We recently covered the announcement of the closing of Gazillion Entertainment, shutting down Marvel Heroes & Marvel Heroes Omega. Disney was blamed for ending its relationship with Gazillion, but an inside source has given us the story on what really happened at Gazillion and Disney’s involvement.
Gazillion Entertainment, the company who developed and supported the free-to-play MMORPG Marvel Heroes featuring a ton of Marvel characters including the X-men as well as Marvel Heroes Omega for X-Box One and the PS 4 shut down for good last week. Initially, it was reported, by us, as well as others, that Gazillion was told the day before Thanksgiving that they would be closing the day after Thanksgiving, rather than the initial shut down the date of Dec. 31st, 2017. It was also reported that all the employees were laid off without severance, PTO, etc. More information has come to light, one of which is that the game had only been available since 2014 and had been re-branded on three separate occasions which indicate problems already existed. Also, we now know that there were a multiple series of layoffs leading up to the Disney separation. Most importantly, after speaking to a former employee of Gazillion who asked to remain anonymous, we were given the real story. Former Gazillion employee had this to say:
“Disney didn’t own Gaz (Gazillion), so they didn’t let us go. They just revoked the license and Gaz had no other sources of income and couldn’t convince their investors/bank to give them money. We had been on furlough the last week and a half while management tried pulling a miracle out of their pants. We’re not getting PTO/severance because Gaz owed too much to the bank. Everyone has been job searching the last couple weeks. The folks who got laid off in August were the lucky ones.”
This really puts things into perspective as many still blame Disney for pulling the plug on Gazillion. According to my source, Gazillion was in way in over its head, in debt, owing investors, banks, and employees with no way to pay, and it sounds as if Gazillion was bleeding money from Disney to keep the doors open. You know things are bad when someone says, ” the folks who got laid off in August were the lucky ones.” It’s all a very sad affair and from what I’ve seen, the game looked to have promise and it’s too bad that things didn’t work out. The Comic Watch Press Corp. would like to extend our apologies to Disney, if we portrayed them in a negative light, as well; we wish those employees that stuck it out with Gazillion until the end the best luck moving forward in their future endeavors.
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Author: David Conine
?Adapt what is Useful, Reflect what is Useless, and Apply what is Specifically your Own.-ComicWatch Press Team Leader.