So THQ Nordic recently bought Koch Media (including Deep Silver) for $150m

So THQ Nordic recently bought Koch Media (including Deep Silver) for $150m

Where the fuck did THQ Nordic come from and how do they have so much money to throw around?

Darksiders

They bought a bunch of THQ's and other failing company's IPs in a firesale, made money off of them and seem to keep repeating that action every once in a while

I thought that THQ went bankrupt years ago. Is thq nordic just different company?

Reading up, they made We Sing on Wii, used that money to buy a bunch of THQ assets, then had an IPO in 2016 which gave them a shitload of more money to spend in growing the company further.

Nordic bought most of THQ's assets when they went belly up, then changed their name a few years ago.

Investors? Trust funds?

They stillhave to release a new major game form IPs they bought from the old THQ. Darksiders would be the first new game from those IPs after THQ went bankrupt and I don't have high hopes for it. Also they haven't fixed DS2 Deathinitive Edition on PC it has been 2 years.

They bought MX vs ATX from THQ

>including Deep Silver
So what does this mean for the publication of niche games in Europe?
Because they were just about the only ones doing it.

Porting games and IP fees.

thq nordic has been buying thqs old ips left and right
if anything deep silver was probably on deaths door after the next metro game and dead island 2 still not being out

Will Pandemic come back one day too?

*Darksiders 3.

Yeah but nobody cares about this IP lol.

Not much, for two reasons.

1. Koch Media are the biggest games distributor in Europe, and Deep Silver is their development/publishing arm.

2. THQ Nordic aren't going to change Koch Media much as its a profitable business. THQ Nordic are *already* a niche publisher, if anything they'll double down on niche publishing.

Good.

Neat. Maybe having most of the THQ IPs under a new umbrella will change directions for some of them. Like an SR that isn't "4"-levels of absurd, or "Agents of Mayhem"-levels of stupid.

the guys running Nordic Games must be market vets, they are playing all of their cards right and growing ridiculously fast over the corpses of companies that died due to mismanagement and bad decisions. They are wisely making lemonade with whatever lemons they could salvage from the dumpster fire.
I’m not complaining. Sure, tons of remasters left and right, but I’d rather have that over “live services” or new crap coming from literal nobodies.
If they can pull Darksiders 3 decently, they might even cross the rubicon and make a name for themselves.

>THQ died and came back
wow

I dunno. They seem to be buying up as much as they can and growing as quick as they can. I don't know if it means they are well-run or just willing to take massive risks with their cash without an end-game

They're THQ in name only. The real THQ is long dead, Nordic just bought it's identity.

>Koch Media are the biggest games distributor in Europe
>THQ Nordic are *already* a niche publisher

They want to change the whole "niche" thing. Koch distribute squareEnix games in europe, but they also distribute Nintendo in UK. They are into movie distribution. Is not a small business, THQ is making a big bet here.

So according to wiki those are their new ips
>Saints Row (2018)
>Risen (2018)
>Metro (2018)
>Sacred (2018)
>Dead Island (2018)

Risen and Sacred are pretty much dead, Saints Row would nee a serious revitalisation, Metro is fine, no idea about Dead Island

I think the guy is a self-made entrepreneur who's dabbled in some games retail and re-selling before forming Nordic.
He bought up JoWood, and then THQ in the firesale and has scaled back THQs scope to a manageable level. He's buying up all the smaller IPs and making re-releases and new games from them, but at a smaller budget and at much smaller, realistic profit projections.
Cutting the fat comes to mind.

(((Koch)))

My point is that they aren't going to buy a distributor to abandon niche games when they own a shitton of them and make a profit.

>Nordic bought Deep Silver, who has also bought a chunk of THQs IPs when they went on sale

The absolute madmen.

Did Dead Island 2 ever come out?

No. Last we heard, Sumo was developing it, but we haven't heard a word since.

I like that they focus in releasing re-releases to games that kind of needed (console exclusives now in PC), And sequels to some niche games (a new game from that underwater combat series is coming, dont know if its good but it seems faithfull).

Having Red Faction, Delta Force, Saints Row and some more shit does vive me hope that they go back to what made the games good (even though DF had the problem of never moving forward while SR has its bad entries like 3 and 4 being even more popular then 2)

They released Titan Quest Ragnarök, after releasing Titan Quest Anniversary Edition earlier last year.
So they definitely try to make money of older IPs, don't know if it was a success but most people seem to like it.

SPACE MARINE 2 WHEN

Pandemic has vanished in the endless depths of EAs belly, there is no coming back from that.
Seriously, EA probably sees IPs as potential threats to their own tired roster and buys and kills studios and their games just so that nobody else can ever use them.
If there is nothing else, even bland stuff looks tasty.

Never.
The reason THQ went broke was licensing stupidly expensive franchises for niche games that didn't sell well and making art tablets
GW license is 20-30 million dollars alone. That's more than THQNordic is willing to spend on a whole games development.