The board of Infernum Productions AG filed for insolvency with the court on September 18, 2014, which was published by the accompanying law firm PKL. In other words: The German publisher, founded by former Frogster employees, is insolvent.
What will happen to the publisher of Dragon’s Prophet, Brick Force, and Hazard Ops is not yet fully clarified as of the current state. Business operations will continue unrestricted until the opening of the proceedings, which starts on December 1, 2014.
The initiation of insolvency proceedings does not always equate to the end of a company. It is not so far-fetched that it may succeed in restoring the solvency of the business within the framework of the insolvency plan. That is obviously the goal here. Whether rehabilitation is realistic will likely be examined by the responsible trustee in the coming weeks.
Update, October 6, 2014, 5 PM: A press release has just arrived with a statement. According to Infernum CEO Andreas Weidenhaupt, they are confident that everything will turn out well:
“We are looking positively toward the future, as the restructuring within the framework of the plan insolvency under self-administration offers us new opportunities. Our goal is very clear: to maintain the operation of our games and continue to provide our community with a great gaming experience.” Furthermore, Thomas Illy from the “pkl Rechtsanwälte” law firm assumes, “that the insolvency can be overcome within a very short timeframe.”
Update, October 6, 2014, 8 PM: In the official Dragon’s Prophet Forum there is another post that mainly addresses the players. Among other things, it reveals how players can support Infernum and the games during this difficult phase, and that players currently have nothing to fear: It will go on, so the general tenor of the message.
Update, March 7, 2015: Infernum Production has succeeded and is solvent again, so no longer insolvent. Congratulations.
Mein MMO thinks: Okay, this is not a pleasant message, which will certainly reach the players shortly. This will likely be quite a shock for those affected. The forums of Dragon’s Prophet, Brick Force, and Hazard Ops will now become very restless, as many players have invested countless hours in their characters and have sometimes even left money in the item shop. We expect a clarifying statement from Infernum in the coming days on how this situation will be handled (already happened, see update).
But is all this so surprising? The insolvency application could also explain why a more aggressive sales policy has been pursued lately. Generally, before filing, every effort is made to avert this step as much as possible.
For the internal project “Project Theralon“, a sandbox MMO based on CryEngine 3, rumors about a shutdown already surfaced last year. Since then, total silence has prevailed here.
Dragon’s Prophet – many share this opinion – was published, in our view, at least six months too early. I know, you often hear this, but here it was already very extreme. However, it is not unlikely that the developer, Runewaker Entertainment, pushed for an early release. That would be annoying, especially since Infernum invested a lot of money in numerous advertising campaigns in the beginning.
In the meantime, the game has matured and is certainly one of the better MMORPGs on the market, but you don’t quickly forget the botched start. Particularly free-to-play games struggle to regain attention afterwards. In the dragon MMO, which boasts a very extensive companion system, there would probably still be an alternative with Sony Entertainment Online. Because SOE is currently operating the dragon MMO from the Runes of Magic developers in America. In the case of an orderly dissolution of Infernum, SOE could certainly step in, especially since they have increasingly been caring for the European market for some time. However, as can be inferred from the update, it seems that Infernum and the players will likely continue. It would be nice.
We wish the employees and responsible parties at Infernum that it turns out well for them and that they emerge stronger from this delicate phase.
