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Crytek Opens New Austin, Texas studio - Hires 36 Vigil staff

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/185582/Crytek_comes_to_America_with_new_Austin_studio.php#.UQbcljkmQ-U

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/185582/Cryteks_new_Austin_studio_could_be_a_second_chance_for_Vigil.php#.UQbc7DkmQ-U

Gamasutra said:
The newly-formed Crytek USA Corp. will be located in Austin, Texas, and headed by CEO David Adams, the former GM and co-owner of local developer Vigil.

Adams will oversee a team of "35 experienced developers" consisting of "some of the brightest development talent in the industry," according to a statement given to Gamasutra. Though we can't confirm this for sure, a representative strongly hinted at the possibility that this staff may have several other veterans from Vigil, whose days appear to be numbered.

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I didn't see this posted here (could be mistaken), but IGN (yes, IGN) has confirmed that all 35 developers for Crytek Austin is former Vigil staff.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/28/vigil-co-founder-heads-up-crytek-usa?abthid=5106e5df3e3ba72124000025
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Crytek just can't stop. They have opened a studio in Istanbul last week. Dat military contracts + investor's money.
 

Tzeentch

Member
I'm still boggled by how Crytek is financing all these studios all over the world. Is this why the Crysis games never seem to turn a huge profit, because they are covering payroll for a third of the game industry?
 

sp3000

Member
I'm still boggled by how Crytek is financing all these studios all over the world. Is this why the Crysis games never seem to turn a huge profit, because they are covering payroll for a third of the game industry?

They make very good money from military contracts, much more than Epic does I think.
 
I'm still boggled by how Crytek is financing all these studios all over the world. Is this why the Crysis games never seem to turn a huge profit, because they are covering payroll for a third of the game industry?

They're probably selling a few cryengine licenses, maybe not in the game dev community, but in other markets instead.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
They make very good money from military contracts, much more than Epic does I think.

Do we even know what the military does with cry engine? Is it all simulators or something?
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
Sounds good, hope those ex-Vigils who are looking for work are able to get right back to doing their thing (whether it's here or somewhere else).
 
I'm wondering how this works. Lets say Vigil's IPs and rights are bought by some company (e.g. EA), aren't the employees legally binded by a contract? Patrice was part of the contract; I'm sure whatever company acquires Vigil's assets would want to continue the work on Crawler with the same team.
 
They should've just bid 250k on Darksiders if they wanted to do this...

Or far cheaper do this and don't have to pay redundancies or wages to staff you don't need. Heck we have no idea what Vigil's own finances are like.

Darksiders is just a brand and not a strong one.
Make a new IP.
 

Dreaver

Member
What is this thing with the military that Crytek does? Do they license the Cryengine to the military?

And great for the ex-Vigil employees, I'd love to see them buying the Darksiders IP.
 

V_Ben

Banned
Fantastic news, good on them. First the save free radical, now they give ex Vigil devs a new home. Good stuff.
 

guit3457

Member
Don't forget that new game Vigil was making. Apparently the prototype or whatever they have, they say it's amazing.
 

Dachande

Member
Wow. Good for them. Hope the ex-Vigil employees get picked up.

Nice job, Crytek. I wonder tho. New team for Homefront or just an new game.

Both. Staff not busy working on the new studio's own game can work on aspects of Homefront, or indeed aspects of projects from the other studios too. This goes for all of the studios under the Crytek banner, really. They can help each other when needed.
 
Vigil sounds like a perfect fit for a Crytek studio.

Though I still have to wonder what would've been if Platinum bought them.
 
Crytek and their German business, Euros > USD... I'm not surprised they got to them first.

It's way better team purchase than free radical that's for sure Vigil actually delivered their games at a reasonable time. And on multiplatforms.
One of the best devs with Wii-U experiance. Also, now these developers don't have to move homes.
 

Xater

Member
Does not mention if they also picked up the Darksiders IP. I assume yes because of the Free Radical stuff?
 
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