Crytek considered Vigil bid

Crytek CEO Cervat Yerli says he was surprised by the lack of the late Vigil Studios.

The team behind the Darksiders franchise was left in the cold after the sell-off of THQ’s assets, but Crytek swiftly picked up 36 former members to form its first US office.

"We were surprised when nobody bid on Vigil,” Yerli told GamesBeat.

“We would have liked to have bid, but there were too many unknowns.”

One of those unkowns was what the company would do with the Darksiders IP, and rather than bid on a studio in the middle of an unwanted project, Crytek wound up taking a pass.

“But when nobody bid, I thought that maybe we could reconsider bidding. But eventually we decided not to because the projects weren’t strategically fit for us," said Yerli.

But the company had already decided Austin was the best location for its US branch and when THQ laid off the entire Vigil team Yerli decided to fly out to see if they would consider becoming Crytek USA.

"We had chosen Austin as the destination for [our US branch], and we needed a lean and core team of expert to run the studio,” said Yerli.

“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, 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.”

What resulted was one of the fastest studio formations in industry history.

It remains what will be seen of Crytek USA, but apparently the German company plans to use the office for work on its online games.