The folks at THQ Nordic do seem to have a good sense of timing. Just before the stroke of midnight on the day of lovers, the rapidly expanding publisher has announced the acquisition of Koch Media. This multifaceted company will be known to gamers as the parent of Deep Silver, the publisher behind Dead Island. They are also the company that purchased franchises such as Metro, Homefront and Saints Row following the original THQ's bankruptcy.

This 121 million Euro deal brings several projects in progress onto THQ Nordic's slate. The already announced Metro: Exodus and Shenmue 3 are due in 2018, and there are also unannounced AAA productions by Volition and Dambuster Studios currently in the works. In total, the combined operations of both companies now have 50 games in production, with 33 of them unannounced as of today. Koch Media also serves as the European publisher for a slate of Atlus titles and has an active film business overseas. The announcement states that Koch will "continue to operate as a separate entity within the THQ Nordic group" for the time being.

The acquisition was news to some Deep Silver employees, who learned as we did about the merger in a now-deleted Tweet.

https://twitter.com/WillJPowers/status/963681125943185408

TechRaptor will continue to follow this breaking story as it develops.

Quick Take

The strange ballad of THQ continues. Bringing signature franchises like Saints Row back into the fold seems like a winning move. When I was at E3 looking at their lineup, I got great vibes from THQ Nordic. They're operating like a publisher in the good old days, with a healthy portfolio of games for every audience instead of a single game that tries to please everyone. Would any other company be putting out de Blob and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy on current consoles? Would anyone else give Rad Rodgers and Aquanox a second chance at life?

The toy headquarters is quickly becoming a big name once again in our industry, and here's hoping that they can be an example of another road for those who think that games as a service is the only way forward in the AAA space.