Digital Anvil shut down!

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Unfortunately I have to announce that Digital Anvil

Studios has been shut down completely. This announcement came officially from Microsoft to

Gamespot (see the article here)

For those of you who don't know exactly what Digital

Anvil is, here's a recap:

Digital Anvil was founded in 1996 by the

brilliant Wing Commander Series creator Chris Roberts, his brother Erin Roberts and Tony

Zurovec and a team of about 30 people, most of whom joined DA from Origin. They initially

worked on four very ambitious games: Freelancer, Starlancer, Conquest: Frontier Wars and

Loose Cannon. Starlancer was released for the PC in 2000, Conquest: Frontier Wars was

released (published by Ubisoft) in 2001, Loose Cannon (also to be published by Ubisoft) was

eventually moved to Sinister Games for continued development, but eventually got cancelled,

in March 2003, after a very long wait, Freelancer was finally released for the PC and the

last game they released was an Xbox title called Brute Force, that was headed up by industry

veterans Bill Baldwin and Erin Roberts. Also worth mentioning of course is the fact they

also made the Wing Commander movie, directed by Chris Roberts.

Naturally we can understand this probably will come as a real shock to most of

you, simply because of hopes and dreams of an official sequel to Freelancer seem shattered

now. However, the 'Lancer' rights are in hands of Microsoft (ever since they acquired

Digital Anvil) and as stated by them: "Microsoft Game Studios has undergone a redeploying of

resources in its Austin, Texas-based Digital Anvil studio and will centralize the studio's

resources in Redmond, Washington. We are working closely with current Digital Anvil

employees to place each team member in a position on the Microsoft Game Studios team in

Redmond if they so choose". So naturally due to the closing of the Digital Anvil Studios,

all hopes to a FL sequel seem lost, but MS still holds the rights and could always attract a

new developer for future Lancer Series games. However, we don't want to give you false hope

though, a new Lancer Series game might never see the light. But then again, we never knew if

that was the case anyway when DA was still alive either. Still, the space sim genre still

isn't dead though fortunately, regardless of space sim leading companies such as Origin and

now Digital Anvil shut down, as evident by games recently released such as X3: Reunion, so

we should not let go of our hopes and dreams just yet. Who knows what the future still might

bring!

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unlike the others on LR that are crying now i think different and

gave my comment on this

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SWAT_OP-R8R on 12/2/2005 08:37 CET wrote:
Digital

Anvil dead...
does it surprise us?
no

it was close to death all the time... not

doing anything... that it is dead officially doesnt change anything
we are still here and

we will continue like before... we dont need a Digital Anvil for doing nothing (what is

exactly what they did, mainly because of microsoft)

for sure i will not run around

and cry... "oh my god DA is dead we all are doomed now"
Its time to concentrate on the

important things... this community and the mods which will keep this place alive

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ROFL
since when did

Digital Anvil create Wing Commander?

that was Origin and not DA

and Origin

got sold to EA (which is even worse than MS)

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BREAKING NEWS: RIP, Digital Anvil 1996-2005

Gamespot has

announced that Microsoft will close their Austin Digital Anvil studios in the next month.

The professional news sites will probably eulogize Digital Anvil as the proverbial

little engine that couldn't, an attempt by Wing Commander's Chris Roberts' to fight the

power and set up a small studio in an era when good development meant big money.

That's a disservice: Digital Anvil was never small. They launched with three

announced titles in the works and a fourth under wraps... and at the same time developed

some of the highest quality film work in the world, basically in their spare time. Others

may complain that Digital Anvil shipped only four games - but well note that all four were

truly amazing, fun experiences that harkened back to the glory days of computer gaming.

I had the opportunity to visit both Digital Anvil studios several times. Their

original base, at Third and Congress in downtown Austin, was a beautiful homage to all

things Wing Commander -- game posters on all the wall, movie props on every flat surface.

Digital Anvil was a classy operation. The new offices, also downtown and soon to be empty,

were clean and professional... and they reminded me more of Origin's old offices than

anywhere else in the world.

What's more, their employees were consummate

professionals. Many have moved on since, but men like Adam Foshko, Martin Galway, John

Guentzel, Jorg Neumann, Eric Peterson, Chris and Erin Roberts and Phil Wattenberger are the

best in the business; friendly to an old Wing Commander fan such as myself and at the same

time responsible for world class game development.

The Wing Commander community

owes Digital Anvil several times over:

Many know that the studio assisted in the

production of the Wing Commander movie; in fact, Digital Anvil was chiefly responsible for

the two aspects of the movie that were universally lauded - the beautiful introductory

sequence and the amazing 3D effects.

Further, Digital Anvil employees have continued

to support our community for many years with no benefit for themselves; much of the

fascinating development material currently found in our Archives was provided by Digital

Anvil employees. During the release of the movie they were always happy to listen to us.

During the development of the Wing Commander movie they would occasionally contact us to ask

about tiny little pointless facts -- the mechanics of jump points, the proper names for

types of laser rifles and such. I especially remember finding a typo in their Wing Commander

Movie website (it was dated '2564' instead of '2654')... I called them up, asked to

speak to the webmaster and they had it fixed within minutes. That's true dedication to our

strange cause.

First and foremost, however, Digital Anvil continued the Wing

Commander series' legacy and spirit with StarLancer and FreeLancer, a pair of first class

space combat games developed in an era when making such games was not necessarily

commercially viable.

They not only believed that the genre could be re-ignited when

no one else thought it was worth the risk, they convinced the largest corporation in the

world to back their attempt. The company should never be forgotten by Wing Commander fans

for this alone.

Our hearts go out to everyone who has to relocate and everyone who

cannot. Digital Anvil deserves better. It is a cold comfort at this moment, but our

community happily recognizes the 'Lancer games as being the equal of any title that legally

bore the Wing Commander name.

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