THQ Nordic

Credits

Video captures courtesy of
JontyMaster and CostlyFall7064

Background

THQ Nordic is a Swedish-Austrian company and the main publishing unit of Embracer Group. It was founded as Nordic Games in 2008 and specialized mainly on casual games for PS2 and Wii. In August 2011, they purchased the folded JoWooD Productions and their subsidiary DreamCatcher Interactive, and turned them into "Nordic Games GmbH". On June 12, 2014, they purchased the rights to the name of, as well as nearly all the assets of the then-defunct THQ, except the few earlier sold. The company changed its name on August 12, 2016 for better name recognition and to reflect their owning of the THQ name.

Nordic Games

1st Logo (2008-2011)

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Logo: On a white background, a crate suddenly falls down from the sky, instantly losing its top in the process and bouncing for a bit before settling. The crate has the text "FRESH FROM SWEDEN" printed diagonally across the front, with the Swedish flag in the top right corner. The sides then collapse down one-by-one to reveal a blue pile in the crate. Then, they start jumping up and eventually stand up to reveal themselves as blue letters in a custom font. They eventually spread out and jump into the words "nordic games" and the screen positions itself to focus on them. The crate then fades out and the logo fades to 2D. The dot on the "i" is actually a small circle with a "n" in it, like a registered trademark symbol.

FX/SFX: The animation of the crate and the letters.

Music/Sounds: The series of thuds and cartoony popping of the letters.

Availability: Seen on a handful of We Sing, Maximum Racing and Dance Party games for Wii.

2nd Logo (2011-2014)

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Logo: Snow falls in the middle of the screen. The blurred Nordic logo zooms in and does a heartbeat, shining in the process. Then it slowly zooms and folds down.

Variants:

• On Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, the silvery logo hangs on the wall. Then it's splashed with blood.
• There are other variants.

FX/SFX: The snowing, logo appearing and shining.

Music/Sounds: The heartbeat.

Availability: Seen on games of franchises acquired from JoWooD, such as SpellForce 2: Faith in Destiny and Arcania: Fall of Setarrif. Custom variants began to appear on newer games.

3rd Logo (2014-2016)

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Logo: On a dark blue background, in the center of the screen, we see several copies of the letter "n" clustered together, rotating in a ring. The letters move outwards and space out, while the ring spinning around rapidly. The letters move back close together, and a small flash occurs. The symbol faces out to reveal it's the dot of the letter "i", which is part of the "nordic games" wordmark. A blue ray of light can be seen at the top left of the screen, and the logo slowly zooms in.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: No longer current.

THQ Nordic

(2016-)

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Nicknames: "The Red Q", "The Q Returns", "The Return of THQ"

Logo: We see the THQ Nordic logo (set in the 2011-2012 THQ logo font) slowly zooming on a black background.

FX/SFX: The logo slowly zooming in.

Music/Sounds: A sparkle sound, then a gong slam.

Availability: Current. Appears on some titles by the company.