At the end of the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase 2022 came a surprise announcement that didn’t seem like one, but let’s be honest: it was the usual last-minute twist that Ubisoft, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, for example, tend to do at the end of their coverage.

So, at the end of the broadcast, this text popped up: “As of today, THQ Nordic (HandyGames not included) has 43 games in development thereof 26 still unannounced AFTER this showcase. Thank you for watching!” Then the number 26 was scribbled over, and the South Park Digital Studios logo appeared (led by the two creators of the animated series, Trey Parker and Matt Stone), while Randy Marsh from South Park shouted, “Hot hot hot hot!”

This scene could be a bad joke, but then it went back to the “As of today, THQ Nordic (HandyGames not included) has 43 games in development thereof 26 still unannounced AFTER this showcase. Thank you for watching!” slide with a slight difference: instead of 26, 25 was written. And that was the end of the announcement, which wasn’t as meme-y as the announcement at E3 2013 of Peggle 2, which was released for Xbox One in late 2013 and then Xbox 360 and PlayStation 4 during 2014.

South Park’s last decade of console/PC games hasn’t been straightforward. South Park: The Stick of Truth was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and was originally going to be published by the original incarnation of THQ. Still, the publisher went bankrupt, and Ubisoft bought the publishing rights, and the company published it in 2014. There were also changes to the sequel: although Ubisoft remained the publisher, the developer was no longer Obsidian, as the French publisher brought South Park: The Fractured But Whole in-house, which was released in 2017 and was worked on primarily by Ubisoft San Francisco.

It seems that Ubisoft has given up on South Park, but we await further details from THQ Nordic and South Park Digital Studios…

Source: Gematsu