THQ Nordic announced today that it has acquired Warhorse Studios, the developer behind the 2018 PC role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The deal is worth $37.53 million on a cash and debt free basis.
Warhorse’s is in Prague in the Czech Republic. Kingdom Come: Deliverance was the studio’s first title, and a Kickstarter campaign raised over $1.24 million back in 2014 to help fund the project, billing itself as “Dungeons & No Dragons” for its focus on realistic combat, no magic, and Central European history. It became a hit, selling over 2 million copies. This will be THQ Nordic’s first studio in the Czech Republic.
THQ Nordic has been on an acquisition frenzy. Often, this involves nabbing licenses to defunct game franchises, like Kingdoms of Amalur and TimeSplitters. It also includes acquiring studios behind recent hits, like Goat Simulator developer Coffee Stain.
THQ Nordic is setting itself up to become major mid-sized publisher, akin to the old THQ back in the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 days, and adding Warhorse Studios to its stable gives the company another impressive horse to ride. These so-called “double A” studios got hurt as the game industry grappled with the rise in development costs of the HD era.
“Becoming part of THQ Nordic family is an important milestone for our studio,” Warhorse chief executive officer Martin Frývalský noted in a press release. “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.”