Babylon Bee CEO Shares Open Letter To Tripwire Games After President “Steps Down” After Supporting Texas’ New Pro-Life Law

John F. Trent |

Sep 7, 2021

Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon recently shared an open letter to Tripwire Interactive LLC after the company announced their President stepped down after supporting Texas’ new pro-life law.

On September 4th, Tripwire Interactive LLC President John Gibson shared his support for Texas’ new pro-life law on Twitter.

He tweeted, “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,” he added.

Gibson received significant backlash from his peers in the video game industry including God of War director Cory Balrog.

Balrog tweeted, “jesus f***, man. really? you are all about this f***ed texas bounty law that pushes us closer to some kind of Gilead dystopian religious state?”

He added, “really??? I mean what the f***, man. seriously, how can anyone be proud of claiming dominion over a woman’s personal freedoms?”

Following this backlash, Tripwire Interactive, who makes Killing Floor, Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, and Maneater: Truth Quest released a statement claiming that Gibson stepped down and they had announced Alan Wilson as their new interim CEO.

The statement began, “The comments given by John Gibson are of his own opinion, and do not reflect those of Tripwire Interactive as a company. His comments disregarded the values of our whole team, our partners and much of our broader community. Our leadership at Tripwire are deeply sorry and are unified in our commitment to take swift action and to foster a more positive environment.”

It continued, “Effective immediately, John Gibson has stepped down as CEO of Tripwire Interactive. Co-founding member and current Vice President Alan Wilson, will take over as interim CEO. Alan has been with the company since its formation in 2005 and is an active lead in both the studio’s business and developmental affairs.”

“Alan will work with the rest of the Tripwire leadership team to take steps with employees and partners to address their concerns with Tripwire leadership and all employees. His understanding of both the company’s culture and the creative vision of our games will carry the team through this transition, with full support from the other Tripwire leaders.”

Following this statement, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon published an open letter inquiring about the decision of John Gibson to step down from the company.

Dillon prefaced his open letter tweeting, “I’ve submitted a press inquiry to the game development company that fired their CEO for being pro-life.” He then shared a screen shot of the inquiry.

It begins, “Dear cowardly clowns, We’re writing a piece about how you’re all a bunch of clowns and cowards who cancel people who disagree with you. Do you have any clownish comments you’d like us to include in our piece about how cowardly and uncannily clown-like you are?”

He added, “We’re interested in learning: Do you dress like clowns, or just behave like them? Is cowardice a requirement for working there? Is canceling people considered inclusive and tolerant where cowardly clowns come from? Where do cowardly clowns come from? Are you born that way or is learned behavior? Thank you!”

The new Texas pro-life bill or S.B. No. 8 titled the Texas Heartbeat Act declares that “a physician may not knowingly perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman if the physician detected a fetal heartbeat on a pregnant woman if the physician detected a fetal heartbeat for the unborn child as required by Section 171.203 or failed to perform a test to detect a fetal heartbeat.”

The bill also allows individuals to “bring a civil action against any person who performs or induces an abortion in violation of this subchapter; knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise, if the abortion is performed or induced in violation of this subchapter, regardless of whether the person knew or should have known that the abortion would be performed or induced in violation of this subchapter.”