"Luckily, the team was fired up about joining us so we made the deal in a couple of weeks." "We could either make an offer to the Purple Lamp founders, or start a whole new studio, which takes time to set up and you need to be patient," he says.
Kreuzer adds the deal was a "no brainer" because the opportunity arose at a time when THQ Nordic had decided to ramp up its efforts in developing and releasing licensed games, for which it needed a team with certain expertise. "What we liked about Purple Lamp is they have the passion to work on big licences and they're able to deal with those companies - as you can imagine, some companies can be a bit picky because the IP is one of their major assets.
"The team was familiar with working with these big licensor companies, and they showed it once again when we collaborated on SpongeBob, where you have Viacom and Nickelodeon people in the background," he says. Given that Purple Lamp only began working with THQ Nordic in January 2018, it's clear the studio made quite the impression on its new owner, not only bringing the beloved SpongeBob game back to market but also assisting with the Early Access development of The Guild 3.įor THQ Nordic CEO Klemens Kreuzer, Purple Lamp's performance with the SpongeBob project made it an essential purchase.
The team of 38 is now 100% owned by the game's publisher, THQ Nordic. The planned launch is October 22 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Wii, and Nintendo 3DS and DS.The Embracer Group spent the best part of the last decade buying up a wide variety of development studios and games IP, culminating in November's announcement that it had purchased 13 companies - the firm's biggest wave of acquisitions to date.Īmong them was Purple Lamp Studios, the Vienna-based developer behind one of the group's bigger hits of 2020: SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated, which launched in June. The game is to be a third-person co-op title with elements of exploration and puzzle-solving. Players can take on the role of either SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Sandy, or Mr. He’ll gain the help of evil robots in his ventures to steal the formula from the Krusty Krab. Plankton, the series’ well known enemy, and his many attempts to try and steal the famous Krabby Patty recipe. The game is in development with Behaviour Interactive (known for the title Naughty Bear). The first title being SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton’s Robotic Revenge. This new deal grants Activision exclusive developing and publishing rights for all SpongeBob Games. THQ is known for publishing several other cartoon related game series, such as Nicktoons and The Fairly Oddparents. Activision acquired the rights after the former publisher, THQ, went bankrupt last year.
Both Nickelodeon and Activision Publishing have announced a new multi-year and multi-title deal to develop and publish games featuring SpongeBob SquarePants – the beloved underwater, talking yellow sponge.
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS GAMES LICENSE
Well, not only does Activison hold the publishing license for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but now it also attained the rights to SpongeBob SquarePants.