Digital Anvil is no more [Archive]

Everlost_MI

12-01-2005, 07:01 PM

Gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/) has word that Digital Anvil is no more (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/bruteforce/news_6140687.html) with the staff being redeployed to Microsoft Game Studios headquarters.

"Microsoft Game Studios has undergone a redeploying of resources in its Austin, Texas-based Digital Anvil studio and will centralize the studio's resources in Redmond, Washington," the company said in a statement. "We are working closely with current Digital Anvil employees to place each team member in a position on the Microsoft Game Studios team in Redmond if they so choose. This redeployment of resources will be finalized on January 31, 2006."
The company had some potential back but they never really did too much. In any case, hopefully everyone will land on their feet out of this redeployment.

Murmillo

12-01-2005, 07:03 PM

Well, wasn't thier last game Freelancer - 2, nearly 3 years ago?. What have they done since. Not much I guess...

Edit:
In March 2003, Freelancer was released and immediately became one of the month's top-selling games. Reviews were mixed, but the game did well commercially. In May of the same year, Digital Anvil released Brute Force for the Xbox. The game also did quite well, setting first-month sales records for Xbox games (until word of mouth got around how bad it was).

My guess was many of thier IP's were very sequel "planned". but since many of thier game ideas bombed, any chance of those sequels were scrapped leaving them with a lot of nothing. Other then FreeLancer, I don't think they had one good money manking game. I always thought they could last long enough to pull off a FreeLancer 2 but it looks like I am wrong.

The Iron Weasel

12-01-2005, 07:13 PM

Brute Force was fun, so was freelancer, I was hoping for sequels to both.

MaiXu

12-01-2005, 07:17 PM

Gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/) has word that Digital Anvil is no more (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/bruteforce/news_6140687.html) with the staff being redeployed to Microsoft Game Studios headquarters.

The company had some potential back but they never really did too much. In any case, hopefully everyone will land on their feet out of this redeployment.

Forgive me if I don't weep for the demise of house that gave us Brute Force. That game sucked. Hard.

In all seriousness, they'll just be reshuffled into the Microsoft fold. Hopefully, for the better.

F3nyx

12-01-2005, 07:17 PM

Never played Freelancer or Brute Force, but I enjoyed Starlancer. Great cutscenes, as I recall, and lots of fun dogfights.

Grimgrock

12-01-2005, 07:25 PM

Murmillo

12-01-2005, 07:33 PM

Digital Anvil was Chris Roberts company, was it not? He's responsible for Wing Commander (etc) - one of the best space combat sims there ever was. Every development shop is allowed to produce a miss (though I thought Brute Force was fun).Chris Roberts left the company after the Microsoft takeover - back in 2000.
Chris left the slaughtered and floundering Origin Systems (no thanks to E.A. if you couldn't have guessed), made Digital Anvil in which a few years later was aquired by Microsoft. I think then Microsoft made them rush both Freelancer and Brute Force. Freelancer survived but Brute Force was born horribly disfigured when its mother turned out to be the Xbox.

The Iron Weasel

12-01-2005, 07:34 PM

Chris Roberts left the company after the Microsoft takeover - back in 2000.
Left the being slaughtered Origin Systems (slaughtered by EA), made Digital Anvil, a few years later was aquired by Microsoft. I think then Microsoft made them rush both Freelancer and Brute Force. Freelancer survived but Brute Force was born horribly disfigured when its mother turned out to be the Xbox.

Sure Brute Force wasn't all it was soposed to be (not even close to what it was soposed to be) but it was still a fun game.

notcivx

12-01-2005, 07:35 PM

Brute Force was actually pretty fun and 4 player co-op with 4 very different characters is always a plus.

fitbabits

12-01-2005, 07:35 PM

I actually enjoyed Brute Force to a point. The precise point I can't remember as it became one tedious slog after it. I think the fact that it was hyped to Hell's doorstep and beck hurt the game!

However, I hate to see anyone losing their jobs, so I hope everyone lands on their feet and they go on to future success.

The Iron Weasel

12-01-2005, 07:36 PM

Brute Force was actually pretty fun and 4 player co-op with 4 very different characters is always a plus.

I agree, I played that game for hours on Co-op with my friend, it was hella fun.

Oh and the ponit where the game stopped being fun fitbabits, I can't remember the details either, but I remember the look of the level distinctly because I was really enjoying the game up till that point.

Steve_Erhardt

12-01-2005, 07:57 PM

I liked Starlancer a lot. I liked Freelancer too, but felt it was missing something I still can't put my finger on. Brute Force, never got into the multiplayer... I'm good enough vs the AI with a gamepad, but against real people, fuck that shit... I need my mouse/kb. Single Player I also enjoyed, but like Fitbabits and Iron Weasel, I lost interest at some point... I don't think I even finished it. I just recall thinking "how much of this do I need to slog through?" and kind of let it go after that.

Anyway, too bad Digital Anvil never finished that Car Wars type game they were fiddling around with when they first formed. That looked good.

Lint of Death

12-01-2005, 08:07 PM

That's too bad. I really liked Freelancer a lot, even if the plot turned on a dime from cool and exciting to abysmal about halfway through (shortly after you get to camp out in the infamous pirate base, I think). I know that sounds like a backhanded compliment, but that was pretty much my only complaint about the game. It was cool idea that, for multiplayer, they gave you a long trade route to get you tons of money if you chose to use it.

Thenetcase

12-01-2005, 08:22 PM

Freelancer was great.. and could be improved on successfully. They should look at some of the mods and then make a sequel. :)
-TNC-

RandomViolence

12-01-2005, 08:25 PM

Playing Brute Force was like watching someone peel flesh from my bones.

Sadly, I was torturer.

Mondopest

12-01-2005, 08:30 PM

Thenetcase

12-01-2005, 08:36 PM

Forgive me if I am incorrect, but wasn't Pre-Microsoft Freelancer suppose to be alot more complex and Privateer-like? I thought I read somewhere that when microsoft came in they asked DA to "dumb" the game down a bit. Also, didn't DA have a third/first person Dirty Harry-style cop game in the works a while back?

Yeah, MS dumbed down Freelancer a bit because they thought it was too complecated. They realized later it was a mistake, I'm sure.

The Dirty Harry game you're probably referring to is Loose Canon, which was axed before MS got ahold of DA.

-TNC-

Mondopest

12-01-2005, 08:58 PM

Thanks, Thenetcase!

sync

12-01-2005, 09:33 PM

The Dirty Harry game you're probably referring to is Loose Canon, which was axed before MS got ahold of DA. Not true. Loose Cannon was sold to Ubisoft when MS bought Digital Anvil. Ubisoft picked up rights to both Loose Cannon and Conquest: Frontier Wars.

Majority of the Conquest: Frontier Wars formed a new company called FeverPitch Studios to finish the game up.

Ubisoft handed Loose Cannon over to Sinister Games, but they closed a year or two after that.

Loose Cannon was GTA3 before anyone was even going for that type of gameplay. MS had what could have been a HUGE game for Xbox and let it slip through their hands.

goc_sin

12-01-2005, 10:01 PM

I am sad to see another PC company get assimilated by MS to make only xbox games, but that's been their strategy all along with game developers. It worked for the Huns.

Bumbuliuz

12-01-2005, 11:28 PM

Loved Freelancer and Starlancer, but you are right Brute Force sucked :(

AlmostSente

12-02-2005, 01:08 AM

The only thing I really missed in Freelancer was network co-op. That would have made the game a lot more fun.

*Legion*

12-02-2005, 01:19 AM

Wow. I just met a couple of those guys at the Austin Game Conference. They sure didn't seem to have any idea that they were going to get yanked out of Austin and over to Redmond.

Hope to see those guys at GDC in March. Hope they're doing well.

Grimgrock

12-02-2005, 02:41 AM

Chris Roberts left the company after the Microsoft takeover - back in 2000.

I had no idea about that. Must have been during one of my sojurns with no Internet connection.

They sure didn't seem to have any idea that they were going to get yanked out of Austin and over to Redmond.

Who says that in order to work for the Empire, you have to live on Coruscant... I mean live in Redmond...? If I were still in Austin and one of these guys, there would have to be a hugefinancial incentive for me to leave. It's a great city. I spent over 20 years there and would move back in a heartbeat if my employer said I could.

Frogleg Special

12-02-2005, 03:30 AM

May I suggest to let the ex-DA guys to start working on Mechwarrior V? Umm... who's with me?

Neverborne

12-02-2005, 03:45 AM

May I suggest to let the ex-DA guys to start working on Mechwarrior V? Umm... who's with me?

No one. MS went and bastardized that series as well. Thank you for Mechassault, MS.

The only good thing out of this whole DA deal is that, hopefully, we will not have to look at another Brute Force game. Sure, it had 4-player co-op, but that's all it had going for it. I still cringe at the shitty character designs.

Steve_Erhardt

12-02-2005, 04:31 AM

May I suggest to let the ex-DA guys to start working on Mechwarrior V? Umm... who's with me?
Oooh... I could get behind that.

And before any MORE naysayers step up... come on... if you think MW4 killed the franchise, fine, but why not let them take another bite at the apple anyway? They own it, so there isnt' much we can do about it there, but it's been WAY too fucking long since we got a new MW game. They can't bone it up too much more badly, and it'd be nice to get SOMETHING recent at this point, don't you think?

If MS had HALF the gumption MekTek has shown with their add-ons, we'd be playing MW 6 right now.

*Legion*

12-02-2005, 07:35 AM

Who says that in order to work for the Empire, you have to live on Coruscant... I mean live in Redmond...?

Uhm, Microsoft did.

Quote: "We are working closely with current Digital Anvil employees to place each team member in a position on the Microsoft Game Studios team in Redmond if they so choose."

They can stay in Austin, but they'll be looking for work elsewhere.

Stormwatcher

12-02-2005, 12:02 PM

Chris Roberts had almost nothing to do with Freelancer, Freelancer is a great game with a half-bad plot, MW4 rocked, I wish MS released MW5 for PC.

XxSATANxX

12-02-2005, 01:04 PM

I did not care for Freelancer. WTF no joystick support? They killed DA and FASA. Those lame ass mech games for xbox simply killed what had been a truly fun reason to chase Evil down and destroy his madcat. The game platform with the largest install base? Uhm PC by far. The gurus at MS walked away from the biz. My intel says they plan to come back to it real soon. MW5 is in fact in the cards. Also some rumor about Wing Commander being revived for the 360! Please God let it be true!