Crytek has confirmed that the Vigil Games staff members they hired on after THQ’s evaporation will form a new studio, Crytek USA. In an interview with GamesBeat,Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said Crytek did consider bidding on Vigil during THQ’s IP auction, but decided not to because of the projects the studio was working on at the time (read: Darksiders III) which “weren’t strategically fit” for them. Although they didn’t bid on Vigil during the auction, Yerli decided to meet with the Vigil staff in Austin and would later form the new, Austin-based studio around the team.
“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 3, since that doesn’t fit with our strategy. 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.”
Crytek will not “set the team on a specific game concept,” said Yerli. “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.” But the CEO did say the game will use Crytek’s CryEngine development and that it “is going to be awesome.”
(via CVG)
Report filed by Thomas Coutts