THQ To Publish Award-Winning Unreal Mod The Haunted On PC, PSN, XBLA

THQ announced today it will publish PSN, XBLA and PC versions of The Haunted: Hells Reach, winner of the $50,000 top prize in Intel's 2010 Build Something Unreal Contest. The Unreal Tournament 3 mod is currently available for free download to owners of the core game, but THQ will sell The Haunted as a $19.99 standalone PC title this October through its ValuSoft label. The downloadable console versions are being targeted for release next year. The Haunted lets players take control of four types of demon hunters, using a variety of upgradable weaponry to fight off 20 different types of monsters across 30 stages. Four modes -- Survival, Cooperative, Battle, and Demonizer -- highlight the game's focus on multiplayer gameplay. "The winners of the [Build Something Unreal] contest are an extremely talented group of individuals and we are thrilled to bring their first video game to the market," said ValuSoft managing director Maleea Barnett in a statement. This isn't the first time a development contest has led an indie developer to a publishing deal. Microsoft often draws titles from its XNA-based Dream.Build.Play competition for publishing on Xbox Live Arcade, as was the case with The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. And Zoo Games grants a publishing deal to the winners of its regular IndiePub Games competitions, including 2009 winner and musical puzzler Auditorium, which was released on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN last year.