Dark Horse Comics Announces New Gaming Division

Dark Horse Comics today officially announced a new games and digital division called, aptly enough, Dark Horse Games. The new label will partner with various developers to create its own titles based on a library of hundreds of IPs which Dark Horse either owns outright or has the rights to. According to the announcement, that includes, but is not limited to, Hellboy, Sin City, 300, Umbrella Academy, Polar, Lady Killer, Emily the Strange, Usagi Yojimbo, Resident Alien, and many more

Johnny B. Lee serves as general manager for the label, which exists under the normal Dark Horse Comics hierarchy. Dark Horse Games has two main offices, one in Oregon and another in Shanghai. While no specific video games have been announced as in development at Dark Horse Games, it seems like there will be a two-pronged approach in discussions with partners: AAA licensed titles for PC, consoles, mobile, and more and first-party titles based on older or less-established Dark Horse IPs. The latter will, according to the press release, focus specifically on shifting those to gaming-first IPs.

“We’ve spent the past thirty-five years developing a long list of original, fan-favorite IP with many of the best partners in digital entertainment. Now is the perfect time to expand our vision into gaming,” said Dark Horse Comics founder and President Mike Richardson as part of today’s announcement. “Dark Horse Games gives us exciting new ways to engage with fans of all kinds on a multitude of platforms.”

Additionally, Dark Horse Games is also set to produce and release multimedia projects like anime or webtoons and is said to be “in active discussions” with a number of studios. An unnamed initial project along these lines is already in production, according to Dark Horse. What, exactly, that might look like remains unclear at this moment.

“Dark Horse Comics sits at the intersection of consumer entertainment, production and publishing,” said Dark Horse Games General Manager Johnny B. Lee as part of the same announcement. “We’re one of the few companies that own IP nimble enough to execute coordinated strategies across multiple platforms, and that’s a huge advantage in gaming and digital.”

What do you think about the announcement of Dark Horse Games right before E3? What are some Dark Horse Comics IPs that you would like to see new video games made out of? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!