VIS goes into administration; Dundee studio shut down

Scottish developer VIS Entertainment has been placed in administration, with the firm's Dundee studio being shut down immediately and a number of staff being made redundant in Edinburgh, making up a loss of 54 jobs in total.

The company, which last year merged with struggling California-based publisher BAM! Entertainment, employed 96 staff in total across its two studios, the remainder of whom have been sent home for the time being.

Tenon Recovery has been appointed as the administrator of the business, and according to Tenon director Tom Maclennan, efforts are being made to secure the completion of a number of products in development.

"We are carrying out a full assessment of the business and looking to reach agreements that will enable us to complete the work on the games under development," he explained in a statement today. "I am also in discussion with a number of parties interested in the business."

It's not clear at this point what this situation implies for VIS' parent company, BAM, which acquired the developer and its separately-funded subsidiary State of Emergency Development in February 2004 in a share deal worth around $7 million.

Formed in 1996, VIS is best known for its controversial and commercially successful title State of Emergency, which was published by Rockstar Games in the wake of the huge success of Grand Theft Auto.