Reports have emerged that Bad Juju Games, the parent company of Indie Royale and Desura, has filed for bankruptcy. The filing comes in the wake of reports that surfaced last month that game developers were not being paid for game sales made through Desura, in response to which the company issued a lengthy statement denying that it was in "financial crisis."
Bad Juju acquired Desura from Linden Lab in November 2014, which "presented [Desura] with a number of very difficult issues to tackle," Lisa Morrison, Desura's head of developer relations, said in a statement released on May 21. She acknowledged that payments were delayed, but assured affected developers that payments would be processed, and said that the entire site was being overhauled "to give developers more control."
On May 27, Morrison issued a second statement indicating that payments to developers had resumed, albeit slowly, and that rumors of the company's looming demise were false. "Desura is not going out of business, we are not in financial crisis. We are moving forward and actively working toward partnerships and opportunities for growth," she wrote.
Unfortunately, today's news suggests otherwise. Bad Juju hasn't commented but Morrison confirmed the filing with Gamasutra. Details are scarce, however, as Morrison said she only found out about it this morning on Twitter. "I asked Tony [Novak, CEO of Bad Juju] for confirmation and all he could tell me was, ‘The lawyers have said I can't say anything or answer any questions yet, but yes it's true'," she said.
Graeme Boxall of Indie Royale also confirmed, unofficially, the filing. He hinted at trouble yesterday, tweeting, "Have a feeling that today is my last day @indieroyale," and then today wrote, "If you Google, Bad Juju bankruptcy, you find some very unfortunate news."
Inforuptcy has a record of the filing, although there's little to see at this point beyond a case number. We've reached out to Bad Juju for more information and will update if and when we receive a reply.
