Wargaming Seattle

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Wargaming Seattle
Wargaming (2013–2018)

Wargaming Seattle, formerly known as Gas Powered Games, was a

Chris Taylor and several other ex-Cavedog Entertainment employees.[1] In 2013 they became the Seattle studio of Wargaming
. Wargaming Seattle was closed down in July 2018.

History

Gas Powered Games was formed in May 1998 by

Microsoft Game Studios. Apart from its custom graphics engine
, it also featured simple and innovative role-playing rules and mechanics that made it stand out from a market already crowded with sword and sorcery/fantasy role-playing games.

In 2003 Gas Powered released a stand-alone

Chris Taylor touted Supreme Commander as the spiritual successor to Total Annihilation as Total Annihilation remains the intellectual property of Atari. As a stand-alone expansion, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance was announced in June 2007, for a November release.[5]

In May 2007, Gas Powered Games announced a partnership with

Mac OS X
following in September 2010.

On February 24, 2011, it was announced that Gas Powered Games would be taking over development on the upcoming real-time strategy game Age of Empires Online, replacing Robot Entertainment on the project.[10] Gas Powered Games announced plans to create a real-time strategy game named Chris Taylor's Kings and Castles, which would use the game engine from Supreme Commander 2, however it never released and was cancelled by the studio's shutdown in 2018.[11] On January 4, 2013, it was noted in an Age of Empires Online blog post[12] that Gas Powered Games would no longer be supporting the game. Approximately two weeks prior to this announcement, Gas Powered Games put up a teaser web site announcement for a 'Project W'[13]

On January 14, 2013, Gas Powered Games announced the Kickstarter project "Wildman", declared to be "an 'evolutionary' action role-playing game".[14] Four days later on January 18, Gas Powered Games had to lay off roughly 40 employees, with the ultimate fate of the company riding on the Kickstarter campaign.[15] On Feb 11, 2013, Gas Powered Games canceled their Kickstarter project "Wildman", four days before it was due to finish, announcing that they wanted to "focus [their] attention on other ways to keep Gas Powered Games running"[16]

Acquisition

Three days after canceling project "Wildman", Wargaming announced that they were in talks to buy Gas Powered Games.[17] The company was acquired in February 2013.[18] Gas Powered Games was absorbed into Wargaming to become Wargaming Seattle, which ended Gas Powered Games as an independent studio.

Dissolution

On May 23, 2018, Victor Kislyi, the head of Wargaming, announced to the studio that it would be closed down, laying off roughly 150 developers.[19] The studio was officially closed on July 22.[20]

GPGnet

GPGnet was an online gaming service run by the company. It was used with

Supreme Commander, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege II, and Space Siege
.

Games

Title Year Platform
Dungeon Siege 2002
Mac
Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna
 2003 Windows
Dungeon Siege II 2005
Dungeon Siege II: Broken World 2006
Supreme Commander 2007 Windows, Xbox 360
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance Windows
Space Siege 2008
Demigod 2009
Supreme Commander 2 2010
Mac, Xbox 360
Age of Empires Online 2011 Windows
Kings and Castles Cancelled
Wildman Cancelled[21] PC

References

  1. ^ Keighley, Geoffrey (2007). "The Total Annihilation: The Story So Far". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2007-08-07. Retrieved 2011-01-08.
  2. ^ Keefer, John (March 31, 2006). "GameSpy Retro: Developer Origins, Page 4 of 19". GameSpy. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007.
  3. ^ "New Dungeon Siege titles coming from 2K Games". Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  4. ^ "2K grabs deeds to Dungeon Siege". Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  5. ^ "THQ Announces Supreme Commander(TM): Forged Alliance For Windows PC Coming in November 2007".
  6. ^ Butts, Steve (2008-08-12). "Space Siege Review". IGN. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
  7. 1UP.com
    . 2008-01-03. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  8. ^ "Demigod released! - stardoc".
  9. ^ "Square Enix orders Supreme Commander 2". Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  10. ^ "Age of Empires Online swaps devs". PC Gamer. 2011-02-24. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
  11. ^ "Gas Powered Games Announces Chris Taylor's Kings and Castles" (Press release). 2010-02-15. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  12. ^ "Age of Empires Blog Post".
  13. ^ "Develop Online - Gas Powered ends Age of Empires Online support".
  14. ^ "Gas Powered Games' Wildman Kickstarter Page".
  15. ^ Schreier, Jason. "Massive Layoffs Crush Gas Powered Games Just Days After Launch Of $1.1 Million Kickstarter [Update]". Kotaku.
  16. ^ Schreier, Jason. "With Four Days To Go, Chris Taylor Cancels Wildman Kickstarter". Kotaku.
  17. ^ Narcisse, Evan. "World of Tanks Company Buys Gas Powered Games". Kotaku.
  18. ^ "Wargaming purchases Gas Powered Games". Engadget. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
  19. Gamasutra
    . Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  20. ^ "Wargaming Seattle to shut down this summer, laying off 150 workers". 25 May 2018.
  21. ^ Sliwinski, Alexander. "'Wildman' Kickstarter canceled by Gas Powered Games". Joystiq.
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