November
7
Brash struggling to survive, was making Superman
More problems at Brash Entertainment. As I'm reporting in today's Daily Variety, the troubled movie-license focused videogame publisher has laid off 20 staffers, is working with studios to either return licenses or sell them to other videogame companies, and is searching for new cash or a buyer.
Brash acknowledged the layoffs in a statement. But I've already been hearing from numerous sources of the company's latest problems. Apparently it has stopped paying developers, at least temporarily. And it has been talking to the studios from which it has acquired licenses to either return some of those properties or sell them to new publishers. Basically, Brash doesn't have the cash to continue. It's trying to find more, or a buyer.
Seems weird, doesn't it? Just last year, Brash launched and announced it had raised $400 million. And even the worst run company couldn't burn that much cash in a year. As it turns out, only some of that money was immediately available. The rest, which was supposed to be available for future needs, has apparently dried up amidst the financial crisis. Though the recent resignation of co-founder Thomas Tull, who has the Wall Street connections and headed up the private equity funding, probably didn't give investors a lot of confidence.
Brash only confirmed that two games are still in the works: "Six Flags Fun Park" and "Saw." That leaves a long list of titles in limbo: "Tale of Desperaux," "Prison Break," "Night at the Museum 2," "Clash of the Titans," "300," and one other that it hasn't announced and hasn't yet been reported: "Superman." Remember when Brash announced it was working with "Rogue Squadron" and "Lair" developer Factor 5 on an unannounced game? Turns out it was "Superman."
Getting information from Brash was even harder than usual since among the many no longer working there is EA and Ubisoft vet Tiffany Spencer, who was VP of corporate communications. The question is: Who's left? I'm still waiting to find out how many employees remain at Brash. But based on what I've heard from sources, it's not many.
Full Story: Brash Entertainment short on cash
Also see: Thomas Tull leaves Brash
Chris Morris reports on the business and culture of video games and offers analysis of recent events and industry trends.
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Posted by: cheap gw gold | March 11, 2009 at 07:19 PM
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Posted by: chetan | December 29, 2008 at 01:22 AM
I HOPE THERE ISN'T ANYONE SURPRISED BY THIS!
3 TITLES SHOULD SAY IT ALL:
a. ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS
b. JUMPER
c. SPACE CHIMPS
Posted by: Xomon | November 11, 2008 at 06:16 AM
$400m is a boat load to burn through in such a short space of time, and boy what a total waste, Space Chimps, Superman and Night at the Museum 2, these aren't licenses they're merely excuses for the young bum fluff Hollywood execs who shovel this shite out to own a business card.
Posted by: Charlie Oscar Delta | November 09, 2008 at 07:19 AM
I think it was obvious to all (game) industry insiders that things were headed this way for Brash. At a time when every other successful publisher was focusing on fewer projects with higher budgets, Brash decided to take their seed money and snap up as many licenses as they could and allocated pathetic budgets to each one, pretty much ensuring failure and poor results.
Its definitely the height of hubris to think that you can spend $5M to make a game that will compete with a $30+M effort from EA or Activision. Yet that was more or less their business model.
Posted by: Grizzled Veteran | November 07, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Had a friend there who left some time ago. She mentioned what I have heard from others - that the place was run like it was an internet company back in the days before the dot com implosion. I remember when Nicolas Longano was being named as President and thinking "wow, that place is gonna bleed money." And sure enough.
Lucky for the investors that they can curb their losses, this was a failed venture before it even started.
Posted by: byron Tauser | November 07, 2008 at 10:28 AM
I feel bad for those who lost their jobs. On the other hand, we'll have less crappy film adaptations drowning out the few original IPs that come along.
Posted by: Nick K | November 07, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Nearly every game company has had layoffs in the last few weeks. And Brash--as a start up--faces unique challenges that larger publishers might not. This is a non-story. Brash, like everyone else, has been hit by a crappy economy.
Posted by: karen | November 07, 2008 at 09:41 AM
Brash is just another example of a Hollywood company being run by Hollywood jokers. Movie companies failed in the 90's to get any semblance of consistent and quality game development going, and they've again failed with Brash. I find it humorous why none of these supposed brilliant suits learn from history? The answer is they obviously aren't brilliant.
Bring in experienced game development execs and managers. Otherwise you're just pissing good money away.
Posted by: In the Know | November 07, 2008 at 09:20 AM
Economic downturn aside, this really boils down to the fact that Brash made terrible, awful games. Game publishers can get away with a dud now and then, but Brash' catalog consistently and repeatedly crapped out garbage, which was backed up by both low sales numbers and poor critical response. How investors thought the business model behind this company was a good idea is beyond me. I guess it just shows that anyone out there with money to burn can be convinced into investing in anything. I'm sure that anxiety will be tempered by their free cases of unsold copies of Jumper: Griffin's Story.
Posted by: Ya Think? | November 07, 2008 at 08:51 AM
Davis did a lot of talk for Massive---calling it a $1B industry which it is not--and continued his talk for Brash--$400M in funding. Good for him to keep taking other people's money.
Posted by: Whateva | November 07, 2008 at 07:44 AM
Surely you jest, Ben, when you suggest that Brash's inability to access its pre-committed cash had anything to do with the current state of the economy. The company's current difficulties are exclusivley the result of botched execution and incompetence. Even the name they picked for the company says it. Davis and Longano were treated like wunderkind by their investors, so much so that Tull and the investors never questioned the patently ridiculous company strategy (dredging B-grade and back-catalogue movie licenses) or the founders lack of experience making games. Had Brash's founders really known what they were doing, and had not so impetuously screwed the pooch in the first year, investors would be falling all over themselves to provide Brash with cash -- precisely because Brash should have represented a safer bet in troubled times. These guys in their hasty grab for cash and fame have done the interactive industry -- especially gamemakers -- a great disservice.
Posted by: Impulsively so... | November 07, 2008 at 06:34 AM
Dirk Metzger, who used to be Marketing Manager, left Brash for NC Soft. Amy Small, who used to be Director of Operations, left for EA LA, same for ex-THQ Carole Trujillo, who used to be with production. And this week Director of Business Development for Brash, Jason Covey, left as well. What a wonderful company.
Posted by: Steve | November 07, 2008 at 04:19 AM