Crysis Developer Crytek Founds ‘Crytek USA Corp’ Studio With Ex-Vigil Developers

With last week’s massive THQ auction in which publishers like Ubisoft and Koch Media walked away with South Park: The Stick of Truth and the Saint’s Row franchise, things were looking grim for Vigil, developers of Darksiders, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium, and, as GameInformer reported, a new IP they called Crawler. Whilst other developers like Relic, Volition, and Turtle Rock all found homes with new publishers, Vigil was left out in the cold.

Lead Combat Designer Ben Cureton, in an emotional post on NeoGAF, wrote:

“… so maybe you can imagine what it feels like when you read the list of who bought what only to discover your name is not on the list. Why? Did we do something wrong? Were we not good enough? Were we not worth ‘anything?’ Imagine that.”

But all that has changed, as, Crytek has just announced, is it has formed a new studio with former Vigil staff members at the helm. It’s called Crytek USA Corp, and, judging by statements made by both Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli and THQ head Jason Rubin, things are looking up for the Austin development scene.

According to Yerli:

“We are extremely excited about the work that we will be undertaking from our strategic new location in Austin, with David Adams and his team of 35 experienced developers.”

Rubin tweeted that Crytek had kept as many of the Vigil staff members as they could.

Great news for Vigil, at least the core team: goo.gl/LaQKt Thanks to Crytek for saving as much as they could of a fantastic team.

— Jason Rubin (@Jason_Rubin) January 28, 2013

It is unknown at this time whether or not Crytek will pursue development on Crawler, which was not among the games purchased at the recent THQ auction. According to Rubin in an in-depth interview with GameInformer, THQ’s other properties will be sold off in a separate process in the coming weeks.