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The Rise and Fall of Embracer (aka THQ Nordic)

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
That's what I mean - after Joint Operation and few words about new DF there were silence. How developers/publishers live that long without game every ~3-5 years at least?

When this happens, what it usually means is that the company has de-facto shut down operations. It's just the owner collecting a monthly check from selling copies of his old games on Steam, same as Herve Caen's zombie Interplay.
 

Endemic

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It was just Garcia and 5 guys in an office last time I checked. Don't need a massive turnover for that. So yeah, what Infinitron said.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
Latest acquisition, one console action game and two strategy games: https://www.thqnordic.com/article/t...ranchises-new-additions-thq-nordics-portfolio

THQ Nordic Acquires Multiple Franchises – New Additions to THQ Nordic’s Portfolio
December 5, 2016

New additions to the THQ Nordic portfolio through acquisitions from Mobile Gaming Ltd. and Enigma Software Productions S.L.

Vienna (Austria), December 5
: Today, THQ Nordic announced that asset purchase agreements with Mobile Gaming Studios Ltd. and Enigma Software Productions S.L. have been closed.

Here is an extract of the acquired franchises and brands:
  • Sphinx (and the Cursed Mummy); Mobile Gaming Studios Ltd.
  • War Leaders: Clash of Nations (Enigma Software Productions S.L.)
  • Legends of War (Enigma Software Productions S.L.)
Lars Wingefors, founder and Group CEO, comments:

“These are not financially material acquisitions, but due to our love for these types of games they were natural acquisition targets that add up to our portfolio. Moreover, we also got a lot of messages from fans that encouraged us to add them. Among these titles, Sphinx (and the Cursed Mummy) is very well suited for the Nintendo audience – which we love to support. We are excited for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo’s new platform, and already have two other projects in development for it.”

Sphinx (and the Cursed Mummy) is a third person action-adventure video game inspired by the mythology of Ancient Egypt. It was originally released for Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.

War Leaders: Clash of Nations is a turn-based global strategy game bundled with a real-time tactics game mode for PC.

Legends of War is a turn-based strategy video game series franchise created in 2010. It was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation Portable.

More information regarding the Nintendo Switch development projects will be released at a later stage.
 

Grim Monk

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Swedish Necromancers Cast:
:necro:



THQ Nordic acquires Koch Media GmbH
Wed, Feb 14, 2018 07:14 CET
THQ Nordic has entered into an agreement to acquire Koch Media GmbH, including, inter alia, the games developer and publisher Deep Silver with AAA-intellectual property rights such as Saints Row, Dead Island and exclusive licence for Metro.

...........................

On February 14, 2018, THQ Nordic signed an agreement with the Seller to acquire 100 percent of the share capital in Koch Media. Koch Media is a leading, independent producer and marketer of digital entertainment products and accessories in Europe and North America. Its business areas include games development and publishing under the Deep Silver label (“Games”), partner publishing of third party video games, media products and software products (“Partner Publishing”) and distributor and co-producer of films (“Film”).


...........................

Deep Silver which owns the IP to Dead Island, Metro (exclusive licence), Saints Row, Risen, Homefront, and Agents of Mayhem amongst others. Since 2002, Deep Silver has released more than 200 games, including its own brands, such as the open-world third-person-shooter Saints Row IV, the Dead Island series, the role-playing series Risen, and the strategy hit Galaxy on Fire for mobile platforms. Furthermore, the label has published titles such as the post-apocalyptic Metro: Redux and Brian Fargo’s classic RPG Wasteland 2. Deep Silver owns three development studios: Deep Silver Volition in the US, Deep Silver Fishlabs in Germany, and Deep Silver Dambuster Studios in the UK.


Koch Media acquired the studio Volition in Champagne, Illinois in 2013. Today it has approximately 150 employees and their main focus is on developing an unannounced new AAA title.

http://news.cision.com/thq-nordic-ab/r/thq-nordic-acquires-koch-media-gmbh,c2452159

Now they really are back except for the few IP's that got snatched up by Take2 and SEGA....
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Messages
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Derp Silver was clearly in a tailspin so not surprising.

So now Kingdom Come is published by THQ Nordic.
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

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How the fuck? How did THQ Nordic even have the money for this? Is DS doing really bad or Koch Media just wanted to get rid of them?
Regardless I am happy since there is some good talent under Deep Silver, and I hope THQ just makes DS less shitty if they can since DS has been a ages long source of day one DLC, Denuvo and bad developer relations.
 

Belegarsson

Think about hairy dwarfs all the time ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Aside from Focus Home, THQ Nordic is probably my most favorite "big publisher" at the moment. They have a lot of interesting projects under their wing, doesn't seem to care about tired multiplayer fad and bullshit around it like microtransactions or such, cool with GOG, remaster old games and give them to owners of the original version for free or offer heavy discount, no overpriced DLC (aside from the MX vs ATV game AFAIK).
please greenlight a new Sacred game
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

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Saints Row is definitely in the eyes of THQ, no doubt. It's funny how DS cucked themselves making Agents of Mayhem which I highly doubt Volition wanted to make.
THQ probably has more smaller IPs than most big publishers do in total. I hope they make a new Joint Ops game, Joint Ops is a cult classic milsim esque title back in the early 2000s and they aquirred the remenants of the studio behind it a while back, Novalogic with all their IPs. THQ is also really fond of rereleasing and remasters for a constant revenue stream.
 

Blackstaff

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Nov 17, 2014
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https://af.gog.com/forum/general/th...rdic_now_owns_deep_silver/post2?as=1649904300

Strange to see a big publisher celebrating its recent aquisition on GOG's forum. :philosoraptor:

EDIT : Also a quote from Nordic CEO :

"THQ spent $50m making Darksiders 2, we can produce a product of the same quality but for a lower cost. $50m is ridiculous, I can't afford that. Many of our IPs will only generate $50k a year, but it's still money. Sure, it's amounts that EA and the big guys wouldn't care about, but now we have hundreds of IPs, and in a few years, we'll have a few hundred more. It will add up to something much bigger." - Lars Wingerfors

Their business model is pretty clear : make games on the cheap and buy IPs to monetize the hell out of them on GOG or every platforms out there. The scraps that the big pubs didn't want are getting picked up by someone else.
 
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Santander02

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Sep 29, 2009
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3,363
Freespace 3 may finally happen!

We can only hope.
Wouldn't doubt it, there is a resurgence on popularity of space combat games after Elite and No Man Sky on Steam.

I would rather not see it resurrected tbh.

The FSO project has done an excellent job keeping the game alive with graphical upgrades and great user made campigns. If FS3 were to be released I'm afraid of modding for FS2 being shut down and the sequel turned into a consolized shooting gallery made specifically to appeal to modern teen audiences (say goodbye to tense combat and energy management, say hello to aim assist and translesbian vasudan romance *shudder*)

'sides, doesn't the IP remain in Herve's decrepit claws still?
 
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LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
A report on an investor presentation about this acquisition: https://www.rollingstone.com/saints-row-metro-dead-island-details-thq-koch-w516706

With this, THQ Nordic now has "10 internal dev studios, 26 external dev studios, 106 IP, 50 games in development (both announced and unannounced) and a headcount of about 1,650."

Why THQ Nordic's Purchase of Saints Row, Dead Island Owner Is Such a Big Deal
Why Agents of Mayhem, Homefront the Revolution Failed


THQ Nordic today announced it now owns game developer and publisher Koch Media, picking up 15 game franchises, 14 in-development games, three development studios and relationships with eight more external studios in a 121 million Euro deal.

The short-term plans have both companies continuing to operate independently as Koch works to complete development on its array of upcoming titles which includes Metro Exodus and Dead Island 2. The deal also offers quite a bit of insight into what both companies are working on and some of the previous short-comings of Koch Media. In an investor presentation today, THQ Nordic outlined the substantial impact Koch's acquisition will have on THQ and, most likely, the game industry.

The high-level impact is that THQ Nordic GmbH's parent company THQ Nordic AB now owns rights to both Saints Row and Dead Island as well as having a "long-term" exclusive license within games for Metro based on the books by Dmitry Glukhovsky. The deal also brings developers Deep Silver Volition and Deep Silver Dambusters Studios under its umbrella. Combined, THQ Nordic and Koch Media now have 10 internal dev studios, 26 external dev studios, 106 IP, 50 games in development (both announced and unannounced) and a headcount of about 1,650.

The company also says that there will be no changes in Koch Media company structure and that Koch's CEO will continue to run things internally. While Koch Media does have a film unit, it only accounts for about 8 percent of the company's business, according to THQ Nordic.

Today's presentation dug into each of the core studios at Koch Media, which operate under the Deep Silver publishing division.

Volition, which currently has a headcount of about 150, is described as a world class studio of open world, action/destruction genre games. The presentation also notes, though, that Agents of Mayhem, which was released in August 2017, had poor sales due to "not delivering a game of the right quality" to the Saints Row fan base. It sold about 300,000 copies to date, according to the company's estimates.

Dambuster Studios, which was founded as Free Radical, then became Crytek UK and finally Dambuster in 2014, is a "lean and efficient team with a think layer of management," according to the presentation. It has about 108 employees right now. The presentation also notes that Dambuster's Homefront The Revolution, which was released in May 2016, had poor sales due to "a release of a non-finished product" and that the game is still being updated. It sold about 1.2 million copies to date, according to the company's estimates.

Deep Silver Fishlabs is described as a studio historically focused on mobile games, but that it will be focusing on PC and console titles moving forward. It has about 70 employees.

Deep Silver, the publishing arm at Koch Media, just released Kingdom Come Deliverance and has racing game Dakar, and first-person shooter Metro Exodus set for a release this year. In development titles without a release date include Dead Island 2, which is now in development by Sumo, and Shenmue II. Finally, the say that there are seven other pipeline projects, Volition's unannounced next AAA title and Dambuster's unannounced next AAA title.

km-b9d54436-09bd-4bcf-a1ff-29937c342994.png


This acquisition by THQ Nordic is just the latest step in a series of business moves that seems to be transforming a once nearly unheard of mail-order retailer to a publishing powerhouse. Founded in 1990 as a secondhand sales company for games, Nordic entered the video game publishing business in 2004. In 2011, the company acquired JoWood Entertainment and subsidiary DreamCatcher Interactive. In 2013, Nordic managed to grab up more than 150 games, including Darksiders, Red Faction and MX Vs. ATV, during the THQ bankruptcy. Later that year, the company grabbed up some titles from Atari. Over the next several years, Nordic bought up rights for a slew of different games from DTP Entertainment, bitComposer Entertainment and Digital Reality. In 2016, Nordic changed its name to THQ Nordic and snagged the rights to NovaLogic's IP.

Last year alone, the company announced that they are working on a remaster of Lock's Quest, Baja: Edge of Control, de Blob on new platforms, an extended version of Sine Mora Ex, Rad Rogers, Darksiders III and picked up Black Forest Games, Pieces Interactive and Experiment 101 studios. On Tuesday, the company announced it was bringing de Blog to Nintendo Switch.
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

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de Blob on new platforms, an extended version of Sine Mora Ex, Rad Rogers, Darksiders III and picked up Black Forest Games, Pieces Interactive and Experiment 101 studios. On Tuesday, the company announced it was bringing de Blog to Nintendo Switch.
Which one is it?
 

wyes gull

Savant
Joined
Apr 20, 2017
Messages
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Forget Dead Island and Saint's Row, most important bit of news is now we might finally get a sequel to Singles 2!!
:prosper:
 

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