Gunfire Games, LLC is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. The studio was founded by

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) (1 ...

in July 2014, bringing with him the core team of

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, who was formerly the CEO of Vigil Games; a studio that had been acquired by THQ, but was shut down as ...

just before that studio's closure. The company was acquired by

THQ Nordic THQ Nordic GmbH (formerly Nordic Games GmbH) is an Austrian video game publisher based in Vienna. Formed in 2011, it is a publishing subsidiary of Embracer Group. Originally named Nordic Games, as was the parent company, both companies were re ...

in August 2019.

History

Gunfire Games founder

had previously founded the developer Vigil Games alongside other former NCSoft employees in 2005. Vigil Games developed the '' Darksiders'' series and was acquired by THQ in 2006. The studio remained mostly unchanged until 2013, when THQ folded after filing for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

in 2012. On the last day of Vigil Games' operations, Adams received a call from

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. ...

asking him to help establish an American branch for the company; subsequently, Adams found himself as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

of the newly established

two days later, bringing two-thirds of Vigil Games' former staff (around 50 people) with him. The idea for Crytek USA came about last-minute as no one had bid to acquire Vigil Games in THQ's bankruptcy auctions. Crytek later faced financial challenges as a result of which Crytek USA was chronically under-funded. At the same time, Adams wished to take matters in his own hands without having to rely on a larger governing entity. Thus, in July 2014, Adams decided to start an independent studio, Gunfire Games, and quit his job of eighteen months on the same day. Gunfire Games began with seven people, all of them former leads from Crytek USA. Matthew Guzenda became the studio director. The studio quickly grew to 22 people by February 2015, and to 60 people by November 2017. For initial financing, the company turned to developing

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...

games, partially in

work-for-hire A work made for hire (work for hire or WFH), in copyright law in the United States, is a work that is subject to copyright and is created by employees as part of their job or some limited types of works for which all parties agree in writing to th ...

projects, for the

Oculus Rift Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a division of Meta Platforms, released on March 28, 2016. In 2012 Oculus initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Rift's development, af ...

and

Samsung Gear VR The Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with Oculus VR, and manufactured by Samsung. The headset was released on November 27, 2015. When in use, a compatible Samsung Galaxy device acts ...

headsets. The studio developed five such games: ''Herobound: Spirit Champion'', ''Herobound Gladiators'', ''

Chronos Chronos (; grc-gre, Χρόνος, , "time"), also spelled Khronos or Chronus, is a personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature. Chronos is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the Tit ...

'', ''Dead and Buried'', ''From Other Suns''. Following exchanges with

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 ...

(later known as THQ Nordic), Gunfire Games got to develop '' Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition'', a

remaster Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

of ''Darksiders II'', which had been created by Vigil Games. The studio was also hired to develop a new entry in the ''Darksiders'' franchise, ''

Darksiders III ''Darksiders III'' is an Action role-playing game developed by Gunfire Games and published by THQ Nordic for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Stadia. It is the third entry in the '' Darksiders'' series. The game ...

'', which was released in 2018. In August 2019, THQ Nordic acquired Gunfire Games for an undisclosed price. At the time, Gunfire Games had 63 employees. Gunfire Games' latest game, '' Remnant: From the Ashes'', released on August 20, 2019 through publisher

Perfect World Entertainment Perfect World Co., Ltd. ( zh, 完美世界股份有限公司) is a Chinese mass media company based in Beijing. It was founded in 2004 by Chi Yufeng. The company consists of two business segments: Perfect World Games, a video game publisher, an ...

Games developed

References

External links

* {{THQ Nordic 2014 establishments in Texas 2019 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 2014 American subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Austin, Texas THQ Nordic divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies based in Texas Video game companies established in 2014 Video game development companies