Just last week we learned that Chris Taylor, the developer behind Dungeon Siege and Supreme Commander, was forced to lay off a significant number of people from his company Gas Powered Games after the Kickstarter campaign for their game Wildman was met with underwhelming funding rates. Yesterday, in an hour-long interview posted on YouTube channel Matt Chat, Taylor very openly addressed the details of the company’s financial woes, and his discomfort with Kickstarter.
Regardless of the exact circumstances behind the situation that led to these layoffs, it’s admirable — and at times a little uncomfortable — to see Taylor speak so freely about what he believes could be the end of the company. He admits to being unable to pay severance to longtime employees, and asks people who pledged “out of their comfort zone” to rescind their pledges. “It’s really going to be a longshot to fund it,” Taylor said, adding “there’s no point in risking [my employees] livelihood… we could only pay a fraction [of proposed severances].” “Nobody came into my office and threw themselves on the floor and said ‘No Chris, this is gonna work, this Kickstarter is gonna be a success’… even as we’re talking now the numbers are catastrophic.”
Read More at Kotaku
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