Dark Horse Comics establishes Dark Horse Games division

Dark Horse Comics has announced the establishment of gaming and digital division Dark Horse Games. Based in Oregon and Shanghai, its mission is to create “unique experiences” through licensing partnerships and its own, in-house titles inspired by Dark Horse Comics’ portfolio of over 425 characters and universes.

“We’ve spent the past thirty-five years developing a long list of original, fan-favorite IP with many of the best partners in digital entertainment,” said Dark Horse Comics founder and president Mike Richardson in a press release. “Now is the perfect time to expand our vision into gaming. Dark Horse Games gives us exciting new ways to engage with fans of all kinds on a multitude of platforms.”

Dark Horse Games is currently in discussions with “some of the world’s top gaming studios” to create “AAA licensed titles based on Dark Horse Comics’ vast library,” which will be released over the next several years across multiple platforms, including consoles, PC, mobile, and the cloud.

The company’s in-house games, on the other hand, will focus on refreshing older and less established properties as video game properties. It will also produce and release multimedia projects such as webtoons and anime in conjunction with in-house games, and is currently in “active discussions” with “the world’s top game co-development studios and content production studios.” The first in-house project is already in production.

Dark Horse Games general manager Johnny B. Lee added, “Dark Horse Comics sits at the intersection of consumer entertainment, production and publishing. We’re one of the few companies that own IP nimble enough to execute coordinated strategies across multiple platforms, and that’s a huge advantage in gaming and digital.”