It was founded in 2008 as Valhalla Game Studios Co., Ltd.[b] in Tokyo, Japan. An international division was later founded in British Columbia, Canada, which acquired all intellectual property and shares of the original Valhalla Game Studios and other affiliates, effectively making them subsidiaries of the Canadian company. To differentiate, the original Valhalla Game Studios is alternatively referred to as VGS Japan. VGS Japan is best known for Devil's Third, their flagship title which went through a long development cycle.
Valhalla's parent company, Wake Up Interactive, was acquired by Tencent for $44 million in November 2021.[1] The following month, Wake Up merged the staff and operations of Valhalla Game Studios into another subsidiary, Soleil Ltd., effectively closing down Valhalla.[2]
Since 2009,[5] the company had been working on Devil's Third, a "hyper-violent shooter".[6] Originally developed as a title for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the game was eventually developed exclusively for the Wii U. Following the closure of development partner THQ, intellectual property rights to Devil's Third were given back to Valhalla Game Studios.[7] The game was re-announced by Nintendo at E3 2014; the title released in 2015. It received "generally unfavorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[8] In November 2015, it was announced that Valhalla and Nexon would be releasing Devil's Third Online, a PC port of Devil's Third's multiplayer mode, as part of a partnership.[9] The title would go into open beta in December in Japan and would release in the same region in late January. It was confirmed that features that were absent in the original, such as voice chat, would be added to Devil's Third Online.[10] After a delay, the title released in Japan on June 8, 2016.[3]
Litigation
In November 2015, it was reported that Valhalla Motion Pictures was suing Valhalla Game Studios for trademark infringement, likely due to their similar name and logo.[11]
On March 24, 2016, the United States Patent and Trademark Office denied Valhalla Game Studios' trademark registration on the grounds that there was likelihood of confusion between Valhalla Motion Pictures and Valhalla Games Studios' mark.[12]
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