BreakingControllers Industry Recon

Industry Recon: Publisher Gazillion Shuts it’s Doors, Shuts Down Marvel Heroes, and Leaves it’s Employees in the Cold

About a week ago Disney and Marvel cut ties with the publisher, Gazillion Entertainment.  Losing that kind of bankroll can be brutal for a publisher.  In this case, after Disney had announced it had cut ties with Gazillion, it was also announced that Marvel Heroes would be shut down on December 31st this year. This seems to be amid allegations that the CEO of Gazillion Entertainment, David Dohrmann, had engaged in inappropriate conduct towards female employees repeatedly. A now former employee, had mentioned this in a post on reddit about a month ago, and later mentioned that he wished he had said something or spoken out about it, but feared they would lose their license with Marvel, costing he and many others their jobs. Unfortunately, on the back of this several pretty crappy things happened.  Gazillion, as a company, shut it’s doors on Wednesday, ahead of thanksgiving.  With this happening, Marvel Heroes will be shutting down the day after thanksgiving, and the publisher will dissolve.  According to Kotaku, when the announcement that the game was closing came out, many players who had purchased in game content, or items, started demanding refunds.  It’s been speculated that this financial hit has in part what caused the decision to close Gazillions doors, and along with it Marvel Heroes, early.  On top of all of that, former employees of Gazillion had reported that they we’re being given no severance pay, and Gazillion was not paying out employees paid time off, leaving these former employees with nothing.  

 

Unfortunately, this happened the day before thanksgiving.  There’s no happy ending here for anyone seemingly.  Here’s hoping that these guys are able to find a great job with a new publisher in the near future.