THQ Nordic Acquires Warhorse Studios, Gets Kingdom Come Deliverance

THQ Nordic’s continued expansion has become an old song at this point, and the publisher just added another massive wrinkle to its business. This time, the publisher has acquired a studio, Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer Warhorse Studios through THQ Nordic subsidiary Koch Media. In purchasing Warhorse, THQ Nordic has also obtained the rights to the Kingdom Come: Deliverance IP.

In a statement about the purchase, THQ Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors said the following,

Warhorse Studios is one of the leading independent studios in Europe and I am proud to welcome them to the THQ Nordic group. Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which has now sold over 2 million copies, has been a great success since the release exactly one year ago. I look forward to continue working with the founders who will continue managing the studio under strong creative freedom for many years to come.

Warhorse Studio CEO Martin Frývalský and the studio’s founders, Daniel Vávra and Martin Klíma, will all maintain their respective roles in the company. With regards to the THQ Nordic purchase, Frývalský shared a statement of his own:

Becoming part of THQ Nordic family is an important milestone for our studio. We began as a small start-up with a handful of employees who were enthusiastic enough to join this challenging project. The skills of our team members, trust and support of our main investor and passion of our fans, who supported development of Kingdom Come: Deliverance through a Kickstarter campaign, helped us grow to an international level. We believe that backing by THQ Nordic will give us an extra push in our mission to bring exciting games to our customers and extend the frontiers of the gaming industry.

It’s an impressive shift for the studio, indeed. As noted in Frývalský’s comment, Kingdom Come: Deliverance was first a Kickstarter campaign, one that, evidently, achieved incredible commercial success. That its creators are now owned by a publisher that continues to experience growth in its own right is remarkable, to say the last.

This news comes not long after THQ Nordic acquired IPs such as Outcast, Carmageddon, and Kingdoms of Amalur. Whether or not these titles or the countless others obtained by THQ Nordic acquisitions will receive proper sequels remains to be seen.