‘Biomutant’ To Become One Of THQ Nordic’s Major Franchises Following Acquisition

Vienna, Austria-based video game publisher THQ Nordic has acquired Swedish developer Experiment 101 and the “Biomutant” IP. Following the acquisition, the publisher announced that it plans to make “Biomutant” as one of its major franchises.

On Friday, THQ Nordic announced via a press release that it has acquired the “Biomutant” IP and its developer, Experiment 101. Although it was not initially made known how much money THQ Nordic shelled out to seal the deal, Gamasutra found out that the acquisition involved 75.3 million Swedish Krona or US$8.9 million.

THQ Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors expressed the company’s excitement to officially own the Swedish studio that was created by former Avalanche Studios employees. Wingefors also shared that moving forward, the publisher is going to establish “Biomutant” as part of its major video game franchises.

“After the strong reception ‘Biomutant’ received at its announcement at Gamescom 2017, we are excited to have been able to acquire Experiment 101 and ‘Biomutant,’” Wingefors said. “Our aim is to build ‘Biomutant’ into one of our major franchises. The recruitment of Stefan Ljungqvist and his talented team brings important new power to THQ Nordic.”

Wingefors also noted that Ljungqvist, who previously worked as art director and game director for Avalanche’s “Just Cause,” will henceforth be responsible for leading the “Biomutant” franchise as well as pitching in new ideas for THQ Nordic’s other projects. “In addition to continue leading the ‘Biomutant’ franchise, Stefan will advise on our strategy, future acquisitions and further game development projects,” the CEO explained.

According to GameIndustry.biz, all of Experiment 101’s shares are now owned by THQ Nordic. This means the Karlstad-based developer is the fourth studio the publisher owns in Sweden. The other three are Mirage Game Studios, Pieces Interactive and Foxglove Studios.

Even before the acquisition, THQ Nordic and Experiment 101 were already collaborating, since the former was going to be “Biomutant’s” publisher. However THQ Nordic grabbed the opportunity to acquire the studio and its project after realizing the game and the development team’s “significant potential.”

“Biomutant” was announced at this year’s Gamescom convention. It is described as a post-apocalyptic open-world ARPG that features real-time melee, shooter as well as mutant ability action. The game also features a fully customizable (MMO style) character and mutation system and an interactive narrative that allows players to create their own stories of survival.

The key features of the game are as follows:

• A New Take on Third-Person Combat: The martial arts style combat system allows you maximum freedom of movement and agility while mixing shooting, melee and powers from your mutations.
• Evolve Your Gameplay: You’ll be able to recode your genetic structure to change the way you look and play.
• Next Level Crafting: Mix and match parts to create your own unique single- or double-handed slash, crush and pierce melee weapons.
• Gear Up for Adventure: You have full freedom when equipping your character. Not only when it comes to choosing weapons you created, but also what type of gear you wear.
• Survive in a Vibrant Open World: You’ll create your own adventure as you journey explore the open world and what lies beneath its surface, by foot, mech, jet-ski, air-balloon and more.
• An Unusual Story with an Unusual End: A plague is ruining the land and the Tree-of-Life is bleeding death from its roots. The Tribes stand divided, in need of someone strong enough to unite them or bring them all down.

“Biomutant” is coming to the PS4, Xbox One and PC in the near future. Other important details will be announced at Gamescom 2018. For now, interested gamers may check out the game’s Steam page for more information.