Factor 5 is enduring some pretty sinister-sounding "financial issues" which has seen one project get the can, according to a swiftly-deleted blog post by an artist at the company.
Sam Baker wrote on his now-deleted blog of the problems going down at the Lair and Rogue Squadron developer, including employees going without wages for a month, and his project being cancelled.
"Without proper funding on the project I was working on, the company was forced to stop production," said Baker. "Unfortunately I was finally having a ton of fun working on it and we had made such insane progress that this was a total kick to the chest. It was basically like saying 'the work you've been doing for the last 8 months has been all for none, but thanks anyway'," he added in the post, which can still be read on NeoGAF.
Baker, who has a week left with the company before moving on, went on to reveal: "The president of the company basically told us that if we didn't receive funding in 1 week, all of us should move on and look elsewhere for another job."
The entire blog has been deleted since that post on Saturday, the web page now only featuring a single, somewhat back-stepping statement from Baker to "clarify" the situation after supposed misinterpretation by press.
"It was a big story in the news that we recently lost a publisher, Brash Entertainment, when they went out of business. This does not mean that we've stopped production on that game, or that it was ever even in trouble," he says.
"The other projects currently under way at Factor 5 are doing great. We hadn't received payment because of the situation with Brash, which is why I said I needed to look elsewhere for work."
We won't jump to any conclusions, but it does seem that the credit crunch is biting down on the developer.
It would be a crying shame if anything did happen to Factor-5. They have been around for so long and they have created some absolutely great games. Their Amiga conversion of R-Type was fantastic and the Turrican series is a classic. They seem to know how to get the most out of a machine too.
Who actually owns them at the moment? Coz they used to be Ninty 2nd party, then Sony 2nd party but I've heard that Sony dropped them after the mess that was Lair...
I've lost all respect from them after Lair. While I don't like to see developers folding, at least some of the more talented staff may end up at better studios...
If you click the link and read what the guys wrote in his blog he says the project isn't cancelled. Someone needs to start proof reading their articles.
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