Vigil Games was an American game development company owned by

THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initi ...

. It was formed by comic artist

Joe Madureira Joe Madureira (born December 1974), often called Joe Mad,Smith, Andrew (May 3, 2002). "Canceled Comics Cavalcade Catch-up". ''Comics Buyer's Guide'' #1485. p. 38 is an American comic book artist and game developer, best known for his work on ''Da ...

and

David Adams David Adams Musical Theatre Performer Starlight Express, Avenue Q, Les Miserables, Government officials * David S. Adams (State Department) (born 1961), Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs * David Adams (Labour politician) ( ...

in 2005.

History

Vigil Games was founded in 2005 by Joe Madureira, David Adams, Marvin Donald and Ryan Stefanelli. Vigil Games became a part of the THQ family in 2006, and was located in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. Vigil Games was housed in Four Points Centre where

leased 33,000 square feet. Although much of THQ's assets were sold in an auction as part of bankruptcy hearings, Vigil itself received no bids. In a letter written by THQ's CEO Brian Farrell, it was stated that Vigil would remain part of the

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

case and that THQ would still try to find a suitable buyer for the properties not sold in the auction, but that there would be immediate job losses in the affected entities. At the time of bankruptcy, Vigil was developing '' Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online''. In a posting on Twitter,

PlatinumGames PlatinumGames Inc. is a Japanese video game developer that was founded in October 2007 as result of a merger between two companies, Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya founded Seeds Inc. after the closure of ...

producer

Atsushi Inaba is a Japanese video game producer and businessman. He was the former CEO and producer of the Capcom subsidiary Clover Studio, who developed the games '' Viewtiful Joe'', ''Ōkami'', and '' God Hand''. He is currently the head producer at the dev ...

expressed interest in acquiring the ''Darksiders'' franchise from THQ. In the end,

Nordic Games The Nordic Games were the first international multi-sport event that focused primarily on winter sports, and were held at varying intervals between 1901 and 1926. It was organized by Sweden's Swedish Central Association for the Promotion of ...

acquired the ''Darksiders'' franchise, along with the ''

Red Faction ''Red Faction'' is a series of shooter video games developed by Volition and owned by Koch Media. Originating in 2001, the ''Red Faction'' games have spanned Microsoft Windows, macOS and consoles, including the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, P ...

'' and ''

MX vs. ATV ''MX vs. ATV'' is an American racing video game franchise developed by Rainbow Studios and published by THQ Nordic that focuses on off-road racing, as a crossover between THQ's ''MX'' trilogy and Sony's ''ATV Offroad Fury'' series. Early games ...

'' franchises. While

Crytek Crytek GmbH is a German video game developer and software developer based in Frankfurt. Founded by the Yerli brothers in Coburg in 1999 and moved to Frankfurt in 2006, Crytek also operates further studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. ...

planned to bid for Vigil due to its past work, owner

Cevat Yerli Cevat Yerli (born 1978 in Coburg, Germany to Turkish immigrants from Giresun) is a computer game developer. He co-founded Crytek, one of the largest video game developers in Germany, and served as its CEO and President until February 2018. Cry ...

ultimately decided not to because he felt that their current projects would not fit with the company's strategy. However, following Vigil's closure, Crytek would establish a new U.S. subsidiary known

Crytek USA Crytek USA Corp. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas, and a subsidiary of Crytek. The studio was led by David Adams (video game designer), David Adams, who was formerly the CEO of Vigil Games; a studio that had been acqu ...

, led by David Adams and employing many of its former staff. Other former Vigil Employees have gone to work for

Retro Studios Retro Studios, Inc. is an American video game developer and subsidiary of Nintendo based in Austin, Texas. The studio is best known for its work on the ''Metroid Prime'' and ''Donkey Kong Country'' series, and has contributed to several other N ...

Battlecry Studios Bethesda Game Studios Austin LLC (formerly BattleCry Studios LLC) is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. History BattleCry Studios was founded on October 3, 2012, as subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, headed by Rich Vogel a ...

Certain Affinity Certain Affinity is an American video game development studio based in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2006 by Max Hoberman and a small number of other ex-Bungie employees and other industry veterans. History Certain Affinity's creation was a ...

and many others. Many of the staff also joined

Gunfire Games Gunfire Games, LLC is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The studio was founded by David Adams in July 2014, bringing with him the core team of Crytek USA just before that studio's closure. The company was acquired by THQ No ...

, a company set up in 2014 by Adams and Airship Syndicate, formed by co-founder

in 2015.

Games developed

References

THQ Video game development companies Video game companies established in 2005 Video game companies disestablished in 2013 Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies based in Texas Companies based in Austin, Texas Defunct companies based in Texas 2005 establishments in Texas 2013 disestablishments in Texas {{THQ-stub