Factor Defunct?

It seems even the Christmas holiday can't stop bad gaming news from rolling in. Developer/publisher Midway released a press release last week that revealed they were forced to cut half of their staff and cancel "non-core titles." Perhaps the biggest blow is the troubles that gigantic developer/publisher EA are facing. And just yesterday fellow blogger Raith posted about Free Radical closing their studios. Now, over the past week we've heard all kinds of news regarding Factor 5 in a similar situation.

It all started when a Factor 5 employee wrote in his blog about how the company was essentially falling apart. Apparently workers weren't getting paid and financial stress is continuing to pile up. But that employee removed his post immediately after realizing it was being spread around the internet, and assured the gaming community that Factor 5 is fine. A few days later an insider source claimed that the blog post was real and that 37 team members from Factor 5 had been fired. Finally, word came from IGN's Matt Casamassina via a messageboard post that he had heard from another source that Factor 5 has in fact closed their doors for the last time.

The latter half of this information seems a bit "he said, she said," so I'd take it with a grain of salt. Matt Casamassina also said he tried contacting Factor 5's President, Julian Eggebrecht, but he didn't return his call. One thing is for sure, something is definitely going down at Factor 5; whether it be team downsizing or the abrupt closure that's being reported. I personally find it odd that Mr. Eggebrecht hasn't come out and publicly denied these rumors.

As a side note, I hope I'm not the only one who is recognizing a trend here. Think about it, what do the two companies (Factor 5 & Free Radical) have in common? Well, consider that they both developed incredibly expensive games for PS3 (Lair & Haze).. games that essentially flopped. And with the troubling economy America is in, these announcements aren't that hard to believe. Stay tuned, as I expect Factor 5 will make some sort of announcement in the near future.