Darksiders studio Vigil Games came to an untimely end in the wake of THQ's collapse, and yet it didn't: Instead of purchasing the studio, Crytek left it to wither and die, then hired a big chunk of its staff for its Austin-based Crytek USA. Now its happening again, as Crytek USA has been vastly downsized in the wake of Crytek's move to free-to-play, but the Vigil team is sticking together under yet another new name.

Vigil Games founder David Adams, who was also the chief of Crytek USA, actually left the studio three weeks ago, taking the "core team" with him to form Gunfire Games. He said Crytek's money issues were part of what convinced him to go, but it was also the fact that Crytek's problems were causing others to leave.

"It really was the team," he told Polygon. "When you make a game, one of the most important elements of that is the people you work with. You could get 12 of the best developers in the world and put them into a room and they may not make a good game."

There are currently only seven people at Gunfire, all of them "leads at Crytek USA," according to Studio Director Matt Guzenda. "We're still working on the next round of guys coming around."

Adams said the new studio is "exploring" the possibility of making Darksiders 3, and has actually spoken with Nordic Games, the publisher that currently owns the IP, but added that he doesn't want to "jump into anything immediately." For now, the team is looking at some smaller projects to get started, with a long-term goal of launching a brand-new game that would "build upon what we've done in the past."

"Third-person, games with a lot of characters, adventure aspects, player progression, hunt cool bosses, fantastical creatures," he said. "We have some ideas kicking around."

Darksiders lives, but what that means for the series is anything but clear, according to the action RPG's creative director Joe Madureira. In a followup post on Facebook today, Madureira writes that his comment yesterday about how the Darksiders series "is not dead" doesn't mean its future has been secured.

A remnant of publisher THQ's collapse, the rights to Darksiders were bought by Nordic Games last year. And as Madureira points out, Nordic is ultimately responsible for determining the fate of the series.

"My enthusiastic outlook on the future of the series is in no way a confirmation that it's happening!! (Sorry guys, I hate being a wet blanket!)" Madureira writes. "My post was in response to the countless messages I get from DS fans that are mourning the 'death' of the series or asking me to 'bring it back' (which it's not in my power to do!). Many fans still do not seem to know that the series didn't end with THQ's demise, and that the rights were picked up by Nordic Games. What that means is that a 3rd game is still *possible*. ie. 'It's not DEAD!' And that Nordic seems committed to continuing the series. Again, this isn't a confirmation just my own positive outlook based on what I gathered from speaking with them."

We liked both Darksiders 1 and 2 for their satisfying approach to hack and slash combat. And while Madureira seems intent to walk back his Monday statement about the still-beating heart of Darksiders, he also sounds pleased with the response to his comments.

"Only Nordic, as the owner of the franchise can make any official decision or announcement, about the future of Darksiders," Madureira writes. "Not me! So I probably should've chosen my words more carefully. That said, I can't help but see the feverish excitement and support from both gamers and press as an encouraging sign that DS is indeed a beloved series, and that the demand is obviously still there!"

Hat tip, Gamespot.

Many publishers swarmed in on THQ’s trove of established licenses earlier this year, but Nordic Games arguably got one of the biggest takes by buying both the Darksiders and Red Faction franchises. However, it’ll probably be a while before we see anything new from those franchises, considering Nordic bought the licenses just this April. So what do you do with a stack of licenses and nothing new to show? Put them on sale.

Nordic Games has taken over this week’s Humble Weekly Sale, and you’ll notice it’s plastered with games that used fall under THQ name. Paying a penny or more will get you Red Faction: Armageddon, The Guild 2, Neighbours From Hell Compilation, the original Supreme Commander its standalone expansion, Forged Alliance. Paying at least six of your hard-earned dollars adds Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, ArcaniA, Darksiders 2, and SpellForce 2: Faith in Destiny to the list. I’m not sure why Supreme Commander 2 and the original Darksiders aren’t bundled, but you can’t really complain with six dollars. Well, you can, but not without sounding the opposite of humble.

Every game comes with a Steam key except the Neighbours From Hell Compilation, though that’s because the game’s still trying to be greenlit on Steam. The game listing says users will automatically receive Steam keys if the game gets the greenlight. It’s not really a big deal considering you have eight other games to play, though I suppose you could just double-click the .exe like a caveman.

Correction: This article previously referred to the sale as a "Humble Bundle," which is distinct from the "Humble Weekly Sale."

THQ’s dissolution was a sad thing. I had hoped the company of Red Faction and Metro 2033 would avoid financial ruin, but alas, it was not meant to be. Publishers like Deep Silver picked up the Saints Row and Metro franchises, but where did everything else go? Well, it went to little-known company called Nordic Games.

The small, Austria-based studio bought the Darksiders, Red Faction, and MX vs ATV franchises for a cool $4.9 million back in April, and has remained quiet ever since. The head of business and product development at Nordic, Reinhard Pollice, told Joystiq he hopes to change that by Gamescom, which begins on August 22.

“We want to carefully select which franchises are up for getting a sequel or new installment. We closely monitor the communities on that," Pollice said.

So exactly how small is Nordic? The studio consists of 15 people who have traditionally helped publish games from other developers. For example, they helped publish Painkiller: Hell & Damnation and the boxed copy of Alan Wake.

Pollice prided himself on being part of a passionate team, but admitted that the studio needs more bodies.

"Darksiders is really big,” Pollice told Joystiq. “We know we need a partner for that—an established development team that can pull out such a big action adventure. We obviously talked to former team members and, if they are free, we want to somehow involve them. If they are allowed to because, you know, some of them found other jobs or are with Crytek now."

It'd be nice to see developers work across company lines, but we’re guessing the developers at Crytek are a little busy with other projects—like Homefront 2.

A low profile Swedish publisher has snapped up most of what remained of THQ's IP portfolio overnight, including the Darksiders and Red Faction IPs. Auctioned off in lots, Nordic Games can now lay claim to The Biggest Loser and Jeopardy franchises (hooray?), as well as MX vs ATV, Worms, Juiced, Destroy All Humans!, Titan Quest and much more.

In a statement, Nordic owner Lars Wingefors said the publisher was willing to co-operate with developers responsible for previous games in their acquired properties. "First and foremost we are very happy about this deal which also turns over a new leaf for the entire Nordic Games Group," Wingefors said. "In the long term, we either want to cooperate with the original creators or best possible developers in order to work on sequels or additional content for these titles.

"A very important point for us is not to dash into several self-financed multi-million projects right away," he continued, "but rather to continue our in-depth analysis of all titles and carefully selecting different financing models for developing new instalments of acquired IPs."

For $4.9 million, Nordic Games walked away from the auction with nearly every remaining THQ IP except Homeworld - which went to Gearbox for $1.35 million. Of course, a lot of the meatier stuff (Company of Heroes, Saints Row, Homefront and South Park) was bought back in January.

One of the big surprises of the THQ fire-sale was that no one stumped up to save Vigil, creators of Darksiders. A sad end to the company though that was, not all of Vigil's staff did so badly, with many of the refugees reforming as Crytek USA. Now their CEO David Adams has announced an ambition to buy back the Darksiders name, tweeting that he'd "put 7 years of heart and soul into that franchise" and that "it belongs at home with its creators."

Good news for undernourished-horse fans everywhere!

Darksiders and its sequel were imperfect games but not unambitious ones, mashing together a Zelda-ish lite-RPG structure with a gratifyingly deep combo-brawler and Prince of Persia-style environmental acrobatics. What appeared initially to be a rather adolescent fiction about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse took some genuinely weird turns, as the roving eye of the developers flitted across styles and settings, all brought into lurid detail by an extremely accomplished art team. Even Jesper Kyd's score for Darksiders 2 is an overlooked gem.

I know the game has carved a little home for itself in the heart of several PCG staffers - and we'd love to see where the Darksiders team's talents take them next.

Thanks, Reddit.

The date's been set for the final court-supervised auction of THQ's remaining properties. Those titles not bought in January's fire sale have been divided into lots, with initial bids due in April 1st. Final bids are required by April 15th, then, pending court approval, THQ expects to sell the remaining vestige of its existence by mid-May. *Sniff*

While the tastiest morsels have already been picked away, there's still some meat clinging to the THQ bone. Darksiders, Homeworld and Red Faction are all looking for a new home. In an ideal world, the Homeworld license will be picked up by someone who'll actually use it, and Red Faction will end up somewhere that recognises the brilliance of Guerrilla over the mediocrity of Armageddon.

Here's the full list:

Lot 1: Red Faction
Red Faction
Red Faction Armageddon
Red Faction 2
Red Faction: Guerrilla

Lot 2: Homeworld
Homeworld
Homeworld 2

Lot 3: MX
MX Alive
MX vs ATV Untamed
MX Superfly featuring Ricky Carmichael
MX vs. ATV Alive Tournament
MX Unleashed
MX vs. ATV Unleashed
MX vs ATV Reflex
MX vs. ATV: On The Edge

Lot 4: Darksiders
Darksiders
Darksiders 2

Lot 5: Other Owned Software
All Star Cheer Squad
Elements of Destruction
All Star Cheer Squad 2
Fantastic Pets
All Star Karate
Frontlines: Fuel of War
Baja: Edge of Control
Full Spectrum Warrior 1
Full Spectrum Warrior 2: Ten Hammers
Battle of the Bands
Beat City
Juiced
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights
Big Beach Sports
Big Beach Sports 2
Lock's Quest: Construction Combat
Big Family Games
Neighborhood Games
Crawler
Pax Imperia
de Blob
de Blob 2
Stuntman: Ignition
Summoner
Summoner 2
Deadly Creatures
Deep Six
Terranium
Destroy All Humans!
Destroy All Humans! 2
Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed
Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon
The Outfit
Titan Quest
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
uDraw
Dood's Big Adventure
World of Zoo
Drawn to Life
Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter

Lot 6: Licensed Software
Costume Quest
Stacking
Scripps Spelling Bee (Scripps)
Daniel X (SueJack)
Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Osborne House
Deepak Chopra's Leela (Curious Holdings)
Fancy Nancy: Tea Party Time! (Harper Collins)
Supreme Commander
Supreme Commander Forged Alliance
Jeopardy
Jeopardy 2
The Biggest Loser
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Truth or Lies
Let's Ride Best of Breed
Vampire Legends: Power of Three (dtp)
Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat
Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet
Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet 2
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune 2
World of Zoo
Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase
Worms 2
Worms Battle Islands
Worms Open Warfare
Worms: A Space Oddity
Worms: Open Warfare 2 (Team 17)
Nexuiz
Paws & Claws Marine Rescue
Paws & Claws Pampered Pets Resort 3D
PurrPals 2
Rio
You Don't Know Jack (Jellyvision)
Rocket Riot
Screwjumper (Frozen Codebase)

Wow, that's a mixed bag of Other and Licensed properties.

Wishful thinking time! Who would you like to see bidding on the various series?

Thanks, GI.biz

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 , 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 , 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 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.

Darksiders 2 may not have had the care and attention we like to see of a PC port, but that didn't hold back the game's tough, rewarding combat from making the game an overall enjoyable experience. So when the details of THQ's auction were revealed, it was a surprise to see that no-one had bid for Vigil. What gives?

As it turns out, the lack of interest shown in Vigil may have had nothing to do with the quality of the studio, as much as the timing of the sale. Speaking to Game Informer, THQ's president Jason Rubin touched on the difficulties with finding a home for Vigil. "Having just finished a product, Vigil was farthest from release of their next game, and we were not able to garner any interest from buyers, despite a herculean effort. Additionally, they were working on a new IP, which meant even more risk for a buyer."

Essentially, many of the bidders weren't just buying up a development studio, but also their games which, for the most part, were well into development. Relic were preparing for Company of Heroes 2's launch and Volition were well into development on the next Saints Row. Darksiders 2 released at the end of last August, giving the team less time to gear up and launch into development of their next project.

That project was codenamed Crawler, and it sounds like the team were extremely excited about the direction it was heading. In an emotional post to NeoGAF, made from an empty studio, Vigil's lead combat designer Ben Cureton wrote, "I knew, without a shadow of the doubt, that the project we were working on (Codenamed: Crawler) was going to blow people away. In fact, it DID blow people away. We did, in TWO months, what many companies haven't done in a year. The pride of knowing that no one was doing anything like us was so satisfying, it kept us coming to work and giving 100% every single day, even through the dark times."

Unfortunately funding a studio's development, marketing and staff costs for an untested new IP appears to be a risk that bidders involved in the THQ auction found too great. The situation likely wasn't helped by Darksider's 2 financial performance, which THQ's sales projections, taken from the first day motions, put at a loss.

The studio may have closed, but the Darksiders property, along with Vigil's staff, have attracted some interest. Platinum Games' JP Kellams tweeted at Dearksiders 2's lead designer, asking him, and other staff members, to get in touch if they were interested in working with the Bayonetta developer. And Platinum's head Atsushi Inaba also tweeted his interest in picking up the franchise at the upcoming auction, saying (translated by Kotaku), "In THQ's studio and IP selling off auction, Darksiders is unsold? wanna buy it...on the cheap..."

Here's hoping that both Darksiders and the studio's staff quickly find a home.

Thanks to Eurogamer for the Platinum Games info, and to Distressed Debt Investing's Hunter for the analysis of THQ's first day motions.

Farewell then, THQ. Yesterday saw the publisher’s final assets sold off to a variety of buyers, and while many good people (and franchises) managed to find a new home, our thoughts and well-wishes are with those that didn’t. As we’re in a reflective mood, we thought it only appropriate to commemorate the loss of this fine company with a look back at ten of the best games it’s delighted us with over the years.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (September 2004)

Tempting though it is to bang on about Relic Entertainment’s wonderful sci-fi RTS Homeworld, it wasn’t until 2004 that THQ took the Vancouver-based studio under its wing. Dawn of War represented the first fruits of that union, and it remains one of the most successful digital adaptations of the tabletop favourite, capturing the appeal of the series in a smart, refined package.

Full Spectrum Warrior (October 2004)

The most satisfying triumphs come from conquering the greatest adversity. Pandemic’s squad-based military shooter was an incredibly demanding game in its day, its punishing authenticity a result of its origins as a US Army-affiliated training simulation. Persistently tense and claustrophobic, it may not have been the dictionary definition of ‘fun’, but it was a sweaty-palmed experience we’ll never forget.

Titan Quest (June 2006)

Time for a lesson in ancient history - well, 2006 does seem a fair while ago these days. THQ managed to temporarily sate appetites for a new Diablo by releasing this gloriously entertaining action-RPG that proves you don’t need an awful lot more than an enormous world and hordes of colossal monsters to biff for a good time. Titan Quest may not have been anything particularly new, but there’s an art to making hacking and slashing as fun as this.

Company of Heroes (September 2006)

Just as the world and his dog was heartily sick of WWII settings, Relic’s blistering RTS managed to make us all care again. ‘Visceral’ may be horribly overused in games criticism, but rarely has the word been applied more accurately than to CoH’s shudderingly intense combat. Tough, gritty and oddly beautiful, it elevated its creator among the giants of the strategy genre.

Supreme Commander (February 2007)

Chris Taylor and Gas Powered Games might be in the headlines for very different reasons at the moment, but back in 2007 this talented studio was making waves with a truly brilliant RTS. Supreme Commander was grand-scale warfare at its most exhaustive and exhausting – with some of the best AI in the business putting up a heck of a fight, every hard-earned victory was worthy of a triumphant air-punch.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R (March 2007)

Frightening, surprising, intense and ambitious? Or scrappy, buggy, overwhelming and confusing? S.T.A.L.K.E.R was all of the above and more, a sandbox-survival horror-RPG-FPS-adventure that cast you as a scavenger around the ruins of Chernobyl. Everyone’s experience was different: ours involved a lot of nervy creeping around in the dark, punctuated by terrified shrieks whenever a mutant spotted us. And we loved (almost) every minute of it.

Red Faction: Guerrilla (September 2009)

God bless Geo-Mod 2.0. It’s rare we’re minded to salute a physics engine, but the unparalleled destruction it enabled is what made Volition’s game such a giddy joy to play. After all, why just shoot an enemy when you can topple a multi-storey building onto him? Expertly paced, with a campaign that escalated into hysterical carnage, Guerrilla may have been unrefined at times but boy was it fun.

Metro 2033 (March 2010)

A rare thing: a great shooter with shooting that isn’t that great. Metro’s gunplay is lacking in feedback, but it’s hard to care too much in a world this rich and enveloping. Every inch of 4A Games’ subterranean nightmare is permeated with an atmosphere so thick you could slice it. This is the FPS as survival horror, and as appropriately brutal and hard-edged as that suggests.

Darksiders (September 2010)

A tilt of the hat to its sequel, too, but we’ve got rather a soft spot for Vigil’s original, even if ‘original’ is hardly a word you’d use to describe Darksiders’ unholy blend of Zelda and God of War. If you’re going to steal, though, then be sure to pinch from the best, and this post-apocalyptic tale did just that, marrying puzzly exploration with thrillingly weighty scraps, topped off nicely by some fine Joe Mad artwork.

Saints Row: The Third (November 2011)

What started out as a poor man’s GTA began to find its own identity in the follow-up, but it wasn’t until the third game that Saints Row realised its true potential. It was a monument to excess, a crude, coarse, tawdry descent into debauchery that was almost operatic in its tastelessness. Some remained immune to its charms (if that’s the right word) but there was genuine sophistication behind the silliness. Dumb, then, but artfully so.

 
 

THQ
1989-2013
RIP
This is no place for a horse.