Around 40 employees laid off at Gas Powered Games [Update: Chris Taylor explains timing]
Gas Powered Games, the development studio responsible for the Dungeon Siege series and one that has recently launched an ambitious Kickstarter campaign, is undergoing a round of layoffs, Kotaku reports.
While anonymous sources claim that virtually the entire company has been let go, save for CEO Chris Taylor and a small handful of others, the only official word is that layoffs are indeed underway, and that more information will be posted to the Wildman Kickstarter soon. We've reached out to Gas Powered Games to learn more about the severity of the situation, as well as what these layoffs may mean for the studio's future projects.
Update: Gas Powered Games boss Chris Taylor tells Joystiq about 40 employees have been affected by layoffs. Taylor says it was a "Very tough decision, but an important one such that I could properly pay severance and remaining [paid-time off]."
Taylor wouldn't go into specifics about his studio's future, but he further clarified that those affected understood the timing of the decision, despite how sudden it may have appeared in the press.
"I think everyone agrees better to have a few bucks to find the next job that run this train to the end and have nothing left to work with. It's one thing for me to bet the company, but I can't bet their last severance money, that's not cool," he said. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Taylor said he was betting his company on the success of the studios' first Kickstarter project, Wildman.
