Shortly after an auction where THQ’s studios and properties were sold off to the highest bidders, the company announced that they had failed to find any buyers for Vigil Entertainment or the Darksiders series. Then, Crysis developer, Crytek, swooped in and took on a “core team” of Vigil employees to form a new studio, Crytek USA.
The decision was made in just a single day, which explains why the announcement was so sudden. Crytek’s founders didn’t interview any of the Vigil Entertainment employees or look at their resumés, CEO, Cevat Yerli, tells VentureBeat in an interview.
Crytek considered bidding on Vigil Entertainment, but eventually decided against it, due to “too many unknowns”. However, Yerli spoke with Vigil founder, David Adams, over the phone and liked him. Then, he flew out to Austin, Texas to meet with him and the team, which showed up together and expressed an interest in sticking together. This was what cemented the decision.
“Only a few people within Crytek even knew this was happening because we didn’t have time to update people,” Yerli shared with VentureBeat. “So it was a surprise for a lot of people within Crytek.”
However, Yerli says, Crytek aren’t interested in continuing the Darksiders series, and won’t be pursuing the rights to the series either. Instead, Crytek USA will work on something else that fits within Crytek’s overall strategy. Naturally, it will use Crytek’s CryEngine technology.
“It’s not like we set the team on a specific game concept,” Yerli revealed. “They’re actually going to work on what David and the team identifies as what they want to do. Right now, they just know what the strategy of Crytek is and the framework we need to satisfy, but none of that drives what the game is about.”
In the meantime, however, most of the newly-formed studio is on vacation.
