Developer Double Fine once again owns the publishing and distribution rights for two of its games that it lost control of during defunct publisher THQ’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Following a court-mandated auction, European publisher Nordic Games acquired a number of former THQ properties, including Double Fine-developed titles Costume Quest and Stacking. Double Fine and Nordic have since come to an agreement to return the rights for those titles to the developer.
“I am pleased that we have regained full control over Costume Quest and Stacking, following a daring and top-secret midnight raid on the Nordic Games headquarters in Vienna,” Double Fine chief executive Tim Schafer said in a statement.
Additionally, Double Fine and Nordic will partner to release Costume Quest, Stacking, and Psychonauts to retail for PC and Mac in early 2014. Nordic denies that Double Fine committed any international heists to secure this arrangement.
“We can’t wait to partner with Double Fine for this upcoming retail launch of three of its most excellent games,” Nordic chief executive officer Lars Wingefors said. “However, I feel compelled to point out that we were happy to transfer distribution rights for Costume Quest and Stacking back to Double Fine in an entirely nonsecretive and heist-free manner.”
Despite Nordic’s denial, the Psychonauts developer is sticking to its story.
“Double Fine is dedicated to controlling its own IP, and we will continue working to bring all associated rights back in-house whenever possible,” Double Fine business development vice president Justin Bailey said. “No matter how many split-second security system hacks or painstaking tunneling operations we have to execute.”
“I just want to clarify, again, that we support the right of independent developers to control their own distribution, and we were pleased to have the opportunity to work with Double Fine,” Nordic managing director Klemens Kreuzer said. “No heists.”
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