A quick google came up with <span class="bold">this</span>.

[EDIT] On topic, though, I have been noticing the Viking trend for *a long* time. Probably about a year ago I started noticing a lot of games were Viking-themed or had some references to Norse mythology. To be completely honest, I get a bit annoyed by this, since I don't care much about Norse stuff and I tend to think Vikings are overrated, anyway. Mind you, these are my personal opinions, nothing more, nothing less. I don't think Vikings are -- or will be -- the new zombies. There are still loads of zombie media being made, probably Norse stuff won't affect it that much.

It is true, nonetheless, we're going through a Viking-craze of sorts. I won't buy many Viking games, unless it has something that makes me look past the Viking element of it (like Jotun, for instance, which I would have bought for the lovely hand-drawn art alone), but I'm glad people who are really into Norse mythology and Vikings can get their fix.

It's just that to me the zombie apocalypse is the laziest and lamest possible apocalypse scenario. Somehow it manages to be both much sillier than things like Fallout and Mad Max, and much more joyless and just not fun at the same time. There's a lot of good stories to be told about postapocalypse, and some prety unique settings can be introduced. As long as we don't just go "fuck it, whatever, here's a shitload of gore because walking dead".

Now, list all the games with zombies.. :P

They're still the winners, by far.

I wonder if the Vikings TV show is to blame here. I greatly prefer Vikings over zombies, so no complaints.

Now, if only the next trend were Romans, or even better, Greeks.

Most of the games in the zombie genre are subpar shooters. Most of the games you linked are entirely different from eachother, with the Viking theme being the only common thing between them. Eitr for example is a souls-like, M&B DLC is a player influence-able sandbox RPG and The Banner Saga is a turn based tactics game. Also Hellblade has a Celtic element to it, and the main character seems to be Boudica inspired. And most of them are high quality and unique games that happen to use a theme that is easy to match a game with. So I'll be nothing but happy to see this trend continue.

PS you skipped Skyrim.
I'd really like to see some games set in weird time periods too. Top of my list is Mauryan India, then 1400s Aztecs then the Bronze Age. Also a Napoleonic era FPS with the liberties taken by modern military shooters to make it over the top.

He did say Skyrim is not on GOG.

Ah that explains many missing ones.

Better Vikings than zombies. At least the Vikings have ability.

Now if only people would go beyond the most basic of undead in media. Where are the liches, the shades, and all the other undead Jeff has featured in his Avernum series?

I think Generic Fantasy Bad-Guys are the constant 'zombies': skeletons, orcs, goblins, necromancers and so on.
We've had those guys longer and more frequently than we've had zombies.

You are right though, in that there does seem to be a certain focus on Vikings these days.

It's always questionable how much authenticity these kind of games have. Perhaps it matters, perhaps it doesn't.
Vikings are highly marketable, it's just how things are. It's a 'tag' people throw around without thinking.

Personally I would love to see something with the same depth as say Dishonored or KOTOR, but within a Viking cultural environment and Nordic location. And 'no', Skyrim does not count.

I don't really understand why people idealize Vikings so much considering that all they really contributed to the world was a whole lot of rape, destruction and theft. Even their shipbuilding wasn't any better than the Romans.

Because they are cool, created interesting Kingdoms like Sicily and Normandy and are said to be among the first to have discovered America ?

Advantages of vikings : They had horns on their helmets. Lots of horns. Some leaders had a million horns on their helmets. The most notorious vikings had pointy rotating lightings on their helmets. They were drinking lava in hollowed human skulls (which were usually still screaming).

Advantage of zombies : Their AI is cheaper to code than the viking's. And they're usually more historically accurate, too.