Just a few weeks ago, digital storefront Desura appeared to be taking steps to deal with delayed payments to developers on its service. The problems were blamed on a lack of an automated system, but with Desura’s owner, Bad Juju Games, now filing for bankruptcy, it appears the issues went much deeper.
The bankruptcy not only came as a surprise to developers, but Bad Juju employees as well. In a blog post on 27 May, company representative “LadyAijou” wrote the following:
The second rumor, that we are going out of business, is also false. We are in fact exploring some very exciting new avenues in terms of partnerships and growth opportunities. The payout issues are not an indication that we don’t have the funds to pay.
Going from LadyAijou’s Twitter account, it appears she was giving false information regarding Desura’s situation and indeed, Bad Juju’s financials:
@Deozaan Yes, I was working with them. I did the best I could with the information I had, it just turned out that I wasn’t told the truth
— LadyKaiju (@LadyAijou) June 6, 2015
Gamasutra’s Kris Graft was able to get in touch with Bad Juju to confirm the company filed for bankruptcy, though more details could not be shared for legal reasons. It’s also unclear if developers on Desura will be paid, or what will happen to the service itself. Quite a few have warned their customers to download bought games while they can, or to activate Steam keys, if the option exists.
Desura’s parent company has filed for bankruptcy [Gamasutra]
Comments
3 responses to “Desura Owner Files For Bankruptcy, Leaves Developers In Limbo”
Looks like I was right when the story first broke: the company finances have either been running illegally or negligently. All Desura is is a facilitator between the customer and the product, the fact they’ve possibly spent the money customers gave them believing it would go to the developers is atrocious. It was never their money to use, they never had any right to spend it on their own expenses.
Where did all the money goto?
We don’t know if they’ll renege on paying developers yet, so it might all still be there. My cynical intuition is pretty sure the money is gone though.
Where? My guess would be operating costs far higher than operating income. It seems like Bad Juju has been in trouble for a while, I suspect they thought running Desura would be cheap income to keep their staff on and working on other projects. They should have been shedding staff but they were hiring instead. I’ve contracted to quite a few software companies who fall into the staff bloat trap.