Darksiders II getting a book to coincide with launch

by: Russell - posted: 1/31/2012 10:31:00 PM

After getting the chance to fly out to California to preview Darksiders II, I'm really excited for its launch this summer.  However, THQ has announced that they are partnering with Random House's Del Ray imprint to release an original novel set in the Darksiders universe.  Darksiders: The Abomination Vault will take place millennia before the events of the first Darksiders.  On top of that, the Random House Publishing Group's intellectual property creation and development group will also be developing the IP bible for the Darksiders universe.  Now I'm even more excited for the game's summer launch.

Darksiders® Novel Set to Accompany Game Launch

Random House Worlds to Develop Darksiders World Bible

NEW YORK, NY., January 31, 2012 – THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) and the Random House Publishing Group, announced today that an original novel set in the Darksiders® universe will be published by Random House’s Del Rey imprint in May 2012. DARKSIDERS: THE ABOMINATION VAULT, written by author Ari Marmell, will take place millennia before the events of the first game of the Darksiders series. Random House Worlds, the Random House Publishing Group’s intellectual property creation and development group, will also develop the IP bible for the Darksiders universe.

In DARKSIDERS: THE ABOMINATION VAULT, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse (beings charged with maintaining the Balance between the forces of Heaven and Hell) have uncovered a plot to resurrect ancient weapons of unimaginable power. Death, with the help of his compatriot War, must track down and neutralize the mysterious individuals behind the scheme before the entire universe is plunged into a devastating conflict.

About Darksiders II:
Summoned by the End of Days, Death, the most feared of the legendary Four Horsemen embarks on a quest to undo Armageddon. Along the way, the Horseman discovers that there are far worse things than an earthly Apocalypse, and that an ancient grudge may threaten all of Creation. Become the terrifying force which everything fears, but nothing can escape. Death Lives in Darksiders II.


About the Author:
Ari Marmell is the author of The Conqueror’s Shadow, The Warlord’s Legacy, The Goblin Corps, Agents of Artifice, a Magic: the Gathering novel, and his young adult books Thief’s Covenant and False Covenant. Marmell lives with his wife in Austin, Texas.


About Vigil Games:
In 2006, THQ Inc. acquired Vigil Games and enabled the dream to become reality through significant management and resource support. Today, Vigil employs over 200 talented and dedicated developers making games across multiple genres and platforms.

Vigil Games strives to be a world-class game development studio that produces high-quality interactive entertainment for a global audience.

About THQ
THQ Inc. is a leading worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. The company develops its products for all popular game systems, personal computers and wireless devices. Headquartered in Los Angeles County, California, THQ sells product through its global network of offices located throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. More information about THQ and its products may be found at http://www.thq.com. THQ, Darksiders, Vigil Games and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc.


About the Random House Publishing Group
The flagship imprint of Random House, Inc., the Random House Publishing Group had its origins in 1925 when Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two New Yorkers in their mid-twenties, acquired a line of classics and contemporary American works called The Modern Library from publisher Horace Liveright. The company assumed the name Random House two years later, in 1927, when Cerf and Klopfer decided to publish a few books on the side, "at random." Their artist friend Rockwell Kent drew his now celebrated logo of a random house, which made its debut in February l927. Among the first titles of the new imprint were limited editions illustrated by Kent of Voltaire's Candide and Melville's Moby Dick.

Del Rey Books (http://www.delreybooks.com) was founded in 1977 as an imprint of Ballantine Books, a division of the Random House Publishing Group, under the guidance of the renowned Judy-Lynn del Rey and her husband, Lester del Rey. Del Rey publishes the best of modern fantasy, science fiction, and alternate history.

Random House Worlds, part of the Random House Publishing Group, is responsible for the creation of original multi-platform intellectual properties (IP), developed and marketed within strategic corporate partnerships. The group also works with authors and partners on story creation, world-building and launch strategies for existing IP. Using its vast experience in bestselling storytelling and, in particular, the Del Rey imprint’s extensive expertise in such genres as science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and horror, Random House Worlds is in a unique position to help create complex storylines set in original worlds with fully imagined characters, world histories and geographies—all prepared for multi-platform implementation.