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MX vs. ATV will ride again in first half of 2014
The MX vs. ATV franchise, purchased by Nordic Games during the THQ intellectual property auction, is revving up again. The Austrian-based publisher revealed MX vs. ATV Supercross today, which is due to release in the first half of 2014 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac and Linux as a digitally distributed product. "A lot of the original team members have been aching to continue their passion: building the most authentic off-road racing games possible. The hiatus is over, and the team is back to work on MX vs. ATV with great new things to come," said Executive Producer Ken George. Business development director at Nordic Games Reinhard Pollice added, "We're absolutely committed to ensuring Ken and his team receive the best support and the freedom to create the games they love making – and we're confident that the series will continue to grow from strength to strength. Supercross is just the start of our MX vs. ATV plans." We got a better sense of Nordic's mindset after its $4.9 million acquisition of THQ properties, with the company laying out its plans for us at Gamescom. MX vs. ATV was high on the resurfacing docket at that time, with Titan Quest also planned to return in the near future.
Nordic Games still working out plans for Darksiders, other THQ assets
Four months after parting with $4.9 million to pick up a number of big ex-THQ properties, Austrian-based Nordic Games is still working to finalize its transaction with the now-bankrupt company. If you were looking for announcements at Gamescom - as Nordic Games hoped to have - on the futures of Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Titan Quest, and Red Faction, you may have a fair while to wait - although not necessarily in all cases . "It takes longer than expected getting everything together because THQ, there are not a lot of people there," explained Reinhard Pollice, the man in charge of business and product development at Nordic. "There are just like five people and they're mostly financial and administration guys. So the stuff that we need is really hard to get. I've been visiting them a lot of times, trying to make sure we get everything that we actually want, or that we should get." While Pollice said he's a fan of the franchises Nordic acquired, he feels THQ at some point became too big a company to make use of the talents it had; he noted the now defunct company made a lot of bad decisions with Red Faction after Guerrilla, for example. That may explain why he places the shooter franchise lower in Nordic's priority than Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, and Titan Quest, which he sees as first, second and third. That's not to say a new Red Faction isn't coming; Pollice said Nordic is in talks with former Volition members who left the studio over the last four to five years, and that Nordic is still evaluating what to do with the franchise. Meanwhile, Darksiders remains years, rather than months, away. Pollice said Nordic's been in good discussions with some members of the original Vigil Games Team, but a "certain core" are now at Crytek US and most likely won't be available.
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."
Nordic Games involved with THQ since January, is talking sequels
Nordic Games picked up most of the IPs in THQ's back catalog auction, dishing out $4.9 million for Darksiders, Red Faction, MX vs ATV, Titan Quest and a slew of unannounced games from THQ's long list of for-sale properties. Nordic was a surprise to some, especially next to Gearbox, which picked up the Homeworld franchise, and 505 Games, which snagged Drawn to Life and its sequel. But Nordic isn't new."We've been in conversation with THQ since January," Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors told Game Informer. "We signed all the NDAs in January."Wingefors has been in the gaming industry for 20 years, he said, and has handled "a lot" of THQ products during that time. In November 2011, Nordic acquired publisher JoWood, in charge of Painkiller and Torchlight, and also ended up with Canadian publisher Dreamcatcher, spawning Nordic's publishing focus.Nordic took part in the first THQ auction as well, which sold off properties such as Saints Row and some development studios for upwards of $20 million. That sale was too rich for Wingefors: "Saints Row went for $22 million and Koch bought that development studio with that burn rate on a daily basis. Even though I do have financial resources, I don't have those kind of resources."Wingefors didn't want a studio. Nordic is a "middle man" looking for the right team to make some new sequels; there's already been plenty of interest in Darksiders, he said."We have to be very honest," Wingefors said. "I am a business man within the games industry. We are not the creative, talented developer that brings out new versions in house. I understand the potential of the IPs. I respect the original creators and the creative people who are able to create sequels. In the past 24 hours, we have been contacted and there have been a few discussions (but I can't confirm names)."Nordic took home more than 50 former THQ games, but has yet to release the full list."As we still have some open points with regards to a couple of titles we will not publish a comprehensive list at this stage," a Nordic Games representative told Joystiq yesterday. "However, once everything is fixed and the ink is dry – around mid-May – we will go out with a comprehensive list of titles which we have acquired in the process."Nordic will hold talks this summer with different developers, during E3 especially. Don't expect any sequels too soon, though."You won't see a new Darksiders this year," Wingefors said. "I don't believe in bringing out a shitty sequel."
Expect MX vs. ATV Alive DLC every two weeks
MX vs ATV Alive's business model is built around a simple concept: lots of DLC. The racer will retail for $40 in the States (£29.99 in UK) and will have new DLC every two weeks, according to THQ's corporate global brand manager Ali Bouda, speaking to MCV. "We have extensive DLC available from the first day and are planning to release new content every other week over several months," Bouda said. This experimental model lends itself to the game, he said, because the game is about "environments, tracks and vehicles – not about a continuing story, like Homefront and Saints Row." Of course, if this experiment ends up being successful for THQ on consoles then it's anyone's game. See: EA's Project Ten Dollar. Update: THQ has slightly revised its previous statement of "every other week" for the game's DLC. Bouda contacted Joystiq to say, "We are targeting several drops within each month over the next few months starting day one." %Gallery-119675%
MX vs. ATV series ships ten million units, next game announcement Jan. 8
THQ today announced plans to formally announce the next installment in its MX vs. ATV series at the Monster Energy AMA Supercross event in Anaheim this Saturday, January 8. We're assuming the big reveal will be ... MX vs. ATV Alive, the "hybrid" iteration we've be hearing about for months. Alive is expected to retail for a "budget" price ($40) and, THQ hopes, will bring in the big bucks with a steady stream of DLC. "You know, hopefully tens of millions of dollars will come from just that single product," THQ CEO Brian Farrell mused about Alive last month. To date, the series has shipped 10 million units, across its three console releases and a PSP port, according to the publisher. In a 2011 release schedule posted by THQ last fall, MX vs. ATV Alive, the fourth console edition of the series, was set to go off-roading this spring. We'll see if the plan has changed following this weekend's update.
THQ president talks up new $40 sales model, building a user base
THQ president Brian Farrell has some bold ideas about the future of the gaming industry's profitability. While speaking at the recent BMO Capital Markets Conference, Farrell explained, "What we're thinking about the business is we're turning it on its head a little bit," later adding, "It's not, 'how high a price can we get', but 'how many users.'" Farrell then described THQ's vision for capitalizing on that policy: As revealed in September, THQ hopes to launch the next entry into the MX vs. ATV series at a lower price point, and rely on DLC to bring in the big bucks. "When we launched [MX vs. ATV] at $59.99, we'd do some units, and then when we brought the price down to the mass market-friendly price of $39.99, it would just pop," he explained to the conference's attendees. "So the thinking this time is, let's initially launch at $39.99 ... It's a AAA title, at that price point, but then with a series of DLC so people can extend their experience." The company's strategy makes a lot more sense, now. See, before, we just thought they were dropping the MSRP because they wanted to do a nice thing for us.
Shipping this week: gambling with death edition
And the slim release weeks just keep on coming. This week we have one solitary game being released, said game being MX vs. ATV Untamed. There may be a few kids out there wishing for a real ATV this Christmas and this game can't help but remind us that ATVs are dangerous, dangerous machines. The mere word "ATV" conjures many memories of maternal voices warning us of the danger of what they called "four wheelers." Combined with the horror stories we've received from friends throughout the years, we'd say it's probably better to go with a video game than the real thing. Well, it's safer at least.[Via Joystiq. Original image: Jeff Crawford (artlung)]
