Wargaming has bulked up for the next generation, increasing its studio size, taking on more active projects, and acquiring Gas Powered Games. As the console transition prepares to shake up the industry again, the company is starting to give a roadmap of its plans on PC and, possibly, on next-gen consoles as well.
Read more: Next-gen decisions based on install base, F2P viability »
In announcing the cancellation of his Wildman Kickstarter earlier this week, Gas Powered Games CEO Chris Taylor said he had something in the works for his company to survive. Enter Wargaming.net, which has announced it has acquired the embattled developer for an undisclosed sum.
With four days left and almost $600,000 to go in it's $1.1 million Kickstarter drive for Wildman, Gas Powered Games has canceled the campaign, with company CEO Chris Taylor saying he is looking at other things to keep the company going.
Gas 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.'"
Update: Chris Taylor offers a comment about the state of the company, and what will happen to the Kickstarter project he just launched.
Gas Powered Games may have only just launched a Kickstarter for their next game, Wildman. However, it appears that Chris Taylor's studio may have been using the crowdfunding platform in an attempt to stave off its financial troubles.
Taylor has confirmed to Kotaku that "we do have a layoff," but did not offer any further details, saying that "we'll be updating our Kickstarter as well with details very soon."
What do you get when you cross the action RPG elements of Dungeon Siege, the RTS mechanics of Supreme Commander, the MOBA feel of Demigod, and the flamboyant, devil-may-care craziness of developer Chris Taylor? You get Wildman, a new Kickstarter project from Taylor's team at Gas Powered Games.
"I had a feeling that the action RPG was getting a little long in the tooth." Taylor told us while explaining the multiple facets of the game. "Fight a battle, get some shoes. Fight another battle, get a potion. It was kinda like a one-cylinder engine, and I think it's time we go to a V8 with a turbocharger on it."
Read more: How crowdsourcing and crowdfunding is changing the game »
Age of Empires Online has ceased active development and is now shifting into a "support" phase. That means no new content or features are coming, other than a few remaining minor updates that will be released over the next few weeks. Gas Powered Games says it still plans to support the game with Community Challenges, streams, contests, and PvP tournaments.
Read more: 'We can no longer afford to keep creating [content]" »
Age of Empires Online is adding another pro civilization and a booster pack later this month as downloadable content. The Babylon civilization and Fertile Crescent booster pack are due August 16, for 900 and 450 Empire Points, respectively.
The strategic path to release has been set and Age of Empires Online is expecting to attack gamers with a full release this fall. The release window announcement was made via the official Twitter account for the title, yesterday.
According to Joystiq, a more specific release date is expected to be set on May 31. Read more »
Robot Entertainment, the developer founded by members of the now defunct dev Ensemble Studios, has announced a new project: Orcs Must Die!
Coming to "personal computers and consoles this summer," Orcs Must Die will strive to blend action and strategy. Sounding a little like a never ending Horde Mode, players will have to contend with waves of an Orc onslaught as they attempt to defend their fortress. Read more »
Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol developer Obsidian is working on a third entry in the action RPG series Dungeon Siege, publisher Square Enix has announced, with "input" from Dungeon Siege and Dungeon Siege 2 developer Gas Powered Games.
"It has been a great pleasure to collaborate with Obsidian," GPG founder and Dungeon Siege designer Chris Taylor said in the announcement. "They are a very talented developer who really knows what it takes to build a deep and engaging RPG experience, and I can't think of a better group to continue the Dungeon Siege series." Read more »
Valve have announced that Gas Powered Games and Square-Enix's Supreme Commander 2 is now available for pre-loading ahead of the strategy game's March 2, 2010 release date. A demo of the game was released on Steam yesterday along with confirmation that the game will utilize Steamworks for DRM.
Gas Powered Games have released two new trailers, showing off some more experimental units. First up, the Noah Unit Cannon: Read more »
Supreme Commander 2, Chris Taylor's RTS follow-up to 2007's Supreme Commander, will be using Valve's Steamworks program for its DRM. All copies of Supreme Commander 2, digitally obtained or purchased in out-dated box form, will require an installation of Steam for validation.
Additionally, a demo of the title is now available for download through Steam ahead of the game's March 2, 2010 release date. Give it a try and if you like it go ahead and pre-order it on Steam. You'll save yourself $5. The Xbox 360 version is set to release on March 18, 2010.
Read more »Supreme Commander developer Gas Powered Games today announced Kings and Castles, "an epic real-time strategy game" for PC and unspecified 'next-gen' consoles.
Described as a "one-of-a-kind experience," Kings and Castles casts players as "one of three powerful kings who are vying for control of an all-new, original fantasy world." GPG also boasts of "the ability to zoom to any level, incredible maps, and eye-popping visuals that will run on a wide range of systems." Read more »
Supreme Commander and Demigod developer Gas Powered Games is among the latest to join the PC Gaming Alliance, a distinction that also applies to BFG Technologies, Bigfoot Networks, Flextronics, GameTap, Howie's Game Shack and InstantAction.
The non-profit consortium, which strives to "drive worldwide growth of PC gaming," announced the new members today and highlighted the recent addition of GameStop. Read more »
"That is great and all but it might be better to fix the WOT bugs that have been around since ..."
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