Lose Your Job Speed Run Challenge
It is being reported by Jason Schreier that Tripwire Interactive CEO John Gibson is stepping down after the extreme backlash he received for his vocal support of the Texas abortion ban. This move comes after multiple partners have condemned the comments or pulled support completely.
Co-founding member and current Vice President, Alan Wilson, will take over as interim CEO.
This certainly isn’t much of a surprise. He has been blasted all across the board for his support of the controversial abortion ban that not only bans abortion after around six weeks but incentives people to become vigilantes in trying to sniff out abortion clinics that broke this law.
Tripwire: “His comments disregarded the values of our whole team, our partners and much of our broader community. Our leadership team at Tripwire are deeply sorry and are unified in our commitment to take swift action and to foster a more positive environment.”
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 7, 2021
Here is what Tripwire Interactive had to say on the subject:
“His comments disregarded the values of our whole team, our partners, and much of our broader community. Our leadership team at Tripwire are deeply sorry and are unified in our commitment to take swift action and to foster a more positive environment.”
While we will never know the true stance of the rest of the leadership at Tripwire Interactive, the near-immediate removal the John Gibson is a good sign. Frankly, I’m just happy the studios, such as Torn Banner Studios, dev of Chivalry 2, can now continue to support their game without getting caught up in the crossfire here.
Tripwire Interactive made the right move here. It is clear that John Gibson was nothing but trouble at this point, and they needed to act fast to regain any amount of goodwill they could. Even with how quickly they acted, I’m sure for some, and justifiably, it won’t be enough. With near-constant reports of abuse and crunch in the workplace, something needs to change in the industry for it to keep going on.
Do you think Tripwire Interactive made the right move here? Do you think they acted fast enough to mitigate the damage? Let us know down in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.