Chivalry 2 developer condemns Tripwire over company president's support for abortion ban

By Jody Macgregor
last updated

The statement already saw one co-development partner end its contracts with the Killing Floor and Maneater creator.

Women write protest signs at a reproductive rights rally
(Image credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

This story has been updated with comment from Chivalry 2 developer Torn Banner Studios, which similarly distanced itself following Gibson's remarks.

On September 4, Tripwire Interactive president John Gibson tweeted (opens in new tab) that he was "Proud of #USSupremeCourt" for green-lighting a six-week abortion ban in Texas (opens in new tab). "As an entertainer I don't get political often", Gibson wrote. "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."

Responses to Gibson's support for the ban have not been overwhelmingly positive, with Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski (opens in new tab) saying "you can unfollow me now, thanks" and God of War director Cory Barlog (opens in new tab) asking "how can anyone be proud of claiming dominion over a woman's personal freedoms?" Shipwright Studios, a co-development partner that has worked with Tripwire for over three years, wrote (opens in new tab) 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."

Torn Banner, the studio who developed Chivalry 2 for Tripwire, has also posted a statement (opens in new tab). "We do not share the opinion expressed in a recent tweet by the president of Tripwire, publisher of Chivalry 2", it says. "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."

The new law bans abortion providers from performing terminations once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which at six weeks is typically before most people know they're pregnant. The law also empowers private citizens to sue abortion providers who break the ban, and receive a bounty of $10,000 if the suit is successful. They can even sue anyone who aids or abets in an abortion. The Supreme Court ruling was condemned by President Biden (opens in new tab), who called it a "bizarre scheme of outsourced enforcement to private parties".

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Jody Macgregor
Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games (opens in new tab). He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun (opens in new tab), The Big Issue, GamesRadar (opens in new tab), Zam (opens in new tab), Glixel (opens in new tab), Five Out of Ten Magazine (opens in new tab), and Playboy.com (opens in new tab), whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

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