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Report: Brash Entertainment Collapse Means No Pay For Factor 5 Staff
by Leigh Alexander
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December 9, 2008
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Lair developer Factor 5 apparently faces difficult financial straits, according to a blog post from animator Sam Baker that's since been removed. The studio faces challenges since the collapse of Brash Entertainment, with which it had a multi-game deal.
After a stint with another firm, Baker wrote he returned to the company to find out "no one at Factor 5 had been paid in a month.... and we weren't going to any time soon."
Despite going without pay, Baker wrote, "we all stayed and continued to work. If we left, there would have been no hope in F5 staying afloat."
Next, said Baker, employees lost their health benefits and were forced to stop production on one of Factor 5's current projects after 8 months of development. "Without proper funding on the project I was working on, the company was forced to stop production."
Then, according to the post, "things turned bad."
"The president of the company [Julian Eggebrecht] 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 post continued.
"I had no idea how bad this economy was getting until something like this affected me personally, and yea [sic], it sucks. I have 1 more week left at Factor 5."
Widespread media outlets picked up on Baker's post, and many claimed the deleted project was a comic book superhero game. Following the publicity, Baker deleted his original post, claiming he'd been misinterpreted, and replaced it with a clarification.
Contrary to the original post, Baker now writes, "This does not mean that we've stopped production on that game, or that it was ever even in trouble... We hadn't received payment because of the situation with Brash."
Regarding the studio's overall position, he wrote, "The other projects currently under way at Factor 5 are doing great."
Brash Entertainment's imminent closing was first reported in mid-November, and shortly thereafter, two studios who worked with the company revealed their intention to sue Brash for unpaid work done on outstanding projects. Factor 5 could not be reached for comment as of press time.
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Hope they overcome this trouble.