Devil’s Third is Still Alive

Devil’s Third is not only not-canceled, it’s going multi-format.

Things weren’t looking good for Devil’s Third last time we checked. Developed by Valhalla Game Studios, which snapped up Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive director, Tomonobu Itagaki, following his dramatic departure from Tecmo, the game was set to be published by THQ. Unfortunately, the ailing publisher dropped the title, along with several others, during its most recent bout of belt-tightening.

According to a recent statement, THQ has returned the IP, along with the distribution rights and the work done thus far, to Valhalla. It’s still not clear where the unproven development studio is going to get the money to fund the project, but that hasn’t stopped it from announcing that the title is being upgraded into a full blown multi-media franchise.

“Valhalla Game Studios would like to announce that after negotiations with THQ Inc., and with their generous cooperation, both parties have reached an agreement whereupon all rights related to the Devil’s Third project, including development and distribution rights, have been transferred in full from THQ to Valhalla Game Studios,” read the statement.

“In addition to the home console and PC versions, we at Valhalla Game Studios intend to bring the Devil’s Third universe to a wide range of digital devices. We are also looking beyond the boundaries of video games and plan to work with other various forms of media, including manga, novels, animation and film, to create a blockbuster franchise.”

Now, I like what I’ve seen of Devil’s Third thus far – a minute long trailer, to be exact – but it seems a touch premature to start thinking about franchise opportunities for a game that has no release date and, most importantly, no publisher.

Source: GameIndustryBiz