Darksiders 2 has just been released and it seems that Xander Davis, a former Vigil Games employee was annoyed when he found out that his name was not included in the game’s credits. In a huge interview with Not Enough Shaders, Xander bashed Vigil Games and claimed that it was a nightmare working in there. Xander was a UI Designer in Vigil Games and accused both THQ and Vigil Games for leaving him – and some other co-workers – of credits.
Xander talked about a lot of things, like the development cycle of Darksiders 2, his responsibilities while he was working at Vigil Games, and suggested to upcoming developers to think outside the box and start making their own games on the side.
Vigil Games was quick enough to respond and issued a statement a couple of hours ago. According to Vigil’s statement, Davis was employed for 90 days, on a game that took over 2 years to develop. Moreover, Vigil stated that all developers who worked on the game were properly credited, unless they were laid off for documented poor performance.
Vigil Games concluded:
“Vigil’s primary concern while doing Darksiders II credits was that we credited team members that were affected by the recent downsizing. We were not focused on the issue of employees that voluntarily left or were fired from the company. We find it alarming that a former employee would personally attack and lie about other team members while falsely inflating his contribution to the game.”
Truth be told, not including an employee at the game’s credits because he worked for ‘only 90 days’ is so wrong in so many levels. However, if Xander caused problems and issues to Vigil Games, then the company would have every right to exclude him from the game’s credits.
This is a grey zone and given the circumstances, we’ll stay neutral on this matter. You can view Vigil Games’ whole statement below.
“After ending yesterday with the successful launch of Darksiders II, we at Vigil Games woke up to get word of a former employee’s statements regarding how his contributions were not being accounted for in the credits of the game. What was most disheartening about the statements was how misleading they were, and how they fly in the face of how Vigil, culturally, feels about and treats our teams.
While employment and privacy laws preclude us from discussing the circumstances surrounding the departure of any individual no longer with the company, we can confirm that the employee in question worked for us a total of 90 days, whereas Darksiders II was more than 2 ½ years in development.
When we were forced to reduce staff due to the cancellation of a project, we worked hard to ensure every single person effected by the layoff received their credit in the game. We did not include individuals whose employment terminated for any other reason, for example, being let go for documented poor performance.
We believe we treat both current and former positive contributors to our studio like family, and any statements otherwise are highly inaccurate and can be verified as same. We would ask any press who wish to report on this former employee’s statements to check the accuracy of these erroneous claims, before printing them as factual.
To reiterate, Vigil’s primary concern while doing Darksiders II credits was that we credited team members that were affected by the recent downsizing. We were not focused on the issue of employees that voluntarily left or were fired from the company. We find it alarming that a former employee would personally attack and lie about other team members while falsely inflating his contribution to the game.
We thank, once again, all those who positively contributed to Darksiders II.”
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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