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THQ Nordic is the Frankenstein monster of video games
THQ Nordic has built a successful business out of the dead and rotting leftovers from downtrodden video game studios. Since entering the publishing biz in 2011, its specialty has been acquiring the intellectual property rights for midtier and AAA games and breathing new life into them. THQ Nordic has resurrected and remastered franchises including Darksiders, Jagged Alliance, Red Faction, Desperados and MX vs. ATV, to name just a few. The studio's latest purchase has been lifeless for six years, but it's a big one. THQ Nordic announced this month that it acquired the rights to Kingdoms of Amalur, the vast fantasy franchise from Rhode Island developer 38 Studios, which went down in flames and infamy in 2012. Amalur is just the latest limb sewn onto THQ Nordic's undead monster, but it's a clear representation of the company's unique, and so far lucrative, approach to publishing.
What is a ‘Game of the Year’ edition, anyway?
Every year, game publishers put out Game of the Year editions, typically chock full of all the downloadable content that's come out since the initial release along with new packaging to proclaim its "of the year" status. Some titles even get new content to entice customers into buying an older game. But what, exactly, does it mean to be a Game of the Year? And according to who exactly? Is there a regulating body that protects consumers from games that were not, in fact, that good? You might think of the "Game of the Year" term as an implication of quality, right? It turns out that — like most marketing — it's largely meaningless. And countless gaming outlets name their own "Games of the Year," further confusing things.
Former 'Dead Island 2' developer can't pay its bills
The situation with Dead Island 2 and developer Yager took another turn today as the company announced it's filing for insolvency. Yager Productions, the team formed to work on the zombie sequel, can't pay the money it owes to debtors. "At the moment, there are different options to be assessed while wages for employees have been secured for the upcoming months," a company statement reads. The filing is a direct result of being removed from Dead Island 2's development, managing director Timo Ullmann writes. Insolvency helps protect the company's staff and will allow "time to sort out the best options for reogranizing this entity," he says. The rest of Yager, including the team working on the sci-fi, ship-to-ship combat game Dreadnought are in the clear however and are "independent and remain unaffected" by today's news.
'Dead Island 2' needs a new developer
Dead Island 2 is dead. For now at least. Publisher Deep Silver sent out an update today announcing that it's no longer working with the open-world zombie-massacre/absurd-weapon-crafting simulator sequel's developer, Yager, on the title. "With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve," the statement reads. "After careful consideration, today we announce the decision to part ways with development partner Yager." The email goes on to say that the publisher will "continue working towards bringing" its vision of the game to life and will have more info in the future. Deep Silver and Yager showed a very early version of the game off at E3 in 2014, but it wasn't all that impressive and the game didn't look anywhere close to the intentionally cheesy cinematic trailer that premiered during Sony's media briefing, either.
