Nordic Games picks away 'de Blob' franchise from THQ's corpse

Nordic Games said it has acquired the “de Blob” game property from THQ, the bankrupt game publisher.

The “de Blob” titles were memorable for their creativity, as the player lobbed paint balls to bring color to a black-and-white world.

“De Blob is just a great and truly unique franchise”, said Reinhard Pollice, the business and product development director at Nordic Games. “We are excited about what the future holds for this polychromatic extravaganza as the newest addition to our portfolio. We will evaluate opportunities with the existing games, as well as potential sequels.”

After its initial release for Windows PC in 2006 by a group of students at the Utrecht School of the Arts and Utrecht University, THQ released it on the Nintendo Wii system in 2008. In 2011, THQ released “de Blob 2” on PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

Last year, Nordic Games paid $4.9 million to acquire Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Red Faction, and Titan Quest from THQ, a Los Angeles area game publisher that collapsed after many years in business.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.