NIS America to pay agreed pledge for GaymerX2 [Update]
Just yesterday, NIS America stepped away from its $3,000 pledge to cover costs for the GaymerX2 convention held in San Francisco on July 11 through July 13. According to the LGBTQ-focused event's founder Matt Conn, the situation between both parties is currently being resolved, and will result in NIS America agreeing to pay the full amount it promised to the event holders.
"After talking with their team, [NIS America] have apologized for the misunderstanding and offered to make right and pay the full amount that they agreed upon," Conn told Joystiq via email. "We have apologized for escalating it to a public level so quickly and we are pleased with how quickly they offered to resolve the situation and make right on their promise, and we harbor no ill will towards them."
Conn added that, as far as he could tell, NIS America's original decision to rescind its pledge "was not properly run up the ladder and that's why that email was sent." Following the initial decision from the game publisher yesterday, Devolver Digital announced its own support of GaymerX by promising $3,000 towards sponsorship of a 2015 event, urging other companies to follow suit.
That call was heeded by a few other developers and industry channels, which began matching Devolver's pledge today by declaring their support on Twitter. Supporters included Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell and Goat Simulator developer Coffee Stain Studios. Public relations firm Tinsley PR joined the group with $3,000 of support as well as Gunman Clive developer Bertil Horberg. In total, the promised support for a future GaymerX event among this group of industry veterans reached $15,000.
"I have seen the tweets but they haven't reached out to us," Conn said in regards to the offers. "To be fair, we also haven't reached out either, we wanted to resolve this situation first." An event in 2015 isn't in the cards at the moment, but the pledges are "helping us to consider future plans," Conn said, adding that it would still "not be enough to put us in a comfortable situation to say 'we definitely are going to do another event,' but they certainly help us feel like, if we did, we would have a better chance of being financially sustainable." With issues surrounding NIS America's contributions reaching resolution, Conn plans on contacting prospective supporters this week.
We've reached out to NIS America for comment, and will update as we learn more.
Update: Conn sent over GaymerX's official statement, found below.
[Image: GaymerX]
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I would like to give an updated statement on the events that have unfolded over the past 24 hours.
We, GaymerX, received an email from NIS America in regards to the sponsorship, which read as though there was a budget misallocation and that they would not be able to complete the terms of the sponsorship. This has been explained that that was not the case, however, they agreed that it was worded poorly and could understand how I could misconstrue the intent of the letter.
I apologized to them for escalating it to the press in the manner I did - as I have no intention of causing the NIS brand harm, and was only looking to defend our company and make sure that we were going to get paid. I realize that it would have been much better to have more back and forth on the subject before going to the press and that my reaction, while in defense of the company, was extemely severe given the circumstances.
I want to publically apologize for any pain or distress I may have caused NIS America or their team - they have been very genuine and sincere in fixing the issue and have confirmed that payment will be made in full. They have been nothing but professional during this process after the initial email, and it can't be understated the fact that, unlike most conservative AAA companies, they were willing to take the risk of being associated with a queer event and they went out of their way to be a part of it. That statement alone is huge and I feel as though my statements were taken out of context. I in no way intended for the dialog to be that they had made this action because we are a LGBTQ organziation, my point, at the time, was that I did not feel like that email would have been sent to a larger convention or organization, and felt bullied because of that.
They have assured me that this was not the case, and that the email was just simply poorly constructed for the meaning of what they meant to say, which was: "We did not run this up the ladder properly, and we need to discuss how we can resolve this". I did not interpret that message correctly and that is how we came to this point.
In the end, I am very happy that they have made steps to apologize for any miscommunications on their end and to pay the full amount invoiced, and I am happy to publically apologize for a) escalating the issue beyond what the situation called for b) making comments which could be inferred as that they were making that decision based on anything besides budgetary concerns.
I hope that this statement helps clear the air on this matter and myself, or NIS America, would be happy to answer any follow up questions.
Thank you very much.
