After having worked so hard only to see many of your co-workers not get credit for their contributions, what are your personal hopes for Darksiders 2 in terms of financial success?
Well not only do I need games that I and others slave over to actually ship, but having them do well doesn’t hurt either. Look, I’ve always wanted Darksiders 2 to ship and be successful. That has not changed. For awhile there, I was really worried it would go under with THQ and all of it would’ve been for nothing. The gamers would’ve missed out on all the cool stuff we had for them. But after all of this? Well, I personally haven’t raced out to buy a copy yet. Kind of low on my priority list now. And if you would’ve told my six year old self that one day you’ll make a major blockbuster console game and you won’t even care to buy it because you were so abused and exploited, that’s absolutely baffling to me. I just feel numb. It’s just absurd. I felt a lot worse as it was happening and immediately after. I felt so depressed afterwards, maybe the worst I’ve ever been, where you start thinking you’ve devoted your whole life to working in this industry and it’s a nightmare. Time to rethink your life? Yes, I’m ashamed to admit it, but even thoughts like, time to rethink living? You invest yourself 1000% into something, you do your job and achieve results under insane circumstances, and you get screwed for it. I got no severance, had no friends outside of Vigil, no support. My family is in Ohio. I was alone. I had just gotten my Texas driver’s license that Sunday and Monday I was looking at immediate relocation as fast as possible. Afterwards, in the silence of your apartment you suddenly can’t afford, as you wait for recruiters to call, you start asking nihilistic questions, like, what’s the goddamned point. To any of this. But you keep going. You keep surviving. Onto the next project, maybe the next clusterfuck– you have no way of knowing until you completely relocate your entire life and start all over alone in a brand new alien city. I’m used to it by now. Business as usual. But I don’t have to like it. Beyond that, things are looking up again. So yeah, I’m glad Darksiders 2 is doing well. Then it’s at least marginally worth it.
The guy is obviously bitter as hell and at a difficult point in his life. Blame the media for taking his story and turning it into a Wii-U hate train for hits (he even said the same of the Move/Kinect/Wii.)
