• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

THQ Nordic has purchased Gunfire Games

Shard Shinjuku

Shard Shinjuku

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,000
Tampa
Vienna, AUSTRIA, Austin, TX, USA, August 14 2019 - Gunfire is the developer behind the critically acclaimed game series Darksiders®, Chronos® and From Other Suns® and is a long-term development partner of THQ Nordic. Through the acquisition THQ Nordic adds a strong team of RPG experts and award-winning VR developers with an existing intellectual property (IP) portfolio and an exciting new game pipeline.

To put it in THQ Nordic's words: "We are stoked to have Gunfire on board and are very excited about our collaborative future and the projects we will realise together."
To put it in Fury's words: "Welcome to the family, I guess…"
The acquisition includes the development studio that includes a team of 63 creative and technical game developers and all IP rights.
Gunfire, which was founded in 2014 by alumni developers of Vigil Games, is best known for its successful development of action role-playing PC/Console game series Darksiders for THQ Nordic along with Chronos that was awarded Game Informer's VR Game of The Year. The core team based in Austin, Texas (USA) has worked together for over a decade creating successful games.
THQ Nordic teamed up with Gunfire in 2015 with the publishing of Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition and subsequently with the global hit Darksiders III in 2018. Gunfire will remain an independent development studio under THQ Nordic. The team will continue to create outstanding and unique action adventure games and online/co-op experiences playable on PC/console and VR with full creative freedom and maintained relationships with current publishing partners. Gunfire will continue to be led by CEO David Adams and all active founders will remain in their current roles.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Gabbo

Gabbo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,562
Cautiously optimistic for Gunfire-thoughts on THQN aside. Hopefully we'll see more from them beyond just DS4->X
 
Soj

Soj

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,685
I was kinda glad THQ weren't publishing their latest game honestly...
 
Darkstorne

Darkstorne

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,805
England
THQ rounding up some really great talent. A lot of the devs they buy make me think "these guys could produce something amazing with the right cash injection."

They bought Pirhana Bytes for example, the guys behind Gothic, Risen, and Elex. And I'm wondering if THQ's game reveal at Gamescom will be Elex 2. Should be able to see how much THQ's involvement helps these studios then.
 
Zero-ELEC

Zero-ELEC

The Wise Ones
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,560
México
Friendly reminder that THQ held an AMA on 8chan (now defunct website known for being delisted off Google because of all the child abuse material), and at least one THQ executive felt perfectly comfortable responding to posts that contained drawn underage girls being groped and homophobic slurs~
 

Danteyke223

Banned
Oct 24, 2018
937
Please note that Remnant is being published by Perfect World before commenting on how you will not buy it
 
piratepwnsninja

piratepwnsninja

Lead Game Designer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
3,811
Toxi said:
Will this also go for post-launch material? Gunfire is now owned by THQN so any work they get hired to do post-acquisition is still money going to THQN.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Generally in a case like this, either the contract with the former publisher is left in place in terms of how much post-launch support was to be provided, or the new company buys out the contract and/or the IP and continues support. Nort sure which is the case, but I'd be shocked for this to not get support moving forward. As a company that is going to be releasing games in the future, you don't want people to get a bad taste in their mouth based on not supporting tdee last game you released.
 
Vimes

Vimes

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,276
Diggeh said:
Don't forget about all the things you're supporting when you consider any THQ Nordic games.

Here's a helpful summary post of all the events for the uninitiated.

Mod statement: "To address a few recurring points: We will not be banning games published by THQ Nordic and subsidiaries like Deep Silver. You are instead welcome to continue raising the issue in threads relevant to the publisher and its games."

If you use Steam and want to ignore all games that THQ Nordic publishes, go to their publisher page while you're logged in, then click on the little gear icon below where it says "Beta" and choose "Ignore this creator."
_______________________________________________________________

These games are being published by THQ Nordic. For those who may not be aware or who may have forgotten, THQ Nordic had a marketing effort where it intended to gain attention using a website that is known primarily for its support of child pornography, as well as for support of Neo-Nazism, doxxing, and other extremely damaging behaviors.

THQ Nordic's provided no response to this fiasco except for an apology claiming they did not do enough research. As the website is unlisted by Google, they had spoken to the board owner about removing "nasty stuff", and content was viewable both before and during the campaign, this claim is beyond belief. The individuals responsible are known not to be rogue PR interns, but go up to THQ Nordic's board. THQ Nordic has not dealt with the individuals responsible, and they released an embarrassingly bad "apology" that addressed nothing.

Consider that by supporting their games, you are supporting a publisher that is complicit with child pornography.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Thanks for making this post so I didn't have to.

People should at the very least be aware.
 

devSin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,194
Gunfire was always in a tough spot. The studio was founded with a focus on VR stuff, but the market didn't really take off like people hoped, and their transition to more traditional games has been slow.

Especially in an expensive place like Austin, I'm betting the scramble to get successful projects led to a lot of uncertainty. Hopefully this puts them on solid footing, and they can concentrate on making games more than staying afloat.

It's a shame it had to be THQ, but that's the way it is sometimes.

ILikeFeet said:
Back on that buying spree. How long until they acquire Airship Syndicate?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
And then merge the two (they're practically neighbors). And just call it Vigil again.

And then actually put some money into Darksiders 4 so you can bring Jesper Kyd onboard again.

Castamere said:
Was Darksiders 3 really a global hit?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It had a budget less than the first game's and sold enough to make a profit. I think the cost/profit ratio probably qualifies it as a "hit".
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 10737

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
49,774
Diggeh said:
Don't forget about all the things you're supporting when you consider any THQ Nordic games.

Here's a helpful summary post of all the events for the uninitiated.

Mod statement: "To address a few recurring points: We will not be banning games published by THQ Nordic and subsidiaries like Deep Silver. You are instead welcome to continue raising the issue in threads relevant to the publisher and its games."

If you use Steam and want to ignore all games that THQ Nordic publishes, go to their publisher page while you're logged in, then click on the little gear icon below where it says "Beta" and choose "Ignore this creator."
_______________________________________________________________

These games are being published by THQ Nordic. For those who may not be aware or who may have forgotten, THQ Nordic had a marketing effort where it intended to gain attention using a website that is known primarily for its support of child pornography, as well as for support of Neo-Nazism, doxxing, and other extremely damaging behaviors.

THQ Nordic's provided no response to this fiasco except for an apology claiming they did not do enough research. As the website is unlisted by Google, they had spoken to the board owner about removing "nasty stuff", and content was viewable both before and during the campaign, this claim is beyond belief. The individuals responsible are known not to be rogue PR interns, but go up to THQ Nordic's board. THQ Nordic has not dealt with the individuals responsible, and they released an embarrassingly bad "apology" that addressed nothing.

Consider that by supporting their games, you are supporting a publisher that is complicit with child pornography.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
in case you want to post this in other threads about games which also benefit THQ nordic/koch media, deep silver is also a subsidiary of them and these two news bits came out recently (they're also publishing shenmue 3):

 
Alpheus

Alpheus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,641
Yeah Remnant has my attention and I'm sad it'll be the first and last game I buy from Gunfire Games (Dark Souls Shooter is a gutsy mix and I'm keen to support that kind of gusto) but I wish the devs at Gunfire Games all the best and I look forward to supporting them post acquisition once THQ takes actions to fire the shit heels responsible for that 8chan AMA, but not a moment before then.
 
unicornKnight

unicornKnight

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,159
Athens, Greece
I understand the THQ hate but I'm glad for the devs if that provides them security and the chance to make more games. And I'm happy AA gaming isn't dead.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.