jumper posts

How did a company that launched just 18 months ago flame out so quickly? Variety has been following the rise and very fast fall of game publisher Brash Entertainment and this week put out a detailed article on some of the reasons why this company, which concentrated on movie and TV licensed game titles, came to a sudden end.

Part of the reason, according to both named and unnamed sources in the article, was the lack of video game business experience in Brash's top executives. It didn't help that the company's first titles, including games based on the box office bombs Jumper and Space Chimps, were rushed to completion and as a result didn't sell well enough to turn a profit. In the end the company burned through $100 million and a few weeks ago shut down its doors, despite last-minute attempts to get cash or perform a merger with another company. A host of in-development game titles have now been returned to their original license owners. Their fate is currently unknown.

The short run of game publisher Brash Entertainment could be over as of today, according to a post at Variety's Cut Scene blog. The site, citing unnamed sources, is claiming that the company that once boasted of a $400 million funding deal is shutting its doors today as the cash needed to continue is apparently not available anymore..

Launched just 18 months ago, Brash's theme was to license movie and TV shows and make them into games; there was to be no original titles. However the games that actually made it to release like Alvin and the Chimpunks, Jumper and Space Chimps all got low review scores and low sales. Company execs started leaving and last week Brash itself admitted it was laying off workers. There are reportedly a number of Brash-published games in mid-production; their fate is currently unknown.

The troubles at video game publisher Brash Entertainment continue to mount. A few months ago its co-founder and president, Nicholas Longano left the company and now Variety is reporting that another co-founder, Thomas Tull, has left the board of directors of Brash. The story cites unnamed sources as saying that Tull was unhappy with the company's direction.

Tull, who is also a co-founder of movie production company Legendary Pictures, helped to get the whopping $400 million to finance Brash Entertainment. The company made the decision early on to only work on licensed properties. So far the company has only released three games (Alvin and the Chipmunks, Jumper and Space Chimps) none of which were critical successes (although Alvin and the Chipmunks had OK sales).

If you raised $400 million to start a game publishing company, would you decide to make your first game an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie tie-in title? Well, that's exactly what Brash Entertainment did. The Los Angeles-based company, which first announced its presence just over a year ago, was quite open in its intentions in releasing games based on licensed properties. However its track record isn't all that great so far. It has released two games since its launch; the previously mentioned Alvin game (released for the PC and other platforms) and one based on the sci-fi movie/box office bomb Jumper. Both got slammed by critics and while the Alvin game sold OK, the Jumper adaptation sold a measly 16,000 copies.

Now comes word via Variety that the company's co-founder and president, Nicholas Longano, has left his position at Brash Entertainement (the article isn't clear if he resigned or was fired). Brash co-founder and CEO Mitch Davis (also the co-founder of the MMO in-game property trading company Live Gamer) will assume Longano's duties. Brash Entertainment's slate for 2008 isn't encouraging; it has a kids game based on the CGI movie Space Chimps due this August. Its first major next-gen title willl come out this October via an Unreal Engine 3 based adaptation of the Saw horror film series. Brash has kept the game under tight wraps (they haven't even revealed the game's developer). Only time will tell if the company can come back from its rocky beginnings.