Darksiders developer Vigil Games wasn't sold at last month's auction of THQ's assets . That was the end of Vigil, but not its staff: rather than buying Vigil whole, Crytek left it on the auction block and later hired many of its laid-off employees to form Crytek USA in Austin. Crytek's new ex-Vigil staffed studio, however, won't be making Darksiders III. In an interview with VentureBeat , Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli explained that Crytek wanted the people, but not the product.
"We had chosen Austin as the destination for [our U.S. branch], and we needed a lean and core team of experts to run the studio. At the same time, we didn't want to continue with Darksiders III, since that doesn't fit with our strategy," said Yerli.
"So when I heard that [THQ laid off everyone at Vigil], I decided on Saturday morning to fly out to meet with them to see if the team would be interested to join our mission, which is significantly different than what this team has done before."
Over the course of a few days, Vigil Games closed and Crytek USA opened, and the 30 to 40 member staff will now be starting fresh.
“It's not like we set the team on a specific game concept,” said Yerli. “They're actually going to work on what David [Crytek USA CEO] 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.”
Meanwhile, the rights to Darksiders remain unsold. Read more about the rapid formation of Crytek USA on VentureBeat .
