According to Wccftech, Templar Media—a new publisher founded earlier this year by former Tripwire Interactive CEO John Gibson—has acquired the studio Bible X. Bible X is the developer currently working on Gate Zero, a time-travel action-adventure game where players “play the Bible.” The game raised $330,000 from 4,145 backers on Kickstarter and over €6 million in separate donations. Templar Media’s first published title will be Gate Zero, which is planned for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 with no set release date. The acquisition was announced today, cementing Templar Media’s commitment to the project.
The Return of John Gibson
Now, if the name John Gibson rings a bell, it’s probably for the messy reason you’re thinking of. He stepped down from Tripwire Interactive in 2021 after a firestorm of backlash for publicly supporting Texas’s abortion ban on Twitter. Partners cut ties fast, and he was out within days. So, for him to reappear with a publisher named Templar Media, acquiring a studio called Bible X to make a Bible-themed game? It’s not exactly a shocker. It feels like a very deliberate, niche-market pivot. The whole situation is a perfect case study in rebranding and targeting a specific audience after a mainstream industry exile.
gaming”>The Market for Faith-Based Gaming
Here’s the thing, though. You can’t argue with the money. Raising over $6 million euros in donations, on top of a successful Kickstarter, proves there’s a hungry, underserved audience. As Bible X studio head Arve Solli pointed out in the acquisition announcement, hits like *The Chosen* show the demand for high-quality content that aligns with certain values. Gibson called it an “Entertainment First” experience for a “massive” audience. Basically, they’re not trying to win over the typical AAA gamer; they’re building a fortress for a dedicated community that feels mainstream gaming ignores them. The real question is whether “grounded and historically accurate” biblical action-adventure is a genre that can sustain a full-price, modern video game.
The Gate Zero Challenge
And that’s the big technical and creative challenge. Making a “play the Bible” game that’s both a compelling action-adventure and respectful (or accurate) to the source material is a serious tightrope walk. How do you design gameplay around these stories? Is it combat-heavy? Puzzle-focused? Narrative-driven? The pitch of a rebellious teen time-traveler experiencing events firsthand suggests a “Doctor Who meets the Old Testament” vibe, which is… a choice. The technical hurdle is matching the production values that today’s gamers expect, even in a niche market. That donated war chest needs to fund animation, voice acting, and level design that doesn’t feel like a cheap licensed title. If they can pull that off, they might really tap into something. But it’s a huge “if.”
A Niche Sewn Up Tight
So what’s the outcome of all this? Templar Media isn’t just publishing a game; by acquiring the studio, they own the entire vertical. They control the IP, the development, and the publishing pipeline for this specific kind of content. It’s a clean, self-contained business unit aimed squarely at the faith-based entertainment market. For Gibson, it’s a path back into the industry through a side door that was left wide open. For gamers at large, Gate Zero will likely fly under the radar. But for its target audience, it’s being positioned as *the* major video game event. Whether it delivers or becomes a footnote is the next chapter.
