Red 5 Studios CEO Voted off by Board of Directors

Things appear to be a bit of a mess at Red 5 Studios, the developer behind the sci-fi MMO Firefall. Recently, the developer's Board of Directors has voted to oust founder and CEO Mark Kern from his role. An internal email by Vice President of Development James Macauley has made the rounds. It stated as follows: 

"My fellow Red 5ers, 

"Today, the Red 5 Studios Board of Directors met and after deliberation have decided that Mark Kern will no longer be the Chief Executive Officer or on the Board of Red 5 Studios. Effective immediately Mark will no longer have any authority to act for or on behalf of Red 5 Studios.  

"As one of the founders of Red 5 Studios and our leader for many, many years, we owe Mark a great deal of appreciation for all that he has done to help build this company and to set the vision for an incredible new game. I am personally grateful for my relationship with Mark and the many years I have worked with him.  

"This is a major change to our company. Your managers and I will set to work to cover any and all areas that Mark was directly handling and we are continuing to solidify the plan for 2014. I assure you that we are and will continue to be here to serve and support each of you. 

"We will be holding a team meeting to discuss this topic at 11:15 a.m. tomorrow but I wanted to make sure you were officially informed of this significant change to your company. 

"Please grab me or any of the managers at any time or give us a call if you would like to discuss in private. 

"Please refrain from discussing this topic outside the company. 

Sincerely, 
James"

Later, on December 20th, it was revealed that Macauley would be replacing Kern temporarily as acting CEO. 

  • Lutfij
    "Please refrain from discussing this topic outside the company.
    ahem... :)
    Reply
  • hotroderx
    Wow I have never heard of red 5 so this is pure speculation but hopefully he wasn't voted out for refusing to throw players under the bus while padding stalk holder's wallets.

    I think about game studios like Blizzard North and Bioware who where game changers and leaders of the industry. Who ended up getting bought up by bigger shareholder run studios and where dismantled by them.

    Basically using there IP's to sell garbage games.
    Reply
  • Bean007
    So does this mean Firefall will be getting better as far as a whole? Been playing since Closed Beta and hasn't really changed all that much. Few things here and there and lots of old bugs that go unfixed.
    Reply
  • falchard
    Will it finally be released? I don't think highly of Red 5 for how they treated their investors. So it would be nice to know they got their act together.
    Reply
  • Bean007
    12321875 said:
    Will it finally be released? I don't think highly of Red 5 for how they treated their investors. So it would be nice to know they got their act together.

    It is released. They are charging for a SUB VIP service.
    Reply
  • SirGCal
    Why does this sound to me like:

    EA looking to buy/destroy yet another developer, CEO holding out and refusing to turn into trash that EA wants... Greedy board members who care not about their own product decides otherwise to increase their pockets.

    Hope I'm wrong but...
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    Please refrain from discussing this topic outside the company

    Seriously? Who writes that? Some idiot that thinks it won't get out?
    Reply
  • coolitic
    So they fail to say WHY they voted him off.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    i have played this FIREfall game 6 months and that game get alot of bugs. in my clan we are about 60 players everyone is donator but. no one resolve the problems. loss items loss gear sorry but i never come back to play firefall
    Reply
  • mUnkymatt
    http://dd.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1tuf3c/this_is_why_mark_kern_was_removed_as_ceo_by_red_5/
    Reply