Digital Anvil was an American video game developer founded April 8, 1996 with funding from Microsoft and Advanced Micro Devices by brothers Chris Rroberts 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.
Chris Roberts was Chairman and CEO.
The name derived from the team's idea to provide "hard work and high tech".
In June 2000, Microsoft started talks to buy Digital Anvil. Roberts admitted that his team required large sums of money, which only a huge company could provide. The acquisition of Digital Anvil by Microfost was completed on December 5th of that same year.
One of the consequences of Digital Anvil's purchase was a reshuffling of titles being developed. Of all the projects being produced, only Freelancer escaped major change. Chris Roberts left the company after the Microsoft takeover, but he still worked as a consultant on Freelancer. Digital Anvil also worked on the visual effects of the 1999 film Wing Commander and several other films, including Spy Kids.
In 2001, Digital Anvil revealed a lighter Freelancer to the press. Although some of the more ambitious elements were dropped, this act proved Freelancer was not vaporware. In March 2003, Freelancer was released and immediately became one of the month's top-selling games.
In May of the same year, Digital Anvil released Brute Force for the Xbox. The game also did quite well, setting first-month sales records for Xbox games. In November 2005, Microsoft redeployed the developer's employees to its Microsoft Studios headquarters. Digital Anvil was officially dissolved on January 31, 2006.
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