Gas Powered Games Hit Hard By Layoffs, Kickstarter Project In Danger Bad Sh!t Yo

I searched through the forums to see if anything has been posted about this, but I didn't see anything, so sorry if it's old (and it probably is).

The Story:

Update:Chris Taylor posted an update video to the Wildman Kickstarter page to talk about the current status of Gas Powered Games and Wildman.

He gave an emotional explanation about why layoffs had to occur now at GPG instead of later and why he's not yet sure about what to do with the current Kickstarter campaign. He is asking for fan feedback. You can watch Chris Taylor's videoover on the Kickstarter page.

Original Story:Just four days after launching the Kickstarter campaign for Wildman, an evolutionary action RPG, Gas Powered Games has laid off nearly its entire staff.

Gas Powered Games is the developer responsible for creating the Dungeon Siege series, Supreme Commander, and, most recently, Age of Empires Online.

Sources told Kotaku that everyone except for CEO Chris Taylor and one or two people have been let go. According to the Gas Powered Games website, the company employs over 60 people, so its quite a significant drop.

Chris Taylor issued a statement to Kotaku confirming the layoffs saying, We do have a layoff, and well be updating our Kickstarter as well with details as well very soon.

As of right now, the Kickstarter campaign is still live and collecting money despite no update on its development and the lack of a studio to complete it. The last update was from yesterday, showing the gameplay in action and giving a thorough update on the various states of development. As of this writing, Wildman's campaign has raised $174,000 of the $1.1 million goal.

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So this is really bad. Gas Powered Games is a great studio that has made some really great sh!t, Chris Taylor is a great game designer, and... yeah, it's terrible to see them hurting for money.

So... yeah. If you wanna help GPG or see what I'm on about, head to their Kickstarter page and get acquainted with the whole thing.

I suppose this brings up an interesting question about the viability of Kickstarter, considering John Romero and Tom Hall's project didn't meet it's funding date and Peter Molyneux's Godus just barely met its funding goals.

What say you, System Warriors? Upset at the potential loss of Gas Powered Games? Mad at Kickstarter? Still hoping those 20 projects you backed won't suck?

Sound off, guys.

Can't say i care much i haven't played any of their games but with that said its NEVER good when a company get hits by layoff.

I hope they pull through.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Powered_Games

Those guys?

I sincerely am struggling to come up with an ounce of care right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Powered_Games

Those guys?

I sincerely am struggling to come up with an ounce of care right now.

jg4xchamp

[QUOTE="jg4xchamp"]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Powered_Games

Those guys?

I sincerely am struggling to come up with an ounce of care right now.

DarkLink77

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"][QUOTE="jg4xchamp"]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Powered_Games

Those guys?

I sincerely am struggling to come up with an ounce of care right now.

jg4xchamp

I read the topic title like it was being said by Ice Cube

Dude needs to wind down the Kickstarter. Sucks that people are going to lose their jobs and that GPG would end up shutting down (because while they never really got their sh*t together, they did some interesting work with Dungeon Siege and SupCom), but Wildman is pretty much everything that goes wrong with Kickstarter campaigns rolled into one (an interesting but incredibly vague idea with a high budget and zero room for error).

Who is GPG and why should I care about them?

Who is GPG and why should I care about them?

Master_ShakeXXX

[QUOTE="Master_ShakeXXX"]

Who is GPG and why should I care about them?

DarkLink77

You are such a one trick pony.

Man,I could never get into Dungeon Siege.The only good thing to come out of that game was Ultima 5:Lazarus

Sucks what's happening to the devs though.

[QUOTE="Master_ShakeXXX"]

Who is GPG and why should I care about them?

DarkLink77

Shame, they made one of my favorite games, Dungeon Seige..

Probably knew about the pending changes to the company, and went ahead with the campaign anyways.

Another reason against Kickstarter- noble as its intended purpose may be, it's still not free of real world restrictions.

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"][QUOTE="Master_ShakeXXX"]

Who is GPG and why should I care about them?

Master_ShakeXXX

You are such a one trick pony.

Have something to define you other than your terrible taste and ability to make terrible threads about your sh!tty taste, and we'll talk.

Total Annihilation. I bought that with my own money in 1997. It was awesome.

Supreme Commander Forged Alliance is still my favourite RTS.

This is a shame.

Poor bunch of folks made redundant overnight. Was it because RTS' don't have a proper control scheme on consoles and thus undersell due to human interface barriers?

[QUOTE="jg4xchamp"]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Powered_Games

Those guys?

I sincerely am struggling to come up with an ounce of care right now.

DarkLink77

Yea, I loved them. Very, very sad to hear about this. Game companies... stop going under...

[QUOTE="Master_ShakeXXX"]

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"] You probably shouldn't because they don't make sh!tty games.DarkLink77

You are such a one trick pony.

Have something to define you other than your terrible taste and ability to make terrible threads about your sh!tty taste, and we'll talk.

Again, you love Resident Evil 5 which is infinitely worse than any game I like and totally destroys your credibility in game taste.

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"]

[QUOTE="Master_ShakeXXX"]

You are such a one trick pony.

Master_ShakeXXX

Have something to define you other than your terrible taste and ability to make terrible threads about your sh!tty taste, and we'll talk.

Again, you love Resident Evil 5 which is infinitely worse than any game I like and totally destroys your credibility in game taste.

[QUOTE="Master_ShakeXXX"]

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"] Only with you, because you only give me one card to play.

Have something to define you other than your terrible taste and ability to make terrible threads about your sh!tty taste, and we'll talk.

DarkLink77

Again, you love Resident Evil 5 which is infinitely worse than any game I like and totally destroys your credibility in game taste.

Resistance is better than RE5 in everything.

Better campaign - check

Better coop - check

Better competitive multiplayer - automatic check

The only thing RE5 does exceptionally well is sucking.

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"][QUOTE="Master_ShakeXXX"]

Again, you love Resident Evil 5 which is infinitely worse than any game I like and totally destroys your credibility in game taste.

Master_ShakeXXX

Resistance is better than RE5 in everything.

Better campaign - check

Better coop - check

Better competitive multiplayer - automatic check

The only thing RE5 does exceptionally well is sucking.

That's a shame. I love Supreme Commander 2 (one of my favorite games and an incredibly underrated one that deserved much more) and I was REALLY looking forward to Kings And Castles even though it was put on hold. Here's hoping that they pull though.

No one cares.

Lost like two jobs and bounced right back. Didn't see anyone giving a f*k, and i still made it.

Probably knew about the pending changes to the company, and went ahead with the campaign anyways.

Another reason against Kickstarter- noble as its intended purpose may be, it's still not free of real world restrictions.

Gxgear

I'm pretty sure in his update video that the guy said he was taking a risk when he decided to go Kickstarter 4 days ago and today he realized that this probably wasn't going to work, so he layed off everyone but 2 guys and himself.

If the guy was taking a Risk by going to Kickstarter with a vague idea, I think they were already screwed.

He even mentions that if the campaign wasn't funded he would have to fire everyone anyway and lose his company of almost 15 years.

Kickstarter probably had no purge for this. If he didn't do the Kickstarter he probably would have done this. Gas Powered Games is probably going to be gone soon.

No one cares.

ZombieKiller7

Pretty sure the people that lost their job and their families care...

[QUOTE="ZombieKiller7"]

No one cares.

arto1223

Pretty sure the people that lost their job and their families care...

Not to mention the dude who owns the company. He seems pretty choked up about the whole ordeal.