It's been a short and unfortunately none-too-successful run for GameCock, the brash/abrasive independent game publisher that will probably be remembered more for its obnoxious publicity stunts for the disastrous "Hail to the Chimp" than the games it managed to put out (basically just "Chimp," "Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball," and "Dementium: the Ward," the latter of which wasn't too bad).

Any independent company counting on a small release slate of original titles  performing well is in a very precarious position financially. The company was primarily funded by one wealthy private investor, CEO Mike Wilson told me, though he would never admit who it was. That's one more ingredient in a formula that probably fell apart after "Chimp," which GameCock promoted the crap out of, got terrible reviews and bombed.

So now GameCock has been bought by small publisher SouthPeak, in a deal that includes literally no up front money. I delved into SouthPeak's most recent SEC filing to find out just what SouthPeak had to pay to buy Gamecock and found out there are two payouts:

-7% of the revenue from the sales of GameCock games in development that Southpeak releases

-a warrant to purchase 700,000 shares of Southpeak stock

So basically SouthPeak releases whichever GameCock games it wants (it is already committed to "Legendary" and "Mushroom Men," which are set to come out in the next couple of months) and only has to give up 7% of the revenue. If they don't sell well, it doesn't have to pay GameCock's current owners very much. It's almost all upside.

As for the stock options, I checked with a SouthPeak rep the exact value is a very complex formula that has to do with how and whether SouthPeak stock rises in the future, presumably in part thanks to GameCock if everything goes well. SouthPeak stock is currently trading at $2.35, so even if it goes up soon and the formula is calculated to benefit GameCock, it's hard to see how those warrants could be worth much more than a few million dollars. After all, SouthPeak's entire market cap is only $4.5 million. It doesn't have that much equity to give away.

A deal this risky indicates that GameCock must have been in pretty desperate straits and basically just needed someone to take over distribution of its games ASAP.

MTV has an interview with SouthPeak CEO Melanie Mroz in which she indicates she's not clear whether she'll keep the GameCock brand or whether Wilson will be joining her company.