Dark Horse Comics, known for franchises like 300, Sin City, and Hellboy, is now expanding to the video games industry. The company started a new gaming and digital division to work on AAA titles based on its IPs.
According to VentureBeat, Dark Horse Games will develop first-party titles based on the older and less established franchises. The company will partner with third-party studios to create AAA games based on its most popular comics.
“We right now have spent a lot of time on finding the rights in game collaborations at the triple-A level where the stories and the characters fit,” Dark Horse Games general manager Johnny Lee said. “We are in late-stage discussions with several of them. And so if those go well, you’ll see pretty big Dark Horse Comics characters in live triple-A games no later than the end of Q1 next year.”
Dark Horse has a portfolio of 425 characters and universes. Any of them can now be turned into video games through licensing partnerships or in-house development. Dark Horse Games has two offices in Oregon and Shanghai, with only 10 employees as for now.
The company will also work on other multimedia projects, including webtoons and anime. As for the upcoming games, they will be released on PC, consoles, mobile, cloud gaming services, and other platforms.