What will most likely happen, is that they sell DMC to Platinum or someone else. Same way THQ sold off their Darksiders franchise to Nordic Games.
Too bad NG hasn't done anything with it yet -- still, there's no reason to give up hope.
Darksiders was auctioned off... Still I guess it's the same as being "sold". A lot of people were hoping for Darksiders to be picked up by Platinum Games, Crytek after the hired the former Vigil Games employees, and even Nintendo so they could have a "mature Zelda" substitute. Nobody really wanted the franchise. Maybe it was "unstable" despite fans and reviewers giving good criticism on it. Or maybe it was too similar to their franchises. Darksiders is a mixture of Prince of Persia, Zelda, God of War, and Devil May Cry. By extension, it's a mixture of Assassin's Creed, which is Prince of Persia but a little bit more real and open-world; any hack n' slash and third-person shooter, World of Warcraft and Warhammer visually, and I guess, Diablo and Borderlands, starting with Darksiders II since it had expanded RPG elements and a large loot system. Also it was a high production series that involved some well-known people like Mark Hamill and Michael Wincott. Also, the only people who really knew what the series should do and go for were the Vigil Games employees. So, if they want to make money and continue to make money along with pleasing fans, they would have to buy the series and the studio. An expensive investment since this series sells, but not like say, God of War, Mario, or the coveted Call of Duty sales that EA is so fixated on.
Nordic Games themselves said that if they want to make a Darksiders III, they'll need the former Vigil Games employees who are currently working on Ryse: Son of Rome and some other project, I believe. That or someone they and fans would be confident in making a Darksiders game. Something similar happened with the Sly Cooper series: Sucker Punch went off to focus on the inFAMOUS series and Sly Cooper was just there. The HD collection was handed to Sanzaru Games whose first game was Ninja Reflex for the Wii, DS, and PC and before had ported Secret Agent Clank to the PS2. Yeah, not that stellar of a record. Some time, they pitched the idea of what would become Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time to Sony. Sanzaru Games didn't even notify them that they were working on a Sly Cooper demo, nope, they just scheduled a meeting and pitched an early Sly Cooper game. It was, fortunately, approved and Sanzaru Games went on with the project. Heck, Sucker Punch gave their approval to Sanzaru Games. Even before the game released, Sanzaru Games proved to companies and fans that they could make a Sly Cooper game. After release, people felt that Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is a respected Sly Cooper game from a relatively unknown studio and guess what? They're working on Sly Cooper 5.
Retro Studios proved to fans and Nintendo they could make a 3D Metroid game and Donkey Kong Country games. Mercury Stream proved to fans they could make a 3D Castlevania. Similar cases, but with different ideas of a game series rather than a direct continuation of a games' core gameplay; Metroid and Castlevania were known for their 2D gameplay, though Castlevania had good 3D games before Lord of Shadows; the 3D Castlevanias were Castlevania (Nintendo 64), Legacy of Darkness, Lament of Innocence, and Curse of Darkness.
Many fans will agree that Platinum Games can make a Devil May Cry game not because of Hideki Kamiya, the creator of Devil May Cry, but also because they made Bayonetta and the soon to be released Bayonetta 2, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. All are considered to be great hack n' slash games alongside Mad Word, Anarchy Reigns, Vanquish, The Wonderful 101, and Infinite Space which are action, third-person shooter, RTS, RPG, and strategy games. The studio itself is made of developers who made Okami, Godhand, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and more. That means they proved in the past they can make action games and games with good story, though the current track record for stories that aren't over-the-top or plain crazy isn't good, though, Platinum Games tends to focus on crazy gameplay rather than not-so crazy stories that could drive you nuts. Then again, Okami was based on Japanese mythology and the other games were made up on the spot with influences here and there.
Another option would be developers from Capcom who worked on Devil May Cry including Hideaki Itsuno who seems to want to focus on Dragon's Dogma - he said it was his dream to make a medieval, fantasy game. Here's the thing, it's no doubt that Capcom has developer capable of creating games with great combat. They made Street Fighter which spawned The Kings of Fighters, Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur, Tekken, Super Smash Bros., Dead or Alive, and pretty much any fighting game. Hell, tons of fighting and non-fighting games are inspired by Street Fighter such as having similar controls to having the iconic hadouken and shoryuken somewhere as actual moves in-game or just a reference. Similarly, they created Devil May Cry which lead to God of War, Ninja Gaiden - the 3D games not the original 2D series -, Bayonetta, the spiritual successor, Lollipop Chainsaw, and other hack n' slash games. Capcom has talent and proven they can make games with awesome combat or awesome games in general. It's just whether or not they can focus their talent which they have been trying to do and shown with Dragon's Dogma, an incredible RPG game influenced by western mythology, soon to be deep down, Monster Hunter which is slowly creating more addicted fans outside of Japan, and deep down which seems to be a horror, sci-fi, medieval, time-travel game. The issue is that reputation they created this generation. If they survive, then next generation is a period of redemption or cold, hard, corrupted truth for fans.
A third choice would be Ninja Theory who some would definitely be against having as developers for Devil May Cry. Here's what they proved to fans: art direction. From Heavenly Sword to Enslaved to DmC: Devil May Cry and hell, even the tiny glimpses into their new game with the blue-haired girl, Ninja Theory has art that captivates people. Many thought they were the story-makers of gaming, but they didn't write for Heavenly Sword or Enslaved; other, third-party writers did, but they were able to create an atmosphere to the games the tied with the stories each game told including DmC which was the first game they wrote and it has a decent story compared to some other media. Maybe not Bioshock material, but not Twi - I gotta stop ripping on this series of books. Also, they were able to work with one of the greatest combat developer studios: Capcom. They probably learned a few tricks from Capcom and could make a decent hack n' slash game compared to their previous endeavors with Enslaved and Heavenly Sword. Funny, Enslaved has a much simpler and more repetitive combat system than Heavenly Sword. What the hell happened there? If Ninja Theory makes another DmC game, then don't expect combat to just go from DMC1 quality to DMC3 quality. It'll take time like how Kingdom Hearts started with as a button-masher to high-speed Kingdom Hearts II to strategic Birth By Sleep and 3D Dream Drop Distance. Kingdom Hearts III promises to be something between KHII and Dream Drop Distance and seeing the clips of gameplay from Final Fantasy XV which has a combat system inspired by Kingdom Hearts, I wouldn't doubt them one bit. Plus, aside from Platinum Games and Capcom - as much as many doubt this -, Ninja Theory has an idea of where DmC will go. They were the ones who wanted to reboot DMC with something familiar, but Capcom was the one who pushed them to go somewhere else.
The other choice would be some other developer. Like Sanzaru Games, Retro Studios, and Mercury Studios, these developers would have to prove to fans, developers involved with Devil May Cry, and if DMC was picked up by a developer who don't have the resources for it, like Nordic Games, they would have to prove to them as well. It'll be much scarier with them than Ninja Theory, Capcom, and Platinum Games, but it'll be much more exhilarating when we see them succeed.
