Long time comic book publisher sets sights on AAA game studios to tap into their vast IP.

Dark Horse Comics, the Oregon based publisher of titles such as Hellboy, Sin City, 300, Usagi Yojimbo and Umbrella Academy, are branching out into the video game space. Word comes by way of VentureBeat who goes on to say that two main offices will be established for Dark Horse Games – one in Oregon and one in Shanghai. Dark Horse Games will be tasked with working with external developers as well as it’s own in-house studios to bring a wide array of Dark Horse properties to PC, console, mobile and cloud-based services.

Dark Horse Games is being aggressive with it’s approach. Discussions are well under way with some of the world’s top gaming studios and it seems that focus and care is being taken when handling the huge library of Dark Horse IP. “We are very focused on finding the right game development partner for top IPs”, says Dark Horse Games general manager Johnny Lee. “We and our partners can really evaluate if a story IP and character universe would be a good fit for games that they’re internally designing and developing. I think most triple-A devs that I’ve talked to prefer their game dev team to build core gameplay and then fit an IP to it, versus shoving an IP down their throats. We’re sensitive to that.”

Though AAA deals are in the works, Lee explains that they’re exploring every option for their properties, “We are speaking to all types of developers and we are open to all kinds of creative ideas, even some indie studios with cool ideas around our IPs.” Lee goes on to say that if all goes well fans could look forward to seeing actual products by the end of Q1, 2022. Along with the new games division, Dark Horse announced that their first party teams would focus on multimedia accompaniments to go along with the game releases (think webtoons or anime).

I don’t know about you, Deer Reader, but the idea of playing a Usagi Yojimbo game developed by Platinum Games (for example, of course) is a tantalizing prospect. Which developer/property combo would you like to see from Dark Horse Games? Let us know in the comments!