Nordic Games explains who the f they are, plans for THQ assets
Nordic Games spent $4.9 million to acquire THQ's back catalog in April, but has yet to reveal any concrete plans for the intellectual properties, although it certainly knows what you'd like to see. And, with any luck, will announce some plans by Gamescom.
"We want to carefully select which franchises are up for getting a sequel or new installment. We closely monitor the communities on that," said Reinhard Pollice, who handles Nordic's business and product development. He mentioned the games receiving the most feedback are Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Red Faction and Titan Quest.
Personally, Pollice would also like a new Deadly Creatures, but there are other challenges. Nordic has described itself as a "middle man," since the company doesn't have internal studios or the capital to make the AAA sequels that fans of these games would expect. This is particularly true in the case of Darksiders, which Nordic would need to seek another publishing partner to help out.
"Darksiders is really big. We know we need a partner for that. An established development team that can pull out such a big action adventure. We obviously talked to former team members and, if they are free, we want to somehow involve them. If they are allowed to because, you know, some of them found other jobs or are with Crytek now," said Pollice.
He expressed that Darksiders is the franchise Nordic wants to do right by, to continue the story that's already been established. As a fan, Pollice doesn't want to mess up Darksiders and he wants to make sure that nobody else ruins what's been started in the first two games. Although, with the road ahead, he said, "I would not look for a Darksiders 3 before two years from now."
Pollice believes with MX vs. ATV the company could handle development on its own. Red Faction he's unsure, saying it depends on what direction they take the game, but he thinks building destruction and terraforming are necessary parts of the franchise. It's likely the series needs another fresh start. Finally, on Titan Quest, Nordic has been talking to some European teams about getting that off the ground.
Overall, Pollice is still trying to work out a roadmap for all the properties.
"I mean, we just got two weeks ago the actual source codes and art assets. Before I went to E3, I was starting and getting to kick off internally what's there. It will be a process over the next couple of months and then to discuss internally what route we want to go," he said. "We want to give fans they know from the past and they liked, but bring it somehow to the next level. What you as a player would expect from a sequel. We know we have to move one step ahead."
Nordic knows it has something to prove and that most people are asking: "who the f*ck is Nordic?"
"Who the f*ck is Nordic? We are a group of 15 people in Austria, but in the whole group we have a quality assurance group in Europe. Also, a lot of people who bring the games to the market. What really makes up Nordic, what's good about Nordic, is that we are all players ourselves and are passionate about the projects we are doing," said Pollice.
Nordic has a lot of organizational work ahead of itself and Pollice would like to make the first announcements by Gamescom, the mega games convention held in Cologne, Germany, in August.
He concluded, "We'd also love to make contact with former developers on these games. So, everyone who worked on one of these games get in touch with us. Obviously those guys have great experience in doing those games. They spent a lot of time and passion on creating that. Ideally, we'd like to team up with those former developers."
