THQ’s Name Being Revived by Darksiders Owner Nordic Games

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June 13, 2014

THQ is back, but in name only: Nordic Games has acquired the defunct publisher's trademark and will use it to publish games, Polygon reports.

THQ, which was once one of the biggest publishers in the industry, filed for bankruptcy in December 2012 and then had its assets auctioned off early last year. Among the winners were Ubisoft (South Park: The Stick of Truth), Sega (Company of Heroes and developer Relic Games), and a relatively unknown publisher by the name of Nordic Games (Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Red Faction).

THQ's Name Being Revived by Darksiders Owner Nordic Games

"It was kind of [a] surprise to some industry veterans and players that we were the winner of the auction of the THQ titles," Nordic GM Klemens Kruezer said in an interview. "The challenging fact is nobody has ever heard about Nordic Games before [the THQ auction]. There were so many articles with the headlines ‘Who the f*** is Nordic Games?’ We said, okay they were right."

In response to this, Nordic recently worked out a deal separate from last year's auction to acquire the THQ trademark, which it now owns. This allows it to freely use the name--something which caused some confusion earlier this week when a post appeared on the THQ Facebook page heralding the return of MX vs. ATV on GameSpot's E3 stage show. Prior to this week, the most recent post on the page had come in January 2013.

Kruezer said Nordic is often asked about the status of a new Darksiders game, to which he said, "This is where we need some more patience from the fans, because we want to be able to do it right." Darksiders II was among the last games published by THQ, and with the company's demise, there was speculation that the series was dead. That was prior to last May, when series creative director Joe Madureira offered some hope to fans by saying, "Nordic seems very committed to continuing the series."

Pictures of THQ's former offices recently surfaced online, showing a variety of memorabilia that had been left behind when its former owners left. It was reportedly bought by the building manager to make up for back rent still owed by THQ.