In April, Austrian-based publisher Nordic Games spent $4.9 million to acquire some of THQ's major properties. In a recent interview, the studio admitted that the transaction has taken longer to finalize than expected, resulting in uncertain futures for franchises like Darksiders and Red Faction.
"It takes longer than expected getting everything together because THQ, there are not a lot of people there," explained Reinhard Pollice, Nordic Games' business and product development director to Joystiq. "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."
Nordic currently owns Darksiders, Red Faction and MX vs. ATV, as well as rights to THQ’s other owned software (for example, Destroy All Humans!) and licensed software (for example, Marvel Super Hero Squad). Pollice admitted THQ squandered some of the talent that worked on these properties after the publisher grew too large, and some particularly bad decisions were made with the Red Faction IP post Red Faction: Gurella. As a result, Nordic is prioritizing Red Faction below Darksiders (the studio's first priority), MX vs. ATV (second) and Titan Quest (third.) It's not all doom and gloom for Red Faction fans, however: according to Pollice, Nordic is in talks with former Volition members and is still evaluating what to do with the franchise. Take that as you will.
Pollice offered Darksiders fans a little bit more clarification, although the news isn't particularly positive: because "a certain core" of Darksiders' development team has moved on to Crytek, it's likely we won't see another Darksiders game for a few years.
So what's next from Nordic? Pollice said that we'll be seeing MX vs. ATV and Titan Quest sooner than we might have expected, claiming fan fervor for MX vs. ATV in particular has influenced some of this decision.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/26/nordic-games-another-darksiders-years-away-red-factions-future-is-uncertain?abthid=521ae1c420e7add93f00000c
