Darksiders 2's $50 Million Budget Was "Ridiculous," Nordic Games CEO Says

Nordic Games owner and CEO Lars Wingefors revealed that THQ spent $50 million developing Darksiders 2, which he thinks was way too much.

"Darksiders is a top product," he told MCV in an interview. "THQ spent $50 million making Darksiders 2. We can produce a product of the same quality but for a lower cost. $50 million is ridiculous. I can't afford that."

Wingefors said that many of the IPs that Nordic Games owns will generate only $50,000 a year, and while that might not be an amount that a big publisher like Electronic Arts cares about, Nordic has hundreds of IPs. "In a few years we'll have a few hundred more," he said. "It will add up to something much bigger."

Nordic Games bought the rights for some of THQ's games in an auction after it filed for bankruptcy in December 2012. Earlier this year, it also acquired the defunct publisher's trademark, which it will use it to publish games.

"The THQ deal was the best I ever made," Wingerfors said. "I spent $5 million from my own bank account. It was a lot of money for me, but we got the money back very quickly."

In May, we learned that a core team of developers from Crytek USA, who previously worked on Darksiders at Vigil Games, have formed a new studio, Gunfire Games, and are exploring a return to the Darksiders series. At the time, Gunfire Games said that it already talked to Nordic Games about the possibility, but didn't share more details.