Speaking to Game Informer, Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors said that despite now owning the IP to a number of THQ’s franchises, including Darksiders and Red Faction, he is not about to start developing sequels to the games himself: “We have to be very honest. I am a businessman within the games industry. We are not the creative, talented developer that brings out new versions in house.” Instead he intends to outsource the project to the developer best up to the challenge.
This includes Crytek USA, the studio formed from the ashes of Darksiders developer Vigil Games.
“I understand the potential of the IPs. I respect the original creators and the creative people who are able to create sequels. […] You can see Nordic Game as a middleman in order to create great new sequels. If we can find the right team with the right terms, I’m sure we can find the right financial solution to make it happen.”
As to having Crytek USA take on the reins of developing a third game in the Darksiders series, Wingefors said that “Officially, we haven’t talked to any partners.” Unofficially though, we have to assume there’s been at least a couple of conversations between the two companies.
Currently, Wingefor’s team in Austria are “handling the business development and are handling all those contacts. We’ll be sitting down, I think, in the next week to discuss all those options.”
Even if a developer were found to work on a new game, Wingefors is keen to point out that it is unlikely a new game would appear any time soon, “It takes a very long time to make games. You won’t see a new Darksiders this year. I don’t believe in bringing out a s***** sequel.”
But Darksiders is far from the only game that Nordic acquired, the publisher now owns more than 50 of THQ’s old IPs, including the fantastic ARPG Titan Quest, sometimes excellent Red Faction series, and one game I’d love to see come to the PC in a new form, Destroy All Humans.
Fingers crossed we’ll hear more about these games’ future soon.