Gamecock Media Group was an American

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, founded in February 2007 by Mike Wilson, Harry Miller and Rick Stults, formerly founders and executives of Gathering of Developers. The company was acquired by

SouthPeak Games SouthPeak Interactive Corporation, doing business as SouthPeak Games, was an American video game publisher based in Midlothian, Virginia. Founded on March 1, 1996, as a subsidiary of SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina, it was sold and moved ...

in October 2008 and subsequently shut down.

History

Founding

Gamecock Media Group was founded by Mike Wilson and Harry Miller, alongside Rick Stults. All three had previously co-founded Gathering of Developers in 1998, where they served as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

(CEO),

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

and

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

, respectively. Gamecock's existence was announced on February 12, 2007, and coincided with the reveal of the first five games that would be released through Gamecock—'' Fury'' by Auran, ''

Insecticide Insecticides are pesticides used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. The major use of insecticides is in agriculture, but they are also used in home and garden settings, i ...

'' by Crackpot Entertainment, '' Mushroom Men'' by Red Fly Studio, '' Hail to the Chimp'' by Wideload Games, and ''Hero'' by Firefly Studios. Gamecock used a more hands-off approach and allowed developers creative freedom with their work, as well as letting them keep their own

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

. For the new company, Wilson was appointed CEO.

2007 Spike Video Game Awards controversy

During the 2007

Spike Video Game Awards The Spike Video Game Awards (in short VGAs, known as the VGX for the final show) was an annual award show hosted by American television network Spike from 2003 that recognized the best computer and video games of the year. Produced by '' GameT ...

in Las Vegas, as Ken Levine was about to take the stage and give an acceptance speech for the Game of the Year award for ''

BioShock ''BioShock'' is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K. The first game in the ''BioShock'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 ...

'', Gamecock employees rushed the stage in capes and rooster hats, using the microphone for self-promotion. The interruption resulted in Levine being unable to talk before he was ushered off-stage. Gamecock CEO Wilson later apologized.

Acquisition and closure

On October 14, 2008, Gamecock was acquired by

. Subsequently, Gamecock's Austin operations were closed, and all outstanding games were transferred to SouthPeak, with the Gamecock brand being retired.

Games published

References

{{Authority control 2007 establishments in Texas 2008 disestablishments in Texas Video game companies established in 2007 Video game companies disestablished in 2008 Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game publishers Defunct companies based in Texas