Platinum Games staff express interest in Darksiders
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
High-profile supporters come out after Vigil Games and Darksiders fail to find a buyer at recent THQ auction.
Staff working for Bayonetta and Vanquish developer Platinum Games have shown an interest in hiring Vigil Games staff and purchasing the rights to the Darksiders franchise, with both the studio and its most notable franchise left by the wayside in yesterday's THQ auction.
After it was revealed that Vigil Games failed to receive any bids at the private auction which saw THQ dismantled and its key IPs sold off, Platinum Games producer Atsushi Inaba took to Twitter to say (translated by Polygon), "Oh man in THQ's big sale it looks like nobody's bought Darksiders… I'd love to buy that (if it was cheap)."
Lead designer Haydn Dalton also used Twitter to reveal that "there was a shimmer on a slither of hope, that at one point, there'd be a Darksiders III: 4 Player Co-Op; It rode off into the sunset today."
Platinum Games translator and writer JP Kellams then replied to Dalton's tweet: "If anyone is interested in working with/at Platinum let me know how to get ahold of you via DM."
Darksiders lead combat designer Ben Cureton also posted a fond farewell to Vigil Games on NeoGAF. "I can only say thank you to the fans of Vigil games. Your support means more than you can imagine. Your feedback (both positive and negative) gave us long-lasting insight that we will all take with us, wherever we may go. You are the reason we made Darksiders 1 &2… and you are the reason we will continue to make games."
As Vigil Games did not find a buyer, it remains part of THQ's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, with the publisher effectively ceasing operations as of January 25.
"We will make every effort to find appropriate buyers," wrote CEO Brian Farrell in a company-wide email regarding its unsold assets.
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Martin Gaston has absolutely never at all had the song from Beauty and the Beast sung to him at any point during his life, ever.
147 comments
Please let this happen. Darksiders 2 is one hell of a good game and i would personally like to play the two reamaining horseman in future games.
And i'm still looking forward to Bayonetta 2 since that's the only reason i will buy a WiiU and it's exclusive to that console.
Platinum Games is a good developer but they are downright terrible at writing, dialogue, and story. Not to say Darksiders series has any of those categories to brag about, but Vigil is at least better than Platinum in those areas, and probably even gameplay given they had more time to improve with Darksiders 3 and so forth.
Darksiders 2 was a big improvement over Darksiders 1. I really had a lot of fun playing it.
If Platinum Games could go back to being as great as they were when they made Vanquish, I would totally support them.
1 Like Strange, I would've thought (aside from Saints Row) that the Darksiders franchise would've been the first to be snatched up. Vigil REALLY came through with Darksiders II. They damn near improved upon the original in every way. How often does that happen? So lets hope Platinum has the resources to pick up Vigil and keep them together. Heck, it may even cause Vigil to improve as developers. Fingers crossed.
As long Platinum games are not in the charge of the story it'll be great. But let's be honest Darksiders 2 did have no story at all.
Platinum isn't a very financially successful firm, but very successful from the love of fans stand point. This fact could change positively probably after the launch of Metal Gear Rising. I know any game develop by them is in a good hand.
2 Like I would love to see Darksiders continue, but not under Platinum Games. Don't get me wrong. Platinum does great with production and combat, but their stories are just damn horrible. Darksiders would not benefit from being in their hands at all. Darksiders is about scale, story, and gameplay. Platinum Games is only good at the gameplay aspect.
@SavoyPrime Well, if you've seen the newest Nintendo Direct and saw the behind-the-scenes footage of Platinum staff working on Bayonetta 2.....they very easily are a good fit for the Darksiders series.
Additionally Darksiders is not about scale at all. In fact its a lore-based Action-Adventure franchise, very similar to Zelda, so in a sense it IS about the story....but most of the major elements of the story have been set out already in the game's lore.
Unless Platinum games rewrites/retcons big portions of the game lore, and the "feel" and idea of the games that's already been established, then there's not really a whole lot of room to screw up. ESPECIALLY since they're saying they're willing to bring on members of the Vigil team. So we'd have both new and old members working on the next title if they do go to Platinum Games.
I have no faith in Platinum Games doing the series any justice when it comes to lore. I'm sure they could add many key improvements when it comes to gameplay though.
5 Like @PahraohYami @SavoyPrime I highly doubt Plat. Games would handle the story at all, just the PART of the gameplay.
@SavoyPrime It doesn't sound like they want to change Darksiders that much though... They are looking to hire on Vigil staff. They probably just don't want the upper management/contracts that come with actually buying Vigil as a whole studio.
@ArabrockermanX Looks like the Darksiders purchase could be a possibility. Just saw news that Crytek is opening their first branch in North American and the co-founder of Vigil will be CEO of it and all 35 staff positions will be held by ex-Vigil employees. Which is awesome.
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2 Like I agree, when I bought and play Darksiders 1, it wasn't a great game, the graphics should've been better, it was just a good game, but I saw that it had potential to be as big as God of War, Devil May Cry, Assassin's Creed and other AAA Titles, because it was made by guys with GREAT IDEAS, and that's needed in the gaming industry. The Darksiders universe has many worlds, realms, races. 4 horsemans, each with different journeys, personalities and powers. It had a nice balance of action and RPG. What's not great about that!?
1 Like Please let platinum handle it. They know how to make good games. And I would be able to rest easy knowing the series will be in good hands and hopefully get a great ending.
the next horseman should be greed or money(merchant with a scale)....I wonder what the game would be like...probably different then the one we have now
6 Like @evil_m3nace um sorry to uh burst your bubble here......the 4 Horsemen have already been decided on. The entire franchise borrows from the Horsemen mentioned in the Book of Revelations. The Horsemen are: War (Rider of the Red Horse, Ruin), Fury (rider of the Black Horse, wields a whip and also uses claws; ONLY female member of the 4), Strife (rider of the White Horse; weapon of choice is dual-wielded pistols. One is named Mercy, the other, Redemption), and Death (rider of the Pale horse).
This is all set out in the game's lore.
@PahraohYami @evil_m3nace you clearly have no idea what the four horsemen are. There is the Red Horse (war) the Black horse (famine or greed) Pale horse (death) White horse (conquest or salvation whichever you prefer) You clearly have not read the Book of Revelation.
@WolveZCodeX @evil_m3nace @PahraohYami
You know, if you preordered the original Darksiders, or even bought it on Steam. The comic book that comes with it has all four Horsemen drawn out.
1 Like @evil_m3nace @PahraohYami The game has it's story based of the Book of Revelation. Yes, those are indeed the 4 actual Horseman, but if you played Darksiders 2 you'll see along the way that the 2 other horseman are Fury and Strife, and not Famine and Pestilence.
Just picture it as Vigil Games' own taste to the Horseman of the Apocalypse story.
@Vendettaaaa i'm not even going to begin to think on how that's even possible..........lol
1 Like I loved Bayonetta, I might actually be interested in Darksiders 3 if Platinum picks it up.
6 Like ohmygod. the amount of pure awesome platinum could instill into darksiders....just imagine the bosses.....
1 Like I really hope this series finds a home. Mainly so the Vigil staff can continue the series in addition to providing those employees with jobs of course. And also so they can fix the dlc.
1 Like I can't believe there were no bids. Darksiders has still got two games in it. I couldn't think of a better home for the franchise than Platinum. I'd love to see them revert to a more traditional cast for the Horsemen (Famine and Pestilence/Conquest). They could work some serious combat mechanics with those characters.
6 Like Darksiders is an amazing series and vigil really put teir heart and souls into those games. Please someone buy them. they need to continue to make games.
3 Like Last night when I read that NO ONE put a bid on Vigil, I became disappointed. I really love to see the team stay together.
Is Darksiders that bad?!! If none of those publishers can see talent and skill in Vigil, then I don't think game industry's is headed n the right direction.
1 Like what you mean nice people, they are awesome. i am a god of war fan, i can easily tell you darksiders is one par with god of war, dmc and other top line action/adventure games :)
8 Like Darksiders would be a real bonanza for any developer. If it was done with care and a few enhancements could see the series continue way beyond part 3. Here's hoping!n
I don't really care who gets the game as long as they can:
1. Make a good game.
2. Stop all that multiple preorder bonuses
3. Not have day one DLC
4. No online Pass
I loved Darksiders 1, but Darksiders 2 fell into the "we must milk every dime possible" pothole that makes me completely ignore the game.
@JSusie #2 is to get more marketing money from Gamestop and the other places where they give preorder bonuses. #3 and #4 is to try to stem the same Gamestop from leeching the game's sales with quick turnaround used copies. Don't expect any different from games in the current environment if you want developers to survive.
@Scorchstar @JSusie as if their publisher did not, they would go bankrupt and would not create any more games....get the general idea? being under ActivisionBlizzard or EA might suck from fan point of view, but it definitely keeps you afloat and able to create more games....
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