THQ CEO Nordic Responds to Mixed Darksiders III Opinions

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Darksiders has finally returned to the shelves, but the media have given him a mixed reception.

The apocalyptic action adventure was the best on PC with a metacritical score of 72, followed by Xbox One at 71. The PlayStation 4 version seems to have the most split critics, reaching an average score of 66.

These scores are by no means bad, but in a quarter when any outing is competing with Red Dead Redemption II, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Battlefield V, Assbadin's Creed Odyssey and an aggressive discount from retailers, any publisher would probably hope better of their biggest holiday release.

But THQ Nordic's CEO, Lars Wingefors, remains satisfied with the final product and believes it shows how the publisher is honoring the legacy of its predecessor.

"The promise we made was to offer a game to fans of the franchise, and I'm very proud of it," he said. GamesIndustry.biz. "I'm really proud of what we were able to show you, I think [developer] Gunfire did an excellent game, and even my editing team in Vienna worked very hard to execute that – all the marketing, all things behind the scenes.

"All that has been published in the Apocalypse edition has been a logistical challenge.Many people have spent a lot of time in recent months to get there."

Addressing the critics, he continued: "There are always a few people who do not like this type of product, but there are some who really appreciate it. If we keep our promise and provide a product that fans really appreciate, I think we'll be [fine]. "

Darksiders III is a significant release for THQ Nordic. This is the first time that the publisher has published a new entry in a franchise of the previous incarnation of THQ. Until now, most of the publications of the plethora of IP Wingefors companies acquired over the years have been remakes or reissues, such as this year's Red Faction and Titan Quest releases.

The CEO congratulated his team for producing a new Darksiders on time, but was keen to limit expectations that THQ Nordic will regularly broadcast new titles from these old franchises.

"With Darksiders we were pretty fast," he says. "It took only five years after the acquisition to produce a sequel, which is the time group we work with.

"On more than 100 IP addresses we have, you should not expect a sequel because all IP addresses are no longer relevant."

According to THQ Nordic's latest financial results, the publisher stated that its revenues had rose 1403 million euros in the last quarter, up 1,403% from the previous quarter, mainly due to the acquisition of Koch Media and Deep Silver earlier this year.

The publisher also said that he had 55 titles in development, although only 20 were announced.