THQ Nordic acquires Free Radical Design IPs (Second Sight, Timesplitters)

[benjipwns]

This was I believe the last outstanding big name THQ IP that was in rights limbo after the auction years back.

And coincidentally, earlier this year THQ Nordic bought the studio that was once the post-Haze remnants of Free Radical Design. (It became Crytek UK, then Deep Silver Dambuster.)

THQ Nordic has announced that they have picked up the Timesplitters property and released trilogy, as well as the rights to Free Radical's Second Sight. This puts THQ Nordic in a position to not only re-release the old Timesplitters games, but to make new ones, as well.

"Timesplitters was largely considered as one of the most influential console games of the early 2000’s," THQ Nordic wrote in a press release just issued. "The three game series earned a large and passionate fan base thanks to its unique humor, art style and pop culture references while encouraging customization and modification to give each person their own individual experience."

Additionally, THQ Nordic noted that they have purchased the IP for Second Sight, as well as the rights for the 2004 stealth paraspychological horror game itself if they ever want to re-release it.

Second Sight already has a PC version that's been stuck in digital rights limbo.

I believe that THQ Nordic now has all the "prominent" THQ IP's back in possession of a single company. They had been scattered among six companies or so. THQ Nordic was the one that bought the big grab bag of unsold and semi-unknown IPs from the auction a couple years later and has put the games back up on digital services. They also re-acquired the Nickelodeon license this year, and bought Koch Media which had Volition, Metro/Saints Row/Homefront/etc., essentially rebuilding THQ sans Relic* and the WWE license.

*And Homeworld, which THQ temporarily got from Relic so it could be separated in the Auction as Sega did not want it at the price Gearbox did.

[BisMarckie]

Timesplitters is one of these games I never get the reverence for. Was it because it reminded people of Goldeneye?



And Second Sight?

[benjipwns]

how dare you, Second Sight has a part in it with the most feels in a video game ever

you come up on some security dude and obviously brutally murder him with your psychic power, then if you go read his computer his wife is IMing "r u there?" "where did u go?" "hello?" "r u ok?"

 

[Rufus]

I couldn't really get on with the aiming in Timesplitters. Style wise I liked them though.

And Second Sight is a gem. A gem!

[Nintex]

TimeSplitters was great on the GameCube and PS2. Because those systems didn't have HALO and other shooters.
The campaigns were a lot of fun too. Especially the third one. They always went ballistic with features too. Like an elaborate map builder and over 20 different modes.

However, I'm not sure how the high school shooter will translate into this generation.
I can see a market for it on Switch next to other local multiplayer games. I just don't see it competing with Fortnite, Overwatch, Battlefield, Call of Duty and all on other systems.

[benjipwns]

heh i almost made a Timesplitters Battle Royale joke in the OP

[benjipwns]

I'm not sure where Second Sight starts and where The Suffering ends.

The Suffering was Midway, they also did Psi-Ops which came out at almost exactly he same time as Second Sight and had the same gameplay concept. Also both main characters have amnesia obviously. And the bad guys are a shadowy government organization creating psychic supersolders. And these supersoldiers have been doing clandestine stuff since WWII. The main difference is that one starts you out in a mental hospital.

I thought they were both pretty good, The Suffering quite a bit less so.

The upcoming Remedy game Control looks a lot like Psi-Ops/Second Sight plus 15 years of games technology.

[BisMarckie]

Psi-Ops, now that is a gem.

[BisMarckie]

b-grade M-rated PS2 games

Mercenaries

Fuck Mercenaries 2 though

[Joe Molotov]

and bought Koch Media

Did they buy it from the Koch Brothers or just a Koch Brother?

[Rufus]

Hearing Bombcast folk confused on whether it's a Koch borthers joint or not was so frustrationg. Koch just means Cook. It's a common name. AAAAAAAHHHHH!

[HardcoreRetro]

Well, at least it was free.

[BisMarckie]

Hearing Bombcast folk confused on whether it's a Koch borthers joint or not was so frustrationg. Koch just means Cook. It's a common name. AAAAAAAHHHHH!

I still associate Koch Media with shitty shovelware-tier sofware(like stuff for taxes or planning your kitchen). You'd find their shit in every store back in the 90's. They were on the same level as Data Becker.

[benjipwns]

THQ or "Toy HeadQuarters" for much of its first decade was a licensed shovelware and crap toy pusher, that's how they wound up with the WCW license, then they changed management and dropped out of toys altogether to go into video games full time and started gobbling up studios like Volition.

You look at their NES/SNES/GB list and it's just licensed platformers for movies/shows that year like Home Alone, Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Swamp Thing, Wayne's World, Ren and Stimpy, etc. For a long time they paid for all their hardcore games with the disproportionate profits off the licensed garbage. Then someone decided uDraw was a good idea right after they lost both the Nickelodeon and Disney licenses. Plus they released all those balloons.

[tiesto]

Oh man, THQs 8 and 16 bit titles were so bottom of the barrel. Like, they made Acclaim look good. I think that stench is why I've continued to avoid THQ to this day, even if Darksiders seems like something I'd be into.

[kingv]

Psi-Ops, now that is a gem.

I remember you unlocked some of the bosses somehow and got to use their enhanced powers.

Like you could be the fat dude with the mega TK and throw shipping containers instead of just rocks or whatever the main dude could do.

Psi ops was pretty good.

[Nintex]

THQ or "Toy HeadQuarters" for much of its first decade was a licensed shovelware and crap toy pusher, that's how they wound up with the WCW license, then they changed management and dropped out of toys altogether to go into video games full time and started gobbling up studios like Volition.

You look at their NES/SNES/GB list and it's just licensed platformers for movies/shows that year like Home Alone, Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Swamp Thing, Wayne's World, Ren and Stimpy, etc. For a long time they paid for all their hardcore games with the disproportionate profits off the licensed garbage. Then someone decided uDraw was a good idea right after they lost both the Nickelodeon and Disney licenses. Plus they released all those balloons.

I don't understand why they're seemingly trying to reform all of THQ either.

Like some sort of AI has gone rampant and feels like it has to restore things. 

[Great Rumbler]

They probably picked these IPs up for a sack of pennies and a donut, so whatever they can wring out of them with re-releases and cheap sequels is pretty much just pure profit.

[benjipwns]

Nordic basically buys bankrupt companies IPs. Nordic also bought JoWood when it went bankrupt which is how they got Gothic, The Guild, Painkiller, Broken Sword, etc. They've also picked up Desperados, Jagged Alliance, Delta Force by buying various bankrupt parts of Atari, NovaLogic, etc.

When they had the THQ auction they split out all the stuff people wanted like Relic, Saints Row/Volition, etc. that Sega and everybody else bid on. Then they had a second auction with everything else THQ had, that's what Nordic swept in and bought. They got something like 150 THQ IPs, and the THQ brand name, for $5 million. Along with Rainbow Studios.

As Crytek fell apart, Deep Silver/Koch Media bought the old THQ pieces off of them. Then this year THQ Nordic bought Koch Media.

Nordic was started by a Swedish dude to buy and sell used software, games and comic books. He sold it for $10 million or something during the dotcom boom and then bought it back from the bankrupt company for like $1 after the dotcom crash.

[Huff]

I dont think I knew nordic changes names to THQ nordic

and got really confused as I though THQ didn't exist anymore but now theyre buying stuff

[Tasty]

Didn't Guillermo Del Toro have a horror game in dev at THQ?

[Joe Molotov]

Didn't Guillermo Del Toro have a horror game in dev at THQ?

Yeah, a long-ass time ago.

[Kara]

Psi Ops will always be ESPionage to me.

[bluemax]

Timesplitters is one of these games I never get the reverence for. Was it because it reminded people of Goldeneye?



And Second Sight?

TimeSplitters 1 came out on PS2 around the same time as Perfect Dark on the N64.

It supported up to 4 players.

Ran at SIXTY FPS.

Had a map editor.

TimeSplitters 2, took all of that and some of the most bonkers levels and scenarios ever in a video game. Honestly 4 player TS2 on GCN was one of the best local mutli console experiences ever.

THQ or "Toy HeadQuarters" for much of its first decade was a licensed shovelware and crap toy pusher, that's how they wound up with the WCW license, then they changed management and dropped out of toys altogether to go into video games full time and started gobbling up studios like Volition.

You look at their NES/SNES/GB list and it's just licensed platformers for movies/shows that year like Home Alone, Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Swamp Thing, Wayne's World, Ren and Stimpy, etc. For a long time they paid for all their hardcore games with the disproportionate profits off the licensed garbage. Then someone decided uDraw was a good idea right after they lost both the Nickelodeon and Disney licenses. Plus they released all those balloons.

Yup. The first company I worked at worked on a couple of Disney/Pixar PSP ports for THQ and did a decent enough job that we landed a deal to make an ORIGINAL Saint's Row game for the PSP for them.

Sadly things got bad for us and then THQ changed presidents (before eventually going under) and a behind schedule, high budget PSP game was not a thing that made a lot of financial sense for them.

I've met various people over the years (and I even did a brief summer internship) who had worked at Heavy Iron, which was one of THQ's last remaining studios and the place responsible for a lot of the Disney/Pixar games in the PS2/GCN/Xbox and later PS3/360/Wii eras. Studios like that used to be the kind of training grounds for new entrants into the industry to learn the realities and such of making games. When THQ and midcore stuff died it totally changed a lot of how entry level careers go in the industry.

[team filler]

for switch?

[benjipwns]

Yup. The first company I worked at worked on a couple of Disney/Pixar PSP ports for THQ and did a decent enough job that we landed a deal to make an ORIGINAL Saint's Row game for the PSP for them.

Sadly things got bad for us and then THQ changed presidents (before eventually going under) and a behind schedule, high budget PSP game was not a thing that made a lot of financial sense for them.

I've met various people over the years (and I even did a brief summer internship) who had worked at Heavy Iron, which was one of THQ's last remaining studios and the place responsible for a lot of the Disney/Pixar games in the PS2/GCN/Xbox and later PS3/360/Wii eras. Studios like that used to be the kind of training grounds for new entrants into the industry to learn the realities and such of making games. When THQ and midcore stuff died it totally changed a lot of how entry level careers go in the industry.

Activision had a similar feeder studio system for a long time, that they even developed to the point that they'd promote up the whole studio to a prime title/franchise. That's how Treyarch first got Spider-Man and then got promoted up to the alternate Call of Duty studio, Beenox went from doing licensed garbage and ports to taking over the Spider-Man games after Treyarch started Black Ops, Radical was allowed to do Prototype. You also had Toys for Bob, Vicarious Visions, Neversoft, Raven, etc.

Of course, now they're basically all just Call of Duty and Destiny support studios. Especially after Skylanders and Guitar Hero have more or less died off.

Toys for Bob is doing the Spyro remasters. They worked on the Crash ones too with Vicarious Visions which now has moved to join Radical and High Moon as a Destiny 2 support studio. Beenox and Raven now do Call of Duty support, especially the PC ports and DLC maps.

I'm not sure if that's better or not than working on their own games, even if it's Spongebob shovelware or Garfield masterpieces or whatever. They get to work on the major projects, but also aren't really creating their own thing. Though I've heard Raven does get a decent amount of leeway in the maps and stuff they do because the main studios respect them even if Activision may not, which is partly how they got to do the MW Remaster as the lead rather than just being a support team for it.

[chronovore]

b-grade M-rated PS2 games

Mercenaries

Fuck Mercenaries 2 though

I wouldn't grade Mercs 1 as B-grade though! As a PS2 game it looked as good as any other open-world game of its era, and had richer gameplay.