Vivendi has purchased High Moon Studios

[Everlost_MI]

Worthplaying (http://www.worthplaying.com/) has posted the official press release announcing the purchase of High Moon Studios by Vivendi. (http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=30906&mode=thread&order=0) High Moon Studios recently released thier first title, Darkwatch, a FPS for the PS2 and Xbox.

Here's a bit from the release...


"VU Games and High Moon are already collaborating on a soon-to-be-announced project based on a major entertainment license," said Bruce Hack, CEO of VU Games. "Our acquisition of the studio is another major step forward in building the company's position as a leader in next generation console games."
Darkwatch was a very enjoyable game, hopefully this purchase will only help High Moon produce high quality titles.

[Eric_T_Cheng]

I haven't played the game yet but I bought the artbook for Darkwatch and the concept art for the game is gorgeous. High Moon is one of the few studios (like Blizzard and Square-Enix) that employs several concept artists for every aspect of the game, from characters to weapons to level designs.

[fitbabits]

Damn you, Everlost! Beat me to it... :)

[net7runner]

We will see it again.

There are many copies.

[Genital Eclipse]

High Moon is one of the few studios (like Blizzard and Square-Enix) that employs several concept artists for every aspect of the game, from characters to weapons to level designs.

Hrmm I thought this was the norm, seeing that everything needs to be concepted in some sort of fashion.

[Everlost_MI]

Damn you, Everlost! Beat me to it... :)

Oh? *checks the news items* Huh, well great minds think alike then? :)

[BlindSwordsman]

Hrmm I thought this was the norm, seeing that everything needs to be concepted in some sort of fashion.

Well we have a dedicated department for this and it plays a huge roll in what we create - however, it is true that many devs do not.

Blindy

[Cyotik]

I'm not sure what Battlestar Galactica has to do with this...

[mightbe]

One of my groomsmen worked on Darkwatch.

And I hear about this from EA?

Nice job guys.

[EGO]

Did I miss something?! Darkwatch was only an "okay" game, with a lot of blue and grey mist everywhere. There was only like 10 enemies throughout the entire thing and the gameplay was quite tired. The tech was "okay" or under-utilized by the team.

Is there some reason VU would want to buy this studio I don't know about?
(of course, the answer is "yes", since the buy-out happen, I'm just baffled. Luckily, I can remain baffled and High Moon can all revel in new Porsches now).