Cutter paid: THQ Nordic buy Outcast rights

In their continuing mission to own memories of PC gaming 1992-2006, publishers THQ Nordic are now buying the intellectual property rights to Outcast. Released in 1999 by Belgian studio Appeal then remade in 2017 as Outcast - Second Contact, Outcast is an open-world explore-o-shooter about a soldier who travels to a parallel universe to save our world then gets waylaid running errands for aliens and riding a spaceostrich. THQ Nordic don't reveal any firm plans for Outcast, but I imagine they're planning a huge line of merchandise daubed with video gaming's greatest protagonist name: Cutter Slade.

THQ Nordic said in today's announcement that "the acquisition of the intellectual property 'Outcast' has been finalised with the three original creators of the game."

They own it, they'll sell it, they'll consider maybe making sequels or new content if it seems sensible. No promises. That's their standard line when they buy rights, mind.

If you missed Outcast, Alyse Stanley's Outcast - Second Contact review should fill you in on the basics - and how it holds up today. Encountering for the first time herself, she concluded "while it's impossible to ignore the foundations that Outcast laid for later games in the open-world genre, at its core, Second Contact is clunky."

But, y'know, games that people remember fondly for what they meant back in the day are a large part of what THQ Nordic are buying up in their ongoing spending spree.

Their IP acquisitions over the past few years include Carmageddon, Alone In The Dark, Desperados, and TimeSplitters, not to mention Saints Row and Red Faction and the studios behind Goat Simulator and Wreckfest and the name 'THQ' and... many things. Some of these they're making new games with, while others they're just sitting on as far as we now. Outcast is in the latter category for now.