group's first development studio, Grimlore Games, which included key employees of the German company Coreplay. The studio, soon transformed into a limited liability company, began work on the third installment of the SpellForce series.

The most significant moment in Nordic Games' history to date came in April 2014, when the company acquired the rights to the name and a significant portion of the portfolio of one of the world's most distinguished game publishers – the bankrupt American company THQ. As a result of the acquisition, the Austrian publisher acquired such well-known brands as Darksiders, Full Spectrum Warrior, Juiced, and Red Faction. Along with these, Nordic Games also acquired trademarks previously owned by THQ, allowing for their future use and the continuation of some of the acquired series. At the same time, the company also took over the THQ-owned Rainbow Studios studio, known for series such as Motocross Madness and MX vs. ATV. In June 2015, the company began working with Piranha Bytes, the original creators of the Gothic/Arcania series, and in August, it acquired the rights to the Jagged Alliance series as well as other series from bitComposer Games. In February 2016, Nordic Games added the intellectual property of the Hungarian studio Digital Reality (e.g. Haegemonia: Legions of Iron and the Imperium Galactica series) to its portfolio.

On August 12, 2016, Nordic Games decided to revive the bankrupt THQ brand, whose former titles had become the foundation of the company's publishing portfolio. As explained by the group's CEO, Lars Wingefors, the brand, which had been operating since 1993, has become permanently etched in the minds of gamers as an inseparable part of many series Nordic Games had already developed. Consequently, the company changed its name to THQ Nordic, simultaneously adopting elements of its predecessor's original logo. On the last day of that month, the company released a remastered version of the iconic Titan Quest, which first debuted on PC and then on consoles in 2018. Less than three months later, the company's portfolio grew bigger thanks to several classic brands when Novalogic, a company established in 1985, sold the rights to its games, along with the studio's trademark, to THQ Nordic. The transaction included, among others, titles such as F-16 Multirole Fighter, F-22 Raptor, Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, Tachyon: The Fringe, and the legendary Armored Fist, Comanche, and Delta Force series. In December, THQ Nordic acquired the rights to Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, Legends of War, and War Leaders: Clash of Nations. At the end of the year, the company opened Mirage Game Studios in Karlstad, Sweden.

In February 2017, we learned that THQ Nordic had acquired the rights to the in-development Rad Rodgers game by Slipgate Ironworks. May brought a real treat for Darksiders fans when the publisher announced its third installment; the game was being developed by Gunfire Games, a studio that consisted of many former employees of Vigil Games, the series' former creators. In August 2017, THQ Nordic acquired the German studio Black Forest Games and the Swedish Pieces Interactive. In October, we got Elex developed by Piranha Bytes. In November, the company acquired the Experiment 101 team, which was working on the promising Biomutant. In December, we also got SpellForce 3, which was warmly received by players and reviewers.

In March 2018, THQ Nordic entered into a partnership with Nickelodeon, allowing it to release remastered versions of games based on its licenses, previously published by THQ. June brought the acquisition of the German company HandyGames, and in August, the publisher acquired the rights to the Second Sight and TimeSplitters brands. In September, the company acquired the rights to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and the unreleased Project Copernicus, as well as the rights to the Act of War and Alone in the Dark brands. In November, the publisher acquired almost all (90%) of the shares in Bugbear Entertainment and the rights to the Expeditions brand. At the end of the month, the highly anticipated Darksiders III was released. In December, THQ Nordic acquired the Carmageddon brand from Stainless Games. In January 2019, THQ Nordic acquired the rights to the Outcast franchise from Belgian Appeal Studios. In May, it acquired German studio Piranha Bytes, the developers of the first three installments of the Gothic series. In August, THQ Nordic acquired Gunfire Games.

In December 2019, the Gothic Remake project was officially announced, overseen by a Barcelona-based studio created specifically for this game. The developers released a short demo of their work and asked players to participate in a survey and express their opinions on the direction they were taking. Fans took advantage of this opportunity, and after analyzing their feedback, it was announced in February 2020 that Gothic Remake was finally green-lit.

In February 2020, the publisher established another studio – Nine Rock Games – while in May, THQ Nordic acquired the rights to franchises such as Risen, Rush for Berlin, and Sacred from sister company Koch Media, transferring the Red Faction and Painkiller brands in return. June for THQ Nordic was primarily marked by the release of Desperados III, which was developed by Mimimi Games, a studio specializing in real-time tactical strategies. In the following months, the publisher released the warmly received remake of Destroy All Humans! and Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning.

In May 2021, THQ Nordic announced that it had acquired two more development studios. Appeal Studios, whose portfolio includes the Outlast franchise, and Kaiko, whose portfolio includes a number of remasters released by the company. At the same time, THQ Nordic's HandyGames studio acquired the German Massive Miniteam. Furthermore, the publisher announced the opening of a new development studio, Gate21, based in Sarajevo, tasked with creating 3D character models.