Described as a "small, laser-focused production and publishing company based in Austin, Texas, (also with one very lonely desperado in London) from an unnamed group of industry veterans/outlaw refugees," Devolver Digital is the home of Mike Wilson and Harry Miller, two of the co-founders of Gathering of Developers and Gamecock, according to a report from Big Download.

Mike Wilson told Big Download that Devolver is "basically acting as the production company for the XBLA game, since we are not an official MSFT publisher yet." Devolver will, however, be publishing the PC version of Serious Sam HD.

Gathering of Developers-Gamecock founders return as Devolver Digital [Big Download]

An unconfirmed rumor also names Wilson as possibly the person behind the last-minute offer to buy Hardcore Gamer. The New York Times quotes mag owner Tim Lindquist as saying that an unnamed suitor "who had recently sold his video game business" dropped by an hour before the auction was due to close and offered a bit more than Lindquist's asking price.

The deal for the mag, rights and associated domain names, isn't quite done yet, but is expected to be finalized this week.

Reached for comment Tuesday afternoon, Wilson was first coy about the possibility that he sold his game publishing company to SouthPeak only to jump into the video game journalism business.

"Awesome rumor! I hope (the magazine I own is) Tiger Beat!"

But later said that he did talk to the magazine.

"I did talk to them and would love to help the guys find a way to stay in business, because they do it just for the love of it, and you know I have a serious soft spot for dedicated indies. But I did not and am not buying them."

But is Wilson perhaps part of a group picking up the magazine? Wilson declined to say.

He did say that he's currently currently entertaining offers for SubstanceTV.com and that he's busy putting on a charity burlesque event in Austin, Texas for Valentine's Day.

We only have the rest of the week to wait to see if he is a part of the upcoming mag deal mentioned in the New York Times.

Mr. Wilson needed to email Kotaku a nice long letter to recount his version of events at Ion Storm and slam my personal life - way to go Mike! Media manipulation at its saddest. It's analogous to a crotch shot of Britney in Hollywood's media circus.

Anyway, I think we're both mature enough to end this flame war. I just wanna see the cool games that gamecock is gonna release.

It's ok guys - no need to continue this worthless fight and commentary. Mike emailed me and apologized for his response.

But developing a game and publishing a game are completely different things. Gamecock is PUBLISHING other developer's games with the money they have from their investors, it's not personal money. Developers, on the other hand, get money from publishers to create their games. They're the guys with the ideas and the blood, sweat and tears putting in the work to make it all happen. Without the developers there are no games.

Without the publishers......the developers become their own publisher.

...and...

Yeah, approval process of bitch ad:

mike: hey, here's the kickass ad the richards group did - i think it's great and we should do it

john: uh, i would never say that to someone "you're my bitch" - that's kinda gay

mike: don't be a pussy! people will get it - it's trashtalking.

john: ok, whatever...

In the same post, Romero also placed part of the blame on Wilson for the laughable "John Romero's About To Make You His Bitch" print ads that ran prior to the release of the ill-fated shooter Daikatana.

Wilson responds in an open letter to Romero, sent to Kotaku, that he will "not allow you to rewrite the history of it all, more to your liking and to my public detriment, and I will in no way take the rap for what you did (or didn't do) with your dream company", going on to defend his character and refute certain claims.

It gets particularly nasty near the end of the letter, when Wilson says to Romero "your unparalleled work ethic and strong character has [...] left only a bloody trail of ex-wives, fatherless kids, and ill advised breast implants strewn across this fair nation." Insert stunned silence here, then continue for the full "Dear John" letter.

Dear John, I'm writing this letter from Moscow, having just read your lovely post about me, which a good friend forwarded me and implored me to reply to. I really never thought I would relive the joy that was Ion Storm, circa 1997, or that the memories of those times still troubled you so 11 years later. Then again, I would guess you live in the memories of your twenties as much as you can, given the reality of your thirties. Glad to know I'm still in your thoughts.

I enjoyed your comments very much, but several of my friends (especially those that were around for those heady time to witness the truth of it up close) did not find it quite so funny, and thought that I should take the time to set a few things straight as publicly as the flame you chose to randomly launch my way.

While I am not at all interested in reliving those days, I will also not allow you to rewrite the history of it all, more to your liking and to my public detriment, and I will in no way take the rap for what you did (or didn't do)with your dream company. So here are just a few reminders to jog your memory.

While my job title (which you gave me) was CEO of your company, I was one of two "junior partners" in a partnership of 6. I made about 1/3 of what the 'big boy partners' (as you liked to call yourselves back then) did and owned less than five percent of your company. I wasn't awarded a 250k signing bonus like you were for signing up to your own startup and I didn't have a personal assistant like you, nor occupy one of the 4 corners of power in the original Ion Storm building. And unlike you, I didn't get to file a federal trademark for my own personal catch phrase," Suck it Down." I remind you of these things only to remind you that there was absolutely nothing done by me or Ion Storm, including the advertisements which bore your name and which you happily posed for, that didn't require your full approval and grand signature.

And while I did think that famous Bitch ad was pretty funny, I'll remind you that you signed that one too, and I'm fairly certain I wasn't holding your hand or using a Jedi mind trick on you when you did it. I'll also remind you that the whole reason for running the teaser ad was that we felt we should be starting to advertise the game since it you said was shipping so soon, for Christmas in 1997. Even though we had nothing but a logo and that signature promise to use for an ad 6 months before you promised Eidos and your partners that Daikatana would be ready to redefine shooters on shelves worldwide.

Our former employee also reminded me that I fought on a daily basis to try to save that company from the poison which you had invited into it (and watched spread like a cancer while you kept your head in the sand), only to find myself ushered out the door, since it was such a buzz kill to hear my incessant complaints about the way things were being run, which were really those of the 80 or so young fresh faced developers we hired in the 10 months I was there. But hey, it was clear that I was the problem there, as you guys really took off the year after I left. Or, more accurately, nearly every one of those 80 hires did.

I do owe you a thank you for that little shove to get me started on Gathering of Developers, a company that I was an actual partner of, and which Take Two 'reigned in' buy buying for 30 million dollars, two years after we opened an office, which resulted in no less than eight million unit selling PC games and over 350 million dollars in revenue for TTWO (my investors) during roughly the same amount of time that it took you and the remaining 'big boy partners' to shit away Eidos' (your investors) 30 million and deliver one of the biggest heaps of dung ever put onto a CD Rom, just before being foreclosed on. Thank god for Warren Spector, who was also made a 'junior partner', and later delivered Eidos Storm's only salvation in the form of Deus Ex.

And please don't be too concerned for the independent developers I work with... just like with GodGames, and like the deal I struck for you with Eidos, Gamecock owns their IP and is branded above the publisher on everything, and has a great royalty rate. Royalty rates are what you make if you actually make a game that is good and sells. Remember Quake one?

I'm also grateful for your concern over my incessant partying, which has somehow led me to be married to the same beautiful woman for 17 years now, while raising two incredible daughters together. You should maybe try the partying, since your unparalleled work ethic and strong character has (just in the time I've known you) left only a bloody trail of ex-wives, fatherless kids, and ill advised breast implants strewn across this fair nation, even before you flew all the way to Romania for your latest wife. If she's not still around, let me know, and I'll see if I can pick another one up for you here in Russia.

Its been great catching up, but I'm off to dinner now with Harry Miller, my best friend and business partner for the past decade (ever had one of those, John?), and our very happy new investor, followed by some crazy partying to keep it real, just for you.

You take care now, and remember just because id, Eidos, and then Midway fired you doesn't mean you're not still awesome!

Suck it down,

Your pal Mike

Happy weekend, everybody!

It's a really huge deal in the industry right now...[Gamestop's] pre-order program, which they base their buys off of, is so important now. It's like life or death for some of these original, independent titles.

If not enough people pre-order a game, [retailers] will lower their order to where poor sales become a self-fulfilled prophecy...[and] the other retailers, especially the mass merchants, tend to follow Best Buy's, GameStop's and Game Crazy's lead...If a game doesn't do anything in those stores, it might not make it into Target and places like that.

Gamecock Warns of Almighty Pre-order [nextgeneration]

For website for indie publisher GameCock has gone live and is packed with game previews and general wackiness. Blog GameSetWatch directs our attention to the delightfully nutty "About" section on the website, which is penned by GameCock honcho Mike Wilson and contains buried nuggets like:

Independent developers have always brought the goods to this business, creating the franchises that inevitably get stripped from them and driven into the ground by quarterly promises and the endless crunch imposed by producers who have never created a thing in their lives.

One word: Brilliant. Brian Ashcraft

GameCockLove [Official Site via GameSetWatch]

By: Brian Crecente

First things first: Mike Wilson wants you to know that he didn't take the money and run.

When he helped found Gathering of Developers back in 1998 he did it with money that came with some significant strings attached and those strings, he says, choked the life out of the company.

"We sold to Take-Two with a gun to our heads," he said in a recent phone chat. " It was more of a foreclosure."
While the absorption of Gathering of Developers by Take-Two and its slow death may seem like a footnote to the history of the game industry, it's important to note because Wilson promises that this time around that's not going to happen.

Gathering of Developers was founded with the idea of bucking the big name publishers, he said. The idea was to create a truly indie publishing system and leave the creative process and a good chunk of the money in the hands of the developers that made the games.

But that never really happened, instead of igniting a revolution in game publishing, they were more a flash in the pan, publishing a handful of notable new titles before vanishing.

Now with secret investors, a larger bankroll and a handful of developers backing him, Miller and Wilson are back to give it another go, this time as the head of the Gamecock Media Group.

"The industry is totally creatively starved right now and it we also have a bit of unfinished business," Wilson said. GOD president "Harry (Miller) and I felt we failed on that great crusade. It was heartbreaking to sell the company to Take-2 and we tried to make it work, but there was no way it was going to. We didn't have enough money to do it right and we didn't have the experience."

Wilson shrugs off the fact that so many gamers have forgotten who first published games like Max Payne and Serious Sam.

"Part of the reason we are calling this company Gamecock, other than to amuse me, is because I don't think gamers care who the publisher is, I don't think they should care," he said. "People don't have favorite record labels or book publishers."

Earlier this week Wilson and Miller announced that Gamecock is backing five games from a variety of developers, most notably Wideload, headed up by Bungie Founder Alexander Seropian.

"Wideload's business model centers around creating and owning new IP," Seropian told me today. "That's something pretty fundamental and that's part of Gamecock's strategy as well."

Seropian says it also helped that Wideload and Gathering of Developers were "bastard step-brothers", a bond forged from similar distribution deals Bungie and GOD had with Take-Two.

"That's how I know Mike," Seropian says.

Wilson says a big part of how he was able to land the likes of Wideload and Firefly Studios, the team behind Stronghold, was by asking them to work on their dream projects instead of sequels or safe bets.

"With several of these guys, the unifying thing was that they are working on the games that the developers really wanted to work on," he said. "They're their babies

"The Stronghold guys, those guys made megabucks and then heard we were back in business and came to us. They said we could do Stronghold 3 for us or they could do this original game they've been dying to do. I told them to do the one they want to do."

The developers are coming to Gamecock, Wilson says, because they industry is becoming increasingly risk averse. Many publishers would rather have a developer squeeze out a sequel then work on an original title.

"Even guys like Alex have to fight to get their games published."

Wilson says Seropian knew that Gamecock was coming and sat on his game, Hail to the Chimp, for about a year so he could sign it with them.

"They have a very similar model to us," Seropian says.

Both companies do the core work themselves but outsource the "dirty work."

Seropian points to Wideload's Hail to the Chimp, which Gamecock will be publishing, as a good example. They still only have a core team of 16 people working on it, but outside groups are doing some of the heavy lifting for them.

The same was true with their last game, Stubbs the Zombie.

In the press release Hail to the Chimp is described as a next-gen party game set in the animal world. Seropian declined to further detail it saying only that it will be easy to understand, be very funny and have broad appeal.

While he declined to say what console or consoles it might hit, he did say that he isn't adverse to distributing games through the Xbox 360's Live Arcade or Playstation 3's online store.

"I think we will digitally distribute stuff at some point," he said. "XBLA, and even look at something like iTunes, they are just these mammoth distribution channels."

Episodic content is also something Seropian is looking at. He says he likes the idea of being able to deliver a gaming experience that ends with a cliffhanger and then follows up quickly with the next episode.

And yes, Seropian says, there is a good chance Gamecock will be involved in future Wideload games.
While Gathering of Developers published computer games, Gamecock will focus mostly on console titles, Wilson said.

"The PC business, while we think it's going to enjoy a little resurgence, is clearly a shrinking business," he said. "Clearly console is where the market is. The pc is still a better platform and a richer experience, but it's just not as big a market anymore."

Wilson says he expects there will be a lot more interest in Gamecock and its indie approach to game publishing after the first games start to hit.

" I think more money will follow when we prove out this model," he said. "There is this perception out there that games cost $20 to $30 million to make, you can do that, but you don't have to."

"We believe indie developers out there will bring the most innovative stuff to the industry and we want to be the path of least resistance for those guys."