Posted Fri Mar 29, 2013 at 06:30 AM PDT by Brian Hoss
The ghost of Vigil takes aim at continuing the series.
When THQ was recently broken up and sold to a variety of developers, one thing left on the auction block was 'Darksiders,' Both the franchise and the studio who developed it, Vigil, failed to draw a bid. That was then. Not long after THQ laid off the majority of its remaining employees, Crytek decided to form a new studio in Austin consisting primarily of ex-Vigil employees. With the 'Darksiders' IP coming up for auction on April 1st, Crytek USA boss, David Adams tweeted, "Going to bid on Darksiders IP. Put 7 years of heart and soul into that franchise, and I think it belongs at home with its creators."
The two 'Darksiders' games have sold millions of copies, but not unlike recent announcements from Square Enix, millions of copies sold can still be regarded as a underperformer.
On the one hand, continuing 'Darksiders' with much of the same team would seem to be the best chance at keeping the next installment faithful. Unfortunately, Vigil's reputation for less than efficient game development is a reminder that not all was well with the series development in prior years. Furthermore, both 'Darksiders' games were built with Unreal 3, and it follows that Crytek would be unlikely to continue to license and promote Unreal rather than their own CryEngine.
Whether another 'Darksiders' game is far off likely depends on a number of financial factors, not the least of which is the upcoming auction. In a related development, 'Darksiders 2' is scheduled to be pulled from Nintendo's European eShop on March 31. The reason for the removal has not been annonced.
Source: Eurogamer
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