Fragbite declares bankruptcy for developer Fall Damage Studio seven months after acquisition
Dev struggled to find a publisher for free-to-play multiplayer shooter Alara Prime
Fragbite Group is filing for bankruptcy for its internal development studio Fall Damage.
The Swedish development team had been working on Alara Prime, a free-to-play four-vs-four shooter that was aiming to release this year. However, the studio struggled to sign a publisher for the game.
Fall Damage was in discussions with multiple potential publishers, but had "not yet been able to fully complete [the process] within the necessary timeframe," according to Fragbite.
This has led to an "unsustainable financial situation" for the developer; while the dialogues are ongoing and the game's development is on track, Fragbite's board of directors do not believe Fall Damage will be able to pay its debts that are due and that this situation is not temporary.
Fragbite Group has emphasised that the publicly listed parent company and its other subsidiaries will "continue operations without interruption."
The news comes just seven months after Fragbite Group acquired Fall Damage in a deal with an upfront fee of SEK 20 million ($1.9 million)
Fall Damage was founded in 2017 by DICE veterans Gyllenberg, Mikael Kalms, Markus Nyström, and Dan Vanderlind. The studio's management team previously worked on games such as Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Star Wars Battlefront.