Radon Labs - Files for Bankruptcy

As Buffed.de reports on their website, Drakensang developer Radon Labs filed for insolvency. It seems an investor pulled out of the officially still unannounced Drakensang 3 project, which made the walk to the Berlin district court necessary.
Radon Labs was / is also working on Phileasson's Secret, the add-on to Drakensang: The River of Time. According to the same source Radon Labs has already started take-over talks with interested parties.

Thanks Alrik!
More information.

Damn! There's goes the D2 English translation…

Damn it! Good luck to the people at RL. They're really nice, I was there some time ago.

Germany has strict regulations for insolvencies. The move can of course mean they're totally bankrupt, but it's also possible it was only a preemptive move because they didn't know how to go on after the investor pulled out. Under certain circumstances they would have been forced to file for bankruptcy if they saw the abyss inevitably getting closer.

Wow. It seemed they had been fairly successful with their games. I hope they can get their head out of the noose with a good takeover.

Maybe they were simply too big. 100 employees is a lot for a German studio. I guess only Crytek is bigger.

i hope the big investor, which pulled out is not dtp……one of the more decent publishers out there

If dtp had pulled out, they wouldn't allow the talk about the Add-On, I guess.

I think with a little bit of research it would be possible to find out who the investing partners were, of which one had withdrawn.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
If dtp had pulled out, they wouldn't allow the talk about the Add-On, I guess.

I think with a little bit of research it would be possible to find out who the investing partners were, of which one had withdrawn.

And once we found out, let's get our torches and pitchforks…

Originally Posted by bkrueger
And once we found out, let's get our torches and pitchforks…

Deal.

Why my favourite development studios always have to close? Black Isle, Troika, Radon Labs. Damn.

Rather surprising. Surely they could have laid off the excess staff and focused on their continuing projects?

Hope this somehow turns around….madness.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Rather surprising. Surely they could have laid off the excess staff and focused on their continuing projects?

I got the impression they were rather surprised themselves by this move (read: withdrawal) from the investor. Maybe they felt it could go snafu if they didn't act quickly.

These are the so far the worst news of this year. I can't believe this. Why doesn't this happen to studios that develop stupid games.

Even worse news : http://www.4players.de/4players.php/…/3933/2013608/

It seems they must fire a lot of employees, unfortunately.

On a more positive note they write that the works on the Add-On are "as good as finished". *sigh*

that's odd, why would an investor pull out just before a big product is about to hit the US (Drakensang 2), where they would probably recover at least some of the invested money.
Worst gaming news I've read in a long time for me. Drakensang was my favorite RPG all the way since Wizardry 8.

Very sad. Drakensang was one of the best game purchases I'd made in some time.

I was surprised to learn how many employees they had, though. That's an awfully large studio for their product catalog and lineup. I would imagine it was quite difficult to keep it running.

Ugh. so does this mean the English Translation of Drakensang River of time is definitely not coming out? I don't really believe they'd leave money on the table here…

Originally Posted by gumbomasta
Ugh. so does this mean the English Translation of Drakensang River of time is definitely not coming out?

I'd love to hear some insight on this from someone who knows the situation. I don't see why Radon Labs' bankruptcy would affect the localization of at all. After all, localization is up to the publisher (dtp, THQ again?), and doesn't involve the developer, normally.

Originally Posted by wolfing
that's odd, why would an investor pull out just before a big product is about to hit the US (Drakensang 2), where they would probably recover at least some of the invested money.
Worst gaming news I've read in a long time for me. Drakensang was my favorite RPG all the way since Wizardry 8.

The investor pulled out of Drakensang 3, not Drakensang 2.

The 4Players article below says the investor was dtp, who felt they couldn't stem the project or decided they didn't want to. It certainly would have been dtp's biggest project ever.
4Players also said RL pitched Koch Media for the Sacred 3 contract, but they decided to hire another studio.

Originally Posted by Brother None
I'd love to hear some insight on this from someone who knows the situation. I don't see why Radon Labs' bankruptcy would affect the localization of at all. After all, localization is up to the publisher (dtp, THQ again?), and doesn't involve the developer, normally.

Of course I don't know it for sure, but I would bet the loca for the major languages has been finished a long time ago.
The DraSa2 add-on will also come, I guess. There are existing contracts to finish it. It would be a surprise if the insolvency administrator decides against fulfilling them. His priorities are on (a) securing enough money / values to satisfy the creditors and (b) help the company survive, if possible. The add-on helps both goals.