John Gibson has stepped down as President of Tripwire Interactive just days after the former head of the video game developing and publishing company tweeted out his support for the United States Supreme Court not stepping in to stop the controversial new Texas Abortion Law from going into effect.
The law effectively bans abortions in the state after the six week period, which is earlier than roughly 85% of the abortions performed in Texas in the last year and before most women even know whether they are pregnant. The law gets around the fact that the settled law in the United States does not allow such a ban by taking the enforcement of the law out of the hands of the state itself and places it with private citizens, who can now sue anyone who “facilitates” getting an abortion after six weeks and are entitled to no less than $10,000. The vague definition of “facilitates” might cover the cab driver who drove the woman to an abortion clinic. The unusual construction of the law led to the Supreme Court to determine that it could not yet intervene in the law, since there was not yet any “standing” due to no state actors technically being involved in the enforcement in the law and that the proper remedy was to go through the Texas courts first.
John Gibson decided that he wanted to let everyone know that he was happy about that decision, so on his personal Twitter account, he tweeted on Saturday, “Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat. As an entertainer I don’t get political often. Yet with so many vocal peers on the other side of this issue, I felt it was important to go on the record as a pro-life game developer.”
Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat. As an entertainer I don’t get political often. Yet with so many vocal peers on the other side of this issue, I felt it was important to go on the record as a pro-life game developer.
— John Gibson (@RammJaeger) September 4, 2021
The tweet was roundly denounced by the video game community, including Tom Banner Studios, whose hit game, Chivalry 2, was published by Tripwire. The company tweeted, “We do not share the opinion expressed in a recent tweet by the president of Tripwire, publisher of Chivalry 2. This perspective is not shared by our team, nor is it reflected in the games we create. The statement stands in opposition to what we believe about women’s rights.”
Shipwright Studios, a co-development partner with Tripwire, released a statement, as well, noting that “We cannot in good conscience continue to work with Tripwire under the current leadership structure. We will begin the cancellation of our existing contracts effective immediately.”
That leadership structure changed on Monday night, as Tripwire released the following statement:
“The comments given by John Gibson are of his own opinion, and do not reflect those of Tripwire Interactive as a company. 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.
Effective immediately, John Gibson has stepped down as CEO of Tripwire Interactive. Co-founding member and current Vice President, Alan Wilson, will take over as interim CEO.”
Source: Twitter/Tripwire Interactive
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