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THQ Nordic has acquired Koch Media


THQ Nordic today entered into an agreement with Koch Media Holding to acquire 100 percent of the share capital in Koch Media. The total consideration amounts to 121 million euros on a cash and debt free basis. As such, the highly anticipated game, Metro: Exodus, will be now published by THQ Nordic.

Koch Media’s Games business area comprises the game developer and publishing label Deep Silver which owns the IP to Dead Island, Metro (exclusive licence), Saints Row, Risen, Homefront, and Agents of Mayhem amongst others. Since 2002, Deep Silver has released more than 200 games, including its own brands, such as the open-world third-person-shooter Saints Row IV, the Dead Island series, the role-playing series Risen, and the strategy hit Galaxy on Fire for mobile platforms. Furthermore, the label has published titles such as the post-apocalyptic Metro: Redux and Brian Fargo’s classic RPG Wasteland 2. Deep Silver owns three development studios: Deep Silver Volition in the US, Deep Silver Fishlabs in Germany, and Deep Silver Dambuster Studios in the UK.

According to the press release, THQ Nordic will closely monitor and delegate resources to support Koch Media’s Games business in order to ensure quality and a healthy return on investment on its large in-house development projects. Following less successful launches in recent years with substantial write-offs in the business area (primarily Agents of Mayhem and Homefront), Koch Media has made significant organisational changes in its management, internal steering and control, technology, as well as its selection process for development of IPs. With the competence THQ Nordic possesses on management level, Koch Media will be better positioned to deliver the full potential of its development projects in the future.

What’s really interesting here is that THQ Nordic announced a couple of days ago that Darksiders 3, Biomutant and Fade to Silence will be released on GOG without any DRM. As such, it will be interesting to see whether the publisher will release a DRM-free version of Metro: Exodus!