Chris Taylor Leaves Wargaming to Start Indie Studio

Chris Taylor Leaves Wargaming to Start Indie Studio

If you’re familiar with Wargaming, you will undoubtedly recognize the name, Chris Taylor. For years, Chris Taylor was at the forefront of PC design on popular titles such as World of Tanks. The decision to leave Wargaming comes as something of a surprise, especially considering the fact that Taylor has made an effort to remain out of the public eye (at least in regards to Wargaming) for quite some time.

Nevertheless, Taylor has his mind set firmly on the future and has decided that now is the time to move forward. Some fans of Wargaming, and Taylor, have speculated on whether or not he may wind up releasing his own indie version of a game like Total Annihilation. Perhaps even an RTS-style game of a similar style? After all, these are the types of games Taylor made a name for himself in.

Whether or not Taylor releases games along these lines remains to be seen, but what is certain is that he’s no longer going to be working on games for major publishers. That’s correct, Taylor officially confirmed that he’s founding and indie game studio. Those unfamiliar with Taylor should know he began in the late 1980s at Distinctive Software. There, he worked the game was Hardball II.

Later, he moved from Canada to the United States to work with Cavedog Entertainment on the infamous game Total Annihilation. Taylor actually founded his own company in the past, Gas Powered Games, way back in 1998. Under that company, he released titles such as Dungeon Siege and Supreme Commander. Unfortunately, things never really got off the ground at Gas Powered Games.

An example of this can be recalled to 2013 when Taylor decided to kick off a new project dubbed “Wildman.” He attempted to raise money for its development via Kickstarter, but sadly he was forced to shut the campaign down after it became apparent he would be unable to raise the $1 million necessary for the project. Eventually, Taylor decided to sell Gas Powered Studios to Wargaming, where Taylor has worked ever since… until now.

“Between Gas Powered Games and Wargaming, it was an 18-year stretch and I wore myself out and didn’t realize it,” Taylor stated in an interview with VentureBeat. “I’ve decided I need to take a few months off, regroup, and recharge before I dive into my next thing.”

We now know that the next project he intends to dive into is a small independent studio. Taylor has made no official comment in regards why he’s decided to leave Wargaming behind, or what he’s currently up to at this new indie company.

One Wargaming spokesman made the following statement regarding the situation, “Wargaming can confirm that Chris Taylor, general manager of Wargaming Seattle, has resigned from his position. We thank Chris for his passion and excitement, where he was instrumental in growing our Seattle team into a world class developer."

Wargaming went on to say, "Chris is a seasoned leader and one of a kind creative visionary whose projects inspired a whole generation of people to pursue a career in video games. He has laid down the foundations for Wargaming Seattle. One behalf of everyone at Wargaming, I’d like to thank Chris for his many contributions over the years and wish him all the best in his new endeavors.'”

We wish Chris Taylor the best of luck with his new indie studio, and will update our news when we learn just what kind of projects Taylor plans to release in the future!

For more indie news here at Indie Obscura, be sure to check out some of our other features including Smite's holiday event which is live now, how Rocket League's upcoming update will introduce the Custom Training feature, and the Pokémon GO double XP event

Morgan is a writer, indie game lover, and socially awkward coffee addict. Need something? Morgan can be reached at morgan.shaver@allgamers.com or if you like, you can say hello using GIFs on Twitter.

Headsets

Shop Now

Xbox Products

Shop Now