^ 'Microsoft to Acquire Digital Anvil'.^ a b 'Turn 10 head 'Alan Hartman' bio'.Hartman, the studio head of Digital Anvil at the time of its closure, was moved from Austin to Redmond as head of Turn 10 Studios, authors of the Forza Motorsport franchise.

Digital Anvil was officially dissolved on January 31, 2006. In November 2005, Microsoft redeployed the developer's employees to its Microsoft Studios headquarters. The game also did quite well, setting first-month sales records for Xbox games. In May of the same year, Digital Anvil released Brute Force for the Xbox. In March 2003, Freelancer was released and immediately became one of the month's top-selling games. Although some of the more ambitious elements were dropped, this act proved Freelancer was not vaporware. Then, in 2001, Digital Anvil revealed a lighter Freelancer to the press. įor the next year, Digital Anvil was mostly silent, and many wondered whether any games from the company would see the light of day. Digital Anvil also worked on the visual effects of the 1999 film Wing Commander. Co-founder Chris Roberts left the company after the Microsoft takeover, but he still worked as a consultant on Freelancer. Of all the projects being produced, only Freelancer escaped major change. Brute Force (still unannounced at the time) was switched from a computer game to an Xbox exclusive. Many of the Digital Anvil staff working on Loose Cannon were reassigned to the company's flagship Freelancer. Conquest: Frontier Wars and Loose Cannon were dropped by the company, eventually being picked up by Ubisoft. One of the consequences of Digital Anvil's purchase was a reshuffling of titles being developed. ĭigital Anvil was purchased by Microsoft on December 5, 2000. Digital Anvil offered profit-related pay to encourage creative drive and give employees a sense of ownership in the company. The name derived from the team's idea to provide 'hard work and high tech'. History ĭigital Anvil was founded in 1996 by Chris Roberts, Erin Roberts, Tony Zurovec, Marten Davies, Craig Cox, John Miles, Eric Peterson, and Robert Rodriguez.

The acquisition of Digital Anvil by MGS was completed in December of that same year. Roberts admitted that his team required large sums of money, which only a huge company could provide. In June 2000, Microsoft started talks to buy Digital Anvil. It was founded in 1996 by brothers Chris and Erin Roberts along with Tony Zurovec, Marten Davies, Craig Cox, John Miles, Eric Peterson and Robert Rodriguez, creators of the Wing Commander franchise from Origin Systems.ĭavies held the position of president of the studio from its founding until February 2000, when his departure was announced. ) was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas owned by Microsoft Game Studios (MGS).

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