THQ sells of remaining IP for $6.55 Million

Written by Brandon Hofer on April 28, 2013

THQ Assets News: The four horsemen have found a new home as Nordic Games now owns the Darksiders franchise.

The troubles of THQ have been well documented as has the sale of all of their properties over the past few months. Some properties such as the Saints Row franchise and Metro Last Light were snapped up by Deep Silver while others such as the South Park game were grabbed by Ubisoft. Unfortunately, not everything was sold at that time which left THQ with having to hold an auction to try and sell off their remaining assets.

Bidding for these assets closed on April 15 and we just recently learned what companies will be receiving what franchises. Keep in mind this is all pending approval by the Bankruptcy Courts but there really shouldn’t be any problems there. Three buyers emerged to pay $6.55 million for the six available lots. The $6.55 million sale of the IP assets breaks down as follows:

$4.9 million from Nordic Games Licensing AB, a Swedish-based video games publisher, for Darksiders, Red Faction, MX vs ATV, Other Owned Software (includes Destroy All Humans!, Summoner and more) and other licensed software (includes Marvel Super Hero Squad, Supreme Commander and more)

$1.35 million from Gearbox Software, LLC, a Plano, Texas based developer for Homeworld

$300,000 dollars from 505 Games Srl, an Italian video game publisher, for Drawn to Life and Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter.

THQ expects the Bankruptcy Court to hear the sales motions on May 13, 2013 and to finalize the sales transactions thereafter.

On a personal note, I am a huge fan of the Darksiders franchise and I wanted to see it go to Crytek since that is where a lot of the Vigil guys are now. Nordic Games got it though and for their part they immediately opened up forum threads to ask the community what they want out of not only Darksiders 3 but of the franchise itself. Of course it is far too early for them to make any type of game announcements but it made me feel better that they were trying to get feedback from the community to try and ascertain what everyone feels about the franchise. Judging by the comments in the forum there is a lot of love for the franchise and even some of the creators from Vigil Games have joined in on the discussion. If you would like to put in your two cents you can do so by visiting the Darksiders thread on the Nordic Games forum. Additionally, if you are a big fan of some of the other titles that Nordic Games acquired in this auction you can also voice your opinion by visiting the “Discussion about THQ IPs” forums.

What do you think about these developments? Which franchise do you hope gets another iteration?