THQ Nordic Acquires ‘Alone In the Dark,’ ‘Act of War’ IPs
Man, THQ Nordic has been keeping busy this year. Not only has it published a number of Microsoft [...]
Man, THQ Nordic has been keeping busy this year. Not only has it published a number of Microsoft games for the Steam store, but it's also acquired the Timesplitters franchise, along with the Kingdoms of Amalur IP. So...what's next?
How about a horror franchise? In a tweet posted earlier today, the publisher has announced that it's acquired the rights to the Alone In the Dark franchise, along with the real-time strategy series Act of War. You can see the tweet for yourself below.
We are happy to announce that THQ Nordic has acquired the IPs for "Alone in the Dark", a Lovecraftian survival horror game series and "Act of War", a real-time strategy game featuring a story by NYT bestselling author Dale Brown, from Atari. pic.twitter.com/tmjpdI7HjO
— THQNordic (@THQNordic) September 19, 2018
This brings good news to fans that have been looking for a proper resurrection of the Alone In the Dark series. The series, which inspired Resident Evil back in the 90's, has seen better days. In 2008, Atari attempted to bring it back with releases for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, only to come up short compared to previous adventures. And in 2015, the company's attempt to bring back the series with Illumination on PC -- an online only game, nonetheless -- was met with disastrous results. Fortunately, things can only get better from here.
As for Act of War, a game called Direct Action came out for Steam back in 2005 and got a good deal of traction since, with the following features driving it to huge success:
- Command ultra-realistic modern military units
- Power-packed combination of high-end cinema, video effects and live action
- Intense multiplayer operations for up to eight players
- Real urban combat, including POW captures and landscape destruction
- Gripping storyline by NY Times bestselling author, Dale Brown
As far as what THQ Nordic intends to do with these franchises, it's not quite clear yet. However, a new Alone In the Dark seems to make perfect sense, along with another new entry in the Act of War series for PC. We'll see what gets announced over the next year.
But hopefully Alone In the Dark will go in a new direction, something that hopefully recaptures the scary nature that made the original games work so well. Fingers crossed!