THQ Nordic announced that it has acquired Koch Media's assets for €121 million (approximately $149 million), which include its game developer and publisher Deep Silver, AAA-intellectual property rights such as "Saints Row" and "Dead Island" and an exclusive license for "Metro."
THQ Nordic announced the news in a press release published on Feb. 14. THQ Nordic acquired 100% of the share capital of Koch Media. This means that THQ now owns all of Koch Media's assets — all its studios (Volition, which developed the "Saints Row" franchise; Dambuster, which is responsible for "Homefront," and Fishlabs, which developed the "Galaxy of Fire" series), AAA-intellectual property rights and licenses ("Saints Row," "Dead Island" and "Metro") and Deep Silver. THQ Nordic will also be taking over Koch Media's Partner Publishing (which is the leading company in this business area in Europe as well as Koch Media's film business that caters to the German- and Italian-speaking territories.
Polygon reported that Volition and "Metro" are previous properties of THQ. In a timeline Polygon gave, THQ, owner of the Volition studio and publisher of the "Metro" filed for bankruptcy in December 2012. Koch Media bought the two in an auction in January 2013 as well as the "Homefront" property Crytek bought in the auction. Another publisher, Austrian-based Nordic Games bought other THQ properties including "Darksiders," "Red Faction," "Titan Quest," "Supreme Commander," "Frontlines," "Stuntman," "Juiced," "Full Spectrum Warrior" and "Destroy All Humans." Nordic Games later acquired the THQ trademark and changed its name to THQ Nordic.
Meanwhile, according to GameSpot, Koch Media CEO Klemens Kundratitz said that THQ Nordic is the perfect candidate to acquire Koch Media as it has the skills, willingness and the financial ability to publish games. THQ Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors, said, on the other hand, that the newly acquired studios will operate as normal. He said that both Volition and Dambuster are working on new games.
