THQ Nordic has announced that Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning will be heading to Switch later this year. Announced and released last year, Re-Reckoning is a remastered version of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a game that seemed to be the starting point for an entirely new RPG franchise before developer 38 Studios went bankrupt in 2012.
Titan Quest is one of those old games that has made a resurgence under THQ Nordic. Originally released way back in 2006, Titan Quest quickly became one of the most visible and popular competitors to Diablo 2 (and later Diablo 3) in the action RPG genre. After it received an expansion called Immortal Throne in 2007, things went mostly quiet on the Titan Quest front until THQ Nordic entered the picture in 2016 with the release of Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition, an enhanced re-release of the original game and its sole expansion.
Fans of the classic TimeSplitters franchise have no doubt heard the whispers of an incoming TimeSplitters 2 remake. A recent game from THQ Nordic, SpellForce 3: Fallen God, contains an Easter egg reference to such a game, leading some to believe that a TimeSplitters 2 remake is indeed in the works. We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that is not the case and this is just a matter of an Easter egg being an Easter egg.
Back at the beginning of June, THQ Nordic confirmed that it's remastering Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a game from the Xbox 360 and PS3 era that was the sole title made by 38 Studios. When it made that announcement, THQ Nordic gave us next to nothing in terms of details aside from confirming the title of the remaster - Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning - and confirming that it would include all of Amalur's DLC.
Back in 2018, THQ Nordic went on a buying spree and snatched up the rights to several long-dormant franchises. Among its purchases was the rights to the Amalur IP, which only saw one release - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - before developer 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy and ultimately shut down. At the time it made the purchase, THQ Nordic was silent about its plans for the franchise, but we assumed that we'd at least see a remaster of Kingdoms of Amalur before all was said and done.
In recent months, THQ Nordic has been snatching up a lot of games studios and IP, a spree that continues today with the company's purchase of Warhorse Studios. Though Warhorse has been around since 2011, it's just getting started in a lot of ways, as it only has one released game to its name. That game is Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which released last year to pretty solid success.
It's been a very long time since we've heard the name Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The RPG was supposed to kick off an epic series that included an MMO, but developer 38 Studios shut down shortly after Reckoning released. Ever since then, the Kingdoms of Amalur series has sat dormant, with no indication that we'll ever see it revived.
Back in the era of the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube, one of the most popular FPS franchises around was TimeSplitters. We haven't heard from the franchise in a while, mostly because there hasn't been a whole lot to report. The last game in the franchise, TimeSplitters 3: Future Perfect, was released in 2005, and though there have been rumors about TimeSplitters 4 throughout the years, nothing ever materialized.
The Diablo series has spawned a lot of similar games over the years, and one of the best is unquestionably Titan Quest. In the time between Diablo 2, which released in 2000, and Diablo 3, which didn't arrive until 2012, Titan Quest became one of the most popular ARPGs on the scene. Though Titan Quest is now 11 years old, it's getting something of a second life thanks to a new expansion on PC and a group of new console ports, which were just announced this morning.
THQ Nordic has announced a partnership with Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries that will result in the physical release of Halo Wars 2 for Windows 10. Those who pick up the physical retail version of the game will also be given access to the digital Xbox One edition thanks to Xbox Play Anywhere. Both Ultimate Edition and Standard Edition will be offered in retail stores.
The folks at Crytek UK have sold the rights to the gaming franchise Homefront to Deep Silver. This means big things for the series, but suggests the current title "Homefront: The Revolution" may be in flux. We recently saw some (rather impressive looking) trailer work earlier this year on the game - it’d be a darn shame if it never got made.
Crytek is looking to reunite Darksiders with its original creators, Vigil. The company hired 35 of Vigil's employees after the company failed to receive any bids back in THQ's original auctions. Crytek launched a new studio in Austin, Texas called Crytek USA and housed all of the Vigil employees there. Crytek USA is currently headed by Vigil's old co-founder, David Adams.