Precursor Games Founder Faces Child Porn Charges

Things are pretty rough for Canadian game developers Precursor Games. After two failed crowdfunding campaigns for what is intended to be their first big game, the company has suffered quite an image blow after one of its founding members was arrested.

Precursor Games founder Kenneth McCulloch was taken into custody last week on child pornography charges and is pending bail. The gaming company immediately moved to sever ties with McCulloch, announcing that he was no longer affiliated with Precursor Games in any way.

McCulloch, 42, was arrested by the Niagara police on June 27 after detectives searched his residence at St. Catharines, Ontario. During the search, detectives seized what was described as a significant number of computers and peripheral devices.

A Niagara police release said McCulloch was charged with possession of, making available and accessing child pornography. The Precursor Games employee had been under investigation since April, and the inquiry is ongoing, police said. No other details have been released about the case at this point.

Precursor Games reacted to the news by immediately pulling down McCulloch’s profile from their website. The company’s CEO Paul Caporicci also said on the Precursor Games forums that the developer was no longer affiliated with the company, given the serious nature of the disturbing charges against him.

Besides being founder of Precursor Games, McCulloch was a veteran Silicon Knights employee, having worked with the gameing company for 20 years before leaving with most of his colleagues to set up Precursor.

The small studio is currently working on developing a “spiritual successor” to Silicon Knights’ successful game Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. The fate of the sequel, called Shadow of the Eternals, is currently unclear, given that the company failed in securing the necessary funds to move forward with it.

Precursor Games launched two crowdfunding campaigns to raise the $1.5 million needed to create the first episode of the game, but both campaigns were put on hold in June. The company promised to relaunch its effort later, saying that the reason for the break was to obtain enough time to integrate some exciting opportunities” in the game’s development.

It’s unclear when and if the crowdfunding campaigns will be resumed, and now, with McCulloch’s arrest, it’s even less likely that the company will manage to hit its funding goal.

[Image via neoseeker]