THQ Nordic announces a new Japan-based subsidiary, with an aim to expand into the third-largest gaming market in the world. The partnership is born out of the acquisition of developer HandyGames, and a desire to market THQ Nordic and HandyGames’ content to new audiences. This studio will be in charge of distribution, PR, and marketing of its catalogue of games in the Japanese markets. THQ Nordic acquired HandyGames in 2018 for a sum of €1 million, or about $1.15 million. The studio is known for the Guns n’ Glory series, This Is the Police, and Little Big Workshop.
“In our opinion, the only real way to truly embrace (pun intended) the Japanese market is to run it with a team of Japanese professionals, which was our approach for the new Japanese subsidiary,” said managing director Klemens Kreuzer in a statement. “A warm, heartfelt welcome to the entire team based in Tokyo, Japan. Good things come to those who wait and we took our time to realize it with the best setup possible.”
The goal is a simple expansion. The new studio, billed as THQ Nordic Japan KK, is based in Tokyo and has a goal of helping to market various games for the publisher to Japanese audiences. It’s a very solid idea as Japan is one of the larger markets in the world for gaming and other similar content. The growth of eSports, especially for fighting games and other competitive genres, has been a key area of focus for many publishers. In total 67.6 million players in Japan spent an estimate $20 billion in 2018 on various video games and related content, with a sizable portion, as much as 77%, paying into DLC and other digital purchases.
THQ Nordic has been on real tear recently. The THQ brand was snapped up in bankruptcy proceedings for the American studio in 2013 by Swedish publisher Nordic Games GmbH. Since then, the company has been pushing for tons of new games as well as plenty of acquisition. Recently, the team had acquired Kingdom Come Deliverance developer Warhorse Studios. THQ Nordic has also been working on a huge library of games, including the long-anticipated Dead Island 2.
