When people invest $50 million into a failed MMO, where does the money go?
That’s the big question being posed by a lawsuit against Gary Whiting, former CEO of Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, the company behind Stargate Worlds.
Court documents allege that Whiting’s Cheyenne Mountain — and the 17 other companies he created — deceived investors and pocketed large sums of money that was earmarked for SGW development.
Whiting frequently told investors the game was just “60 days” from launch and needed additional funding to cover the last few expenses. CME’s own timeline often gave multiple dates for betas and launches, some as early as 2008.
In any case, it seems highly unlikely that Stargate Worlds will ever see release or that the game’s investors will ever see the bulk of their contributions returned or repaid.
In a 2010 interview, Whiting denied any wrongdoing and claimed:
“All I wanted was a fair shake. I founded this company. I’m the brains behind this company. I’m the creative guy behind this company.”
Well, he was definitely “creative.”
