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Is John Gibson canceled? Killing Floor developer hails Texas abortion ban

'Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat,” Gibson shared on Twitter on September 4

John Gibson, the president of Tripwire Interactive — the studio behind video games Maneater and Killing Floor, is receiving a lot of hate on the internet after he expressed his support for the Texas abortion ban. The law prohibits abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and even permits people supporting the ban to sue providers of abortion or anyone attempting to seek or even help a woman end a pregnancy.

Gibson shared on Twitter on September 4, “Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat. As an entertainer I don’t get political often. 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.” But soon he started getting criticized for his views.

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Cory Barlog, creative director of American video game developer Santa Monica Studio, slammed him, saying, “Jesus fuck, man. really? you are all about this fucked texas bounty law that pushes us closer to some kind of Gilead dystopian religious state? really??? I mean what the fuck, man. seriously, how can anyone be proud of claiming dominion over a woman’s personal freedoms?”

Alisha Grauso, features editor at Screen Rant, shared, “Are you proud of the fact the law forces women & children to carry their rapists' fetuses to term? The products of incest? You're 'proud' of a law that means a 13-year-old girl raped by her father has to carry that spawn to pregnancy if she doesn't catch it by week 6? Wow, bro.”

Chet Faliszek, CEO & Co-founder of Stray Bombay, wrote: “John, this tweet saddens me. First, you don't seem to understand what the SCOTUS ruled on but chose to make that moment a chance to celebrate a law you don't seem to understand nor a process of reproduction that is trying to be controlled. Happy to explain more to you.”

“For instance, Let's Ignore all the right to life side of this - what if the state of washington made buying a handgun illegal? I as a citizen would have you arrested as you visit pax. But you say buying a gun is a constitutionally protected act... so is an abortion,” Faliszek added. A critic of Gibson added: “Thats a lot of words to say you hate women.”

Not just the backlash, Shipwright Studios, a co-development partner that has worked with Tripwire for more than three years, even canceled its partnership with Tripwire Interactive.

It shared a statement on Twitter that included, “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.”

“We do not share the opinion expressed in a recent tweet by the president of Tripwire, publisher of Chivalry 2. 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,” Torn Banner, the studio that developed Chivalry 2 for Tripwire, stated.

Who is John Gibson?

Gibson is the president/co-owner of Tripwire Interactive LLC. His LinkedIn states, “Currently working with an amazing team of programmers, artists, designers and more to develop and publish amazing, unique and compelling games.” The business and employment-oriented online service also mentions that he had served as a programmer in the US Army from 2003 to 2004 after receiving a Bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems.

A tweet by Imran Khan, news editor at @FanbyteMedia, states that Gibson has his own Christian metal band. The tweet shared pictures of a song’s lyrics with a caption that read: “Okay so In like five minutes of research, it's become clear that Tripwire president John Gibson put his own christian metal band in Killing Floor 2, including the song Disunion Reconstructed which features these lyrics.”