Tripwire Interactive LLC is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

based in

Roswell, Georgia Roswell is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States. At the official 2010 census, the city had a population of 88,346. The 2020 estimated population was 94,884, making Roswell the state's ninth largest city. A close suburb of Atla ...

History

Tripwire was co-founded by John Gibson and Alan Wilson with support by members of the international team that created ''

Unreal Tournament 2004 ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. Part of the ''Unreal'' franchise, it is the third game in the ''Unreal Tournament'' series and the sequel to ''Unreal Tournament ...

mod Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...

'' Red Orchestra: Combined Arms''. ''Red Orchestra'' won top prize in the

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

-sponsored

Make Something Unreal Make Something Unreal, also known as $1,000,000 Make Something Unreal Contest and Make Something Unreal Live, is a series of video game development competitions organised by Epic Games which began in 2004, with subsequent competitions in 2008, 2012, ...

competition. Their first retail product, '' Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45'', was released over

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

service on March 14, 2006. Tripwire's second game, '' Killing Floor'', was released on May 14, 2009. Like ''Red Orchestra'', this game also began development as a ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' mod, later becoming a standalone retail title. Tripwire released and published their third game on September 13, 2011 titled '' Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad'', which is the sequel to their debut

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

-themed '' Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45''

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

. The title focuses heavily on the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...

. and uses

Unreal Engine 3 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genre ...

. On May 30, 2013, the expansion pack '' Rising Storm'' was released, focusing on the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

with real life battle locations such as the

Battle of Iwo Jima The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJ ...

. After 2014, both Rising Storm and Red Orchestra 2 were integrated into a singular release titled Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad with Rising Storm. Tripwire Interactive announced their fifth game, ''

Killing Floor 2 ''Killing Floor 2'' is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Tripwire Interactive, with later support from Saber Interactive. It is a sequel to 2009's '' Killing Floor''. An early access version of the game was released fo ...

'' in May 2014 and released it into early access in early 2015. In 2015, Tripwire announced '' Rising Storm 2: Vietnam'' at

E3 2015 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 (E3 2015) was the 21st E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It took place from June 16 to June 18, 2015, with 52,200 total attendees. Major exhibit ...

and proceeded to release it in 2017. In August 2022, it was announced that Tripwire was being purchased by

Embracer Group Embracer Group AB (formerly Nordic Games Licensing AB and THQ Nordic AB) is a Swedish video game and media holding company based in Karlstad. The company was established under the name Nordic Games Licensing in 2011 as part of Nordic Games Gro ...

, the parent company of

THQ Nordic THQ Nordic GmbH (formerly Nordic Games GmbH) is an Austrian video game publisher based in Vienna. Formed in 2011, it is a publishing subsidiary of Embracer Group. Originally named Nordic Games, as was the parent company, both companies were re ...

. The company would be made a subsidiary of Saber Interactive.

Controversy

On September 4, 2021, Tripwire CEO and co-founder John Gibson stated on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that he supports the

Texas Heartbeat Act The Texas Heartbeat Act, Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), is an act of the Texas Legislature that bans abortion after the detection of embryonic or fetal cardiac activity, which normally occurs after about six weeks of pregnancy. The law took effect ...

. The Act bans abortion after an embryo’s heartbeat is detected, except to save the mother's life. In response, Gibson faced criticism from people involved in the video games industry, including

Torn Banner Studios Torn Banner Studios Inc. is a Canadian video game developer based in Toronto. History Torn Banner Studios was founded in 2010 by Steve Piggott of Team Chivalry, the development team of '' Age of Chivalry'', a 2007 mod for ''Half-Life 2''. The ...

, which had used Tripwire for publishing of ''Chivalry 2'', and Shipwright Studios, which had been working with Tripwire for three years but stated their intent to terminate these contracts due to the comments. By September 6, 2021, Gibson announced he was stepping down as CEO of Tripwire, and the company issued its own announcement that "the comments given by John Gibson are of his own opinion, and do not reflect those of Tripwire Interactive as a company". Tripwire announced that co-founder and vice president Alan Wilson would assume Gibson's duties, and the company would immediately address employee concerns related to Gibson's statement and promote open communication to transition to the new leadership.

Games developed

Games published

* '' The Ball'' * ''

Dwarfs!? ''Dwarfs!?'' is a 2011 real-time strategy game developed by Power of 2 and published by Tripwire Interactive. In the game, the player acts as the overseer for an underground Dwarf colony, as the player must defend them by doing things such as ...

'' * ''Killing Floor: Calamity'' * '' Rising Storm 2: Vietnam'' * ''Maneater'' * ''

Zeno Clash ''Zeno Clash'' is a first-person fighting video game with elements of a first-person shooter. It is the debut game of developer ACE Team and uses the Source engine. It was released for download through content delivery service Steam on 21 April ...

'' * ''Espire 1: VR Operative'' * ''Road Redemption'' * ''

Chivalry 2 ''Chivalry 2'' is a 2021 multiplayer hack and slash action video game developed by Torn Banner Studios and published by Tripwire Interactive. The sequel to '' Chivalry: Medieval Warfare'' (2012), the game was released on June 8, 2021 for Windows, ...

References

External links

Tripwire Interactive
{{Authority control 2005 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 2022 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 2005 Companies based in Roswell, Georgia Video game companies established in 2005 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Video game publishers Saber Interactive