Yesterday, Valve took the indie game Paranautical Activity off Steam following a tweet in which the game's developer Mike Maulbeck said he would "kill Gabe Newell." Today, Maulbeck has resigned.
The tweet, which Maulbeck said was written in jest, followed a string of complaints about the game being incorrectly labeled as "Early Access" on Steam. His conclusion, which has since been deleted: "I am going to kill gabe newell. He is going to die."
In a blog post published this afternoon, Maulbeck said he had stepped down from Code Avarice, the studio behind Paranautical Activity, and sold his half of the company to his co-founder.
"I feel is it my responsibility to step down from Code Avarice completely so that Steam has no reason to harbor any more ill will towards the company," Maulbeck wrote, "and maybe even if we can't see Paranautical Activity restored, at least future Code Avarice games may be allowed onto the platform."
Maulbeck went on to apologize and lament his "tendency to use twitter to vent."
"I don't have the willpower necessary to be the "face" of a company," he said. "If I do continue to work in games it'll be as an anonymous 1 of 1000 at some shitty corporation."
Here's the full blog post:
Yesterday, Paranautical Activity released out of steam Early Access, and following some confusion about the state of the game I became frustrated with Steam, and tweeted a series of angry tweets that ended in me sarcastically saying I was going to kill Gabe Newell. A statement I obviously didn't mean but was regardless completely unacceptable.
As a result of my actions, Paranautical Activity, a game made by 4 or 5 people depending on who you count as team members, was removed from steam. I feel is it my responsibility to step down from Code Avarice completely so that Steam has no reason to harbor any more ill will towards the company, and maybe even if we can't see Paranautical Activity restored, at least future Code Avarice games may be allowed onto the platform.
I'm really, deeply sorry that my short sighted, hot tempered actions resulted in not only my own dreams and aspirations being destroyed, but those of the entire team I worked with. I'm sorry that my statements made Valve and/or Gabe uncomfortable and upset (rightfully so).
My temper and tendency to use twitter to vent has been a consistent problem since I entered the games industry, and I just can't do it. I don't have the willpower necessary to be the "face" of a company. If I do continue to work in games it'll be as an anonymous 1 of 1000 at some shitty corporation, not the most public figure of a single digit sized team.
I've sold my half of Code Avarice to Travis. Given up all my rights to CA as a company, and all it's intellectual properties. I won't receive any money from the sale of Paranautical Activity or any future games CA develops, I won't be consulted on business decisions, and I won't have any hand in development.
I'm out.