Digital Anvil was founded in 1996 by
Chris Roberts, Erin Roberts, Tony Zurovec, Marten Davies, Craig Cox, John Miles, Eric Peterson, and Robert Rodriguez. The name derived from the team's idea to provide "hard work and high tech". Digital Anvil offered profit-related pay to encourage creative drive and give employees a sense of ownership in the company. Digital Anvil was purchased by
Microsoft in December 2000. One of the consequences of Digital Anvil's purchase was a reshuffling of titles being developed.
Conquest: Frontier Wars and
Loose Cannon were dropped by the company, eventually being picked up by
Ubisoft.
Conquest was released in 2001. Many of the Digital Anvil staff working on
Loose Cannon were reassigned to the company's flagship
Freelancer.
Brute Force (still unannounced at the time) was switched from a computer game to an
Xbox exclusive. Of all the projects being produced, only
Freelancer escaped major change. Co-founder 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. For the next year, Digital Anvil was mostly silent, and many wondered whether any games from the company would see the light of day. Then, 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. 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. == Games ==