Nordic Games resurrects the THQ name, will resume publishing under its banner

It was a sad day in 2013 when the THQ flag was lowered for the last time . Not that we didn't see it coming, but there was a time when THQ was a solid mid-tier publisher with some well-regarded studios under its banner, and while those glory days can never be brought back, the THQ name can.

"It was kind of a surprise to some industry veterans and players that we were the winner of the auction of the THQ titles. The challenging fact is nobody has ever heard about Nordic Games before [the auction]. There were so many articles with the headlines 'Who the fuck is Nordic Games?' We said, okay, they were right," Kruezer said. ""We have seen an uplift in the name of Nordic Games, and what we have also done is we have made a second deal with THQ where we bought the THQ trademark."

Nordic Games is actually an Austrian publisher with a catalog built largely out of acquisitions from THQ, JoWooD and DreamCatcher. It picked up the rights to the Darksiders and Red Faction franchises last year, and also holds Painkiller, Titan Quest, Panzer Elite, SpellForce and various others. It's perhaps not the most world-beating array of titles ever assembled, but Nordic is working on it: Kruezer said the company needs fans to be patient because it wants to do a proper job of bringing back old THQ games like Darksiders.

"We want to be able to do it right," he said. "The owner of Nordic Games has given [interviews] where he has said that he doesn't want to make a shitty sequel."

Kruezer said more information about Nordic's plans for the future will be revealed in August at the Gamescom convention in Germany.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.