A Future Site ▼

Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor: "you can use your imagination" with regards to a new Total Annihilation

Phil Savage at

World of Tanks creator Wargaming are trying an experiment. They've taken the rights to the Total Annihilation series. They've also taken Gas Powered Games and its founder Chris Taylor, the developer of Supreme Commander, Dungeon Seige and Total Annihilation. Now they get to sit back and watch what happens. A fair guess would be, "more Total Annihilation", which is something Taylor recently hinted at in an English podcast interview with German site CnC-Inside.de. In it, he says things like "I don't even need to be coy", before being excruciatingly coy about his current project.

Read and comment >

Watch the PC Gaming World Congress from PAX Prime 2013

PC Gamer at

Last Friday at PAX Prime in Seattle, we gathered four of PC gaming's most important people—from left to right: Chris Taylor (GM, Wargaming Seattle), Jon Mavor (Co-Founder, Uber Entertainment), Chris Roberts (Founder, Cloud Imperium Games), and Dean Hall (Creator, DayZ, Bohemia Interactive)—for a discussion on the state of PC gaming. Now, through the magic of streaming video, you too can watch these four titans talk about what they love, what they want, and where they predict our dear hobby is going.

Read and comment >

PC Gamer at PAX Prime 2013 — Join us for the PC Gaming World Congress!

PC Gamer at

Attention PC gaming vanguards! If you're coming to this weekend's PAX Prime in Seattle, join us in our quest to shine the biggest, brightest spotlight on our beloved hobby. We're putting on two panels, starting with The PC Gaming World Congress on Friday (don't miss the chance to see Dean "Rocket" Hall and Chris Roberts talk shop), and chatting with readers all weekend.

Read and comment >

Gas Powered's Chris Taylor would love to revisit Total Annihilation - sees problems in doing so

Phil Savage at

Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor has revealed his desire to work on a sequel to Total Annihilation. Speaking to VG247, Taylor said he'd love to revisit the RTS series, but admitted he was unsure if people wanted a direct sequel to a game nearly two decades old. Given that plenty of developers have secured millions on Kickstarter using exactly that tactic, I'd suggest that they probably do. Especially when it involves giant mechs.

Read and comment >

Chris Taylor cancels Wildman Kickstarter with four days and $600K to go

Tyler Wilde at

With over half a million dollars left to raise and only a few days remaining, Gas Powered Games founder Chris Taylor has canceled the Wildman Kickstarter campaign. Taylor didn't say what will happen to the hybrid RPG/RTS or Gas Powered Games, just that it makes sense to focus attention on "other ways" to keep the studio running.

Read and comment >

Chris Taylor asks backers whether he should continue with Wildman Kickstarter

Tom Sykes at

Following the news of layoffs at Gas Powered Games, studio head Chris Taylor has issued a video statement explaining the situation, in addition to asking backers whether he should continue with the Kickstarter campaign, considering everything that's happened in the last couple of days.

Read and comment >

Wildman update video shows early gameplay, details DRM, engine, canned corn

Omri Petitte at

Chris Taylor has a lot of things to say about Gas Powered Games' RTS/RPG hybrid Wildman. We know, because we chiseled them all down on a reading rock coveted by our tribe. More information surfaced today as part of an update to backers of Wildman's Kickstarter campaign, as a still-unscathed Taylor stepped in front of the camera to show off a rough in-game ruckus and talk about DRM (spoiler: none), the game's proprietary engine, and multiplayer.

Read and comment >

Chris Taylor on Wildman: "What if I tell people my wife's gonna cut my balls off?"

Tyler Wilde at

Sometimes the best part of an interview comes after the interview is over, and sometimes when we say something like, "I'm gonna lead with that," we have to keep our word. I won't make you work for it: Chris Taylor's balls become fixtures in the conversation on the third page.

But first, Taylor had a essay's worth of thoughts on Gas Powered Games' new crowdfunded project, Wildman, and the rising Kickstarter island. For more about the game, read our preview and Q&A.

Read and comment >

Chris Taylor's secret project is Wildman, a barbaric RPG/RTS hybrid

Tom Francis at

Gas Powered Games, developers of Supreme Commander and Dungeon Siege, are now mashing those two things together into an RPG/RTS hybrid called Wildman. You play as one warrior in a large battle, gradually upgrading yourself, the allied army, and your control over them. And they're asking you to fund it, through Kickstarter.

Read and comment >

Supreme Commander developers tease "Project W" with 25 day countdown timer

Tom Senior at

Gas Powered Games are getting ready to talk about "something wild." This big countdown clock is ticking down to a proper reveal on January 14.

The Total Annihilation, Dungeon Siege and Supreme Commander developers have been working on Age of Empires Online for the last few years. That interrupted work on their large-scale fantasy RTS, Kings and Castles. This doesn't look like that. The rocky background strikes a more naturalistic tone, and you can just about see the phases of the moon in the countdown orbs.

Project W. Phases of the moon. Werewolves? Hmmm, what do you think?

Read and comment >

GOG release The Witcher 2 sales stats. Steam dominates all competitors combined

Owen Hill at

Valve don't like sales charts. In fact, they've referred to them as a "step backwards for the industry." That means we never get to see exactly how many games are sold on the digital distribution service.

But now we have some sales figures! Good Old Games' Guillaume Rambourg has been talking to Gamesindustry.biz about The Witcher 2's sales on GOG.com, Direct2Drive, Impulse, Gamersgate, and Steam.

Click through for the stats.

Read and comment >

PC Gamer UK Podcast 56 – Chris Taylor and Danan Davis interview

Tom Francis at

I chatted to Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor and Microsoft Games' Danan Davis about their new free-to-play game Age of Empires Online. Chris also talks about making Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, and Danan about making Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends. And everyone has a lot to say about the future of PC gaming.

Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our other podcasts here.

Read and comment >

Chris Taylor: "Total Annihilation was a game I designed for myself"

Tom Francis at

Total Annihilation was one of the PC's most forward-thinking strategy games - it threw out all the arbitrary conventions of the genre and created something more like a simulation. The result was a game plenty of PC gamers still consider unsurpassed. More recently, its creator Chris Taylor took over development of Age of Empires Online, a free-to-play version of the old classic. When I got to chat to him recently, I asked about the unconventional economy model TA used, and why he didn't stick with it.

Read and comment >

Chris Taylor: Steam's dominance will 'shift' in the next five years

Tom Francis at

When I got the chance to interview Chris Taylor recently, I asked him what he thought of Steam. Then, off his blank look, I asked specifically how he felt about its dominance of the digital distribution market for PC games.

Chris designed two of the world's cleverest strategy games: Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. More recently, he and his company Gas Powered Games took over development of Age of Empires Online, a free-to-play version of the old classic. He thinks Steam's dominance will shift before long.

Read and comment >

Chris Taylor on why PC gaming is bigger than ever

Tom Francis at

I spoke to Chris Taylor recently, and asked him how he feels about the state of PC gaming. 'Good' would be an understatement. Chris designed two of the world’s cleverest strategy games: Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander.

More recently, he and his company Gas Powered Games took over development of Age of Empires Online, a free-to-play version of the old classic. Here are his thoughts on why the platform has never been stronger.

Read and comment >

Chris Taylor on why he couldn't go back from free-to-play

Tom Francis at

Chris Taylor designed two of the world's cleverest strategy games: Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. More recently, he and his company Gas Powered Games took over development of Age of Empires Online, a free-to-play version of the old classic.

But far from being a stopgap between full-priced games, Chris says that working with the free-to-play model has convinced him it's the future of the entire real-time strategy genre, and gaming in general. He says whatever he makes next will inevitably end up using it too. I tackled him to the ground in London recently, and demanded to know why.

Read and comment >

Future is AOP & PPA Digital Publisher of the Year and BMA Media Company of the Year.
PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. We produce content across five core areas:

© Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.