Microids and Forever Entertainment have acquired the licensing rights to two of SEGA’s dormant IPs: The House of the Dead and Panzer Dragoon. The duo will be creating titles in the franchises that will then be distributed worldwide digitally and at retail.
SEGA had previously announced they were looking to “expand on the libraries of their past IPs“, assessing which would be suitable for HD remasters, complete remakes of previous titles, or a reboot of the IPs that would lead to new titles. It seems like Panzer Dragoon and The House of the Dead were two of the most fitting candidates for a revival. Forever Entertainment CEO Zbigniew Dębicki said:
We are delighted to collaborate with Microids and we are confident their expertise will be incredibly beneficial for the titles. Players from all around the world have been waiting for the come back of Panzer Dragoon and The House of The Dead. It’s hand in hand with Microids that we’ll make this wish come true and we are super excited about inviting players back to these universes very soon!
Neither of the pair would confirm their exact plans, but Forever Entertainment are remake specialists. The studio had recently signed an agreement with Square Enix to “create and release several game remakes based on one IP” owned by the publisher. They’ve also already been involved with the Panzer Dragoon franchise, releasing Panzer Dragoon: Remake on PS4 last year. Panzer Dragon II Zwei: Remake is already in progress at the developer and is due to launch later this year, although platforms are yet to be confirmed.
There hasn’t been a console game in The House of the Dead franchise since The House of the Dead: Overkill in 2009 (later ported to PS3 in 2011). House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn was released in arcades in Japan and the US in 2018, but the franchise has been dormant on consoles for 12 years. Forever Entertainment had previously announced they would be remaking The House of the Dead and The House of the Dead 2, although the former has only been confirmed for Nintendo Switch so far. Nothing more has been said about the latter, but as always, we’ll let you know as soon as we hear more.
[Source: Microids]
