Gas Powered Games had several games canned last minute
by John Keefer, Jan 22, 2013 2:30pm PSTGas Powered Games' sudden financial troubles, which resulted in the layoff of most of the team, may have been caused by the termination of several nearly-completed projects.
"There's multiple games that we got almost to the finish line on," studio head Chris Taylor said. "We got a phone call from the publisher and they said, 'We're terminating.' And we're like, 'Yeah but we're only a month away from beta!' And they're like, 'Yeah we're still terminating.'"
Speaking to Eurogamer, Taylor said the cancellations forced the developer to turn to Kickstarter for Wildman. And with initial response tepid at best, Taylor had to examine other options.
"GPG is in a very interesting situation, as we had enough money to get us through to the end of the campaign," Taylor said in a recent Reddit AMA. "What became obvious by day four is that the campaign was going so poorly there was no way it was going to happen."
Taylor has started hiring a few of the team back, now that the project has picked up a bit of momentum on Kickstarter, with slightly more than $300,000 of its $1.1 million goal with 24 days left. But he said they are aware of what will happen if the goal is not met. "They have a very clear picture of the risks and had the weekend to think clearly about what they wanted. Some people have chosen to move on, and those who stay know that the future is uncertain."
Kinect for Xbox One coming to PC
Xbox One does not provide any built-in DVR capabilities
Xbox One increases friends lists to 1,000
Xbox One achievements dynamic, not limited to single games




Comments
Financially troubled developer Gas Powered Games apparently had the rug pulled out from under several nearly completed projects when publishers backed out at the last minute, leaving the company with nothing to show for its efforts.
Financially troubled developer Gas Powered Games apparently had the rug pulled out from under several nearly completed projects when publishers backed out at the last minute, leaving the company with nothing to show for its efforts. : Shacknews
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 19 replies.
And my point is that they had the option to save their company or go under, and while I appreciate him wanting to save all of it by asking 1.1 mil, the smart thing to do would be scope a smaller goal and save part of his company.
As an "investor" browsing Kickstarter, I look at their pitch, I look at their goal for the game, and judging from what was presented, it didn't look like it took 1.1 mil to make that. What it looked like was that it took them 1.1 mil to save their studio, not make that project, and that's a pretty big difference.
So, again, maybe they were better off changing their pitch, spending more time on it, or cutting part of their staff and goals.
You must be logged in to post.