The action game Gigantic (PC, Xbox One) has a wild development history behind it. Even wilder than previously thought. In February 2016, the project was practically dead, but the employees refused to give up on the shooter.
Anyone who has been following the news about Gigantic knew that something was wrong and that things were not going as planned.
Lack of funds, competition, and Windows 10
Microsoft was initially a partner, but then they dropped out. At first, it was said that Gigantic would only come for Windows 10, then suddenly it was for more platforms. Everything took much longer than expected. Suddenly, strong competition in the genre emerged with Overwatch and Paladins. The developer Motiga ran out of money. There were reports of layoffs and delays.
Anyone who was paying attention knew: Gigantic is going through a crisis.
But the extent of the crisis Gigantic was in is only now becoming clear. In February 2016, it was said that some employees were laid off. Now we know: They fired everyone back then.
All 75 employees were laid off
In an interview with PC Gamer, the head behind Gigantic, Chris Chung, stated that he had to lay off all 75 employees in February 2016. There simply was no money left.
However, the employees still came to work the next day. Some left to meet their financial obligations, but 90% stayed, despite their situation being completely unclear and without any security.
They just didn’t want to accept that the game was dead; they believed so much in their work.
Weeks later, a deal with the publisher Perfect World was reached. This saved Gigantic. Perfect World was impressed that people were still working night shifts even though they had been laid off weeks earlier.
Perfect World helped without bureaucracy and provided funds. Salaries were flowing at Gigantic again.
Now the game was no longer exclusive to Windows 10, but would also be coming to Steam and the Perfect World launcher. Meanwhile, the action game has been released.
Happy ending is still questionable: Steam launch only received moderate interest
Whether this story, which sounds like a fairy tale, has a happy ending in the real world is questionable.
The Steam release was apparently only moderately successful: it was a rather small launch. But Motiga hopes that word will spread about what an extraordinary game Gigantic is.
Here we took a look at Gigantic in a review:
