It’s one thing to say that Darksiders isn’t dead – another to understand what bringing it back to life would mean. When THQ imploded, Darksiders wasn’t just killed but torn into pieces. Its staff at Vigil were scattered to the winds – aside from a small team assembled around co-founder David Adams, who Crytek sheltered from the storm. And the name was sold at auction to Nordic Games in faraway Austria.
But series director Joe Madureira is oddly convinced that Darksiders will return – pieced back together, like Osiris, and given new life.
Madureira is a noted comic book writer as well as game designer, and hence has his own official Facebook fan page. On it he answers questions on his recent work, and proclaims that “DS is not dead!!!”.
“The new owner, Nordic seems very committed to continuing the series,” said Madureira. Which is an interesting thing to say, given that Nordic haven’t made any public statements about their intentions for Darksiders in the last year.
Insider knowledge, then? “As far as my involvement, I can’t say at this point,” added Madureira, cryptically. “Hopefully we will all have exciting news about the franchise soon!!!!!!”
That’s excitement registering at six on the exclamation scale, no less.
Nordic don’t have an internal development team, and have expressed their interest in reviving the series with the help of its creators. But if any former Vigil staff are working on a Darksiders sequel, it’s unlikely they include the team now working at Crytek USA.
“We obviously talked to former team members and, if they are free, we want to somehow involve them,” Nordic’s Reinhard Pollice told Joystiq on the subject of a sequel last year. “If they are allowed to because, you know, some of them found other jobs or are with Crytek now.”
If Nordic really wanted a proper Darksiders sequel, perhaps they simply should have allowed Crytek USA to outbid them at auction? Business is a funny old thing.
Thanks, VG247.