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Developer Who Threatened Gabe Newell Back With Code Avarice Following Resignation
Developer Mike Maulbeck, of Code Avarice, threatened Valve's Gabe Newell which resulted in having the studio's game Paranautical Activity being pulled from Steam. Following the incident, Maulbeck resigned from Code Avarice, but has now rejoined the small studio.
According to a recent post on Code Avarice's website, Maulbeck's decision to leave the studio was not discussed with others, and instead was announced in the form of a blog without consultation. That blog post has since been removed from Code Avarice's website. Maulbeck is now back with the studio.
Mike couldn't commit to his decision to leave Code Avarice. Travis publicly denounced his departure, and in the weeks following his official stepping down Mike had second thoughts. Looking for a new source of income was extremely overwhelming and when it finally came time to put pen to paper, Mike and Travis agreed the best thing to do would be to have Mike return to Code Avarice.
Following the incident, Code Avarice is taking steps to repair what damage has been done with new internal requirements for posting to the studio's blog, as well as a new twitter account.
we're taking steps to make Code Avarice more about the games and less about the people making them. From now on rather than blog posts being written and signed by one of the developers, they will all be co-written by Mike AND Travis, and written from the perspective of the company rather than an individual.
For more on the story of Code Avarice and its game, Paranautical Activity and Steam, head here.
[Source: Code Avarice, via Eurogamer]
Our Take
Threatening to kill Valve's director is an offense not to be taken lightly and Valve made the right call in pulling Paranautical Activity from its store. I am happy to see Code Avarice is taking steps to try and repair and apologize for what has happened, but the team still seems somewhat unpredictable.
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