UPDATE: Red 5 Employees to be Paid December 30th

SBFord

UPDATE: Players to be Paid Dec 30th

UPDATE (Dec 30) GOOD NEWS! According to Gamers-Haven.org, Red 5 employees will be paid on December 30th after the company missed last week's payroll deadline.  However the same report indicates that "according to reliable source inside the company" several employees were let go last week and, as with layoffs at the end of November, did not receive severance packages. 

(Dec 28): After reaching out to representatives at Red 5, we were told they had no statement or comment to make at this time.

According to a Reddit post and an anonymous tipster, Firefall developer Red 5 Studios has failed to make its latest payroll deadline. According to information we've been sent, the current CEO's share of the company is worth approximately $45M (via 13D disclosure recently filed) but let employees know shortly after that the company would not be able to meet its payroll obligation.

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Xeno.phon

Wow missing payroll on Xmas, now that is some pure capitalist pig dickishness. I hope the CEO looses everything he has. [MOD EDIT]

Wizardry

This could happen with Star Citizen as well because Chris his brother and his Accountant/lawyer sold all their shares to the company,therefore in reality took a ton of money out of the business and put it into their pockets.Imo if not for the way over the top cash shop sales of ships,they would have been in the same situation lacking funds.Well it is already obvious when they shut down one or two operations they were taking too much money out of the business.Then of late they claim they cannot meet anymore refunds because they claim there is no money.

What would be scary for the CEO of RED 5 is if he has been dumping his shares of late  in light of already knowing the business is failing and about to go bankrupt,could land some lawyers knocking on his door.I am not sure how they even put a value on a games shares because is he the only one or do just the big shots own all the shares or is this a public trading stock?Then if it is a public stock who in their right mind would buy a share ever from such a failing game,imo the WORTH..value would be near zero because i wouldn't touch one of those shares with a ten foot pole.

Xeno.phon

@wizardy yeah not even close to the same thing. The CEO holds shares worth 45m, Chris and the others hold NO shares..... so not too sure where you got any semblance of similarity in these 2 situations.

And no, selling your shares to your own company does not take money out of the company, it allows those shares to be redistributed for a higher value to new shareholders than they were previously bought for, giving more money to the company. Finance is really not your forte is it?

rojoArcueid

As long as CEOs starve along with their employees then its fine, The situation sucks but i mean that they are all together in this. I hate when all these CEOs come up with shit to not meet payrolls yet they are swimming in cash. F that.

Tekaelon

I love Firefall and feel that it could have been an amazing game. Unfort7nately to much time has passed, too much time wasted. That said, prove me wrong Red5. I'll happily wear the idiot hat if you succeed.

OhhPaigey

R.I.P.

The sad part is the devs and support are some of the nicest/coolest people I've chatted with on any MMO, ever.

itchmon

I hope all the devs land on their feet, there is a good game somewhere there buried beneath that sh*tstorm.

I have no love for the CEO if he is withholding cash that could help the rank and file [mod edit]

SomeHuman

I also feel like Firefall brought some innovation to games. I wonder if the whole thumper thing threw people off. I thought it was great. Did it try to be too many things? Was this strictly a business-end fail or something more?

Wraithone

If this turns out to be true, its a sad ending for a great group of Dev's and a game that had really great potential. I wish everyone at Red5 the best of luck.

donger56

Well to be fair, the9 bought red5 back when it was about to under anyway. That is the only reason these people have had a job the last couple years. If you want to pin this disaster on a CEO then you need to look back to Mark Kern who was booted out of the company he founded because he was such a failure. Firefall was a bad investment for the9 and they need to cut their losses and move on. Anyone still working at red5 has probably been job hunting since last year if they had any sense because this was pretty easy to see coming. Red5 had some good people but Kern was a total failure and completely incompetent. Another example of someone who thought they could run a company just because they worked on WoW for a few years. RIP.

rojoArcueid

I cant help but to think whats on Chris Whiteside's mind right now after leaving ANET to join Red5.

Loke666

Let's hope everything turns out right, or at least in worst case that the employees get their pay, it sucks to put in hard work and get nothing in return and people do have bills to pay.

The CEOs stock value doesn't really mean much if the company is going down into the crapper. 
 rojoArcueid said:

I cant help but to think whats on Chris Whiteside's mind right now after leaving ANET to join Red5.

Yeah, maybe he should have researched the companies economy a bit better before changing jobs, ANET is at least paying their employees. 

LurchUSA

So I'll have to uninstall this game this Monday, when Red5 officially announces its demise.

A sad day indeed. The ONLY true, FPS MMO game, where you actually have to AIM your shots rather than this "soft tab" crap most games are going with of late.

FlyByKnight

Gutter trash. No surprise here. Firefall has been ruined for years and Red5 is/was a cash grabbing walker waiting to be put out of its misery. Feel bad for the team there... again. Those guys have been taken for all types of rides.

olepi

I remember once being told they weren't going to pay us for the last 2 weeks we worked.

I got another job and came in the next week to clean out my office. "Where have you been? Why didn't you call in???" they said.

maple2

eh obvious Firefall is a game that wont bring any money cause its So bad lol. the game has nothing. no endgame or anything

APThug

Come on red5, pull your shit together! I'm still waiting for your next big update to finally come out before I start playing again!

Waterlily

Not being paid, overworking  and companies going belly up every couple of minutes, happens every day in california's tech sector.

muffins89

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

muffins89

also lasr Friday I was supposed to get paid. but I didn't get paid til Monday. wheres my news article? more rich folk being stupid and people caring.

Kefo

muffins89 said:
also lasr Friday I was supposed to get paid. but I didn't get paid til Monday. wheres my news article? more rich folk being stupid and people caring.


Getting paid Monday as opposed to Friday is not news worthy in any sector especially if we are talking about not getting paid at all.

TheRabidsmurf

Rumor. Nothing investigated or proven. This is not journalism its click bait and troll thread.

Siphaed

TheRabidsmurf said:
Rumor. Nothing investigated or proven. This is not journalism its click bait and troll thread.


Insider with internal email which is in article itself. Not seeming to be troll or clickbait, but substantiated bad news.

hfztt

DMKano said:

A sad day indeed. The ONLY true, FPS MMO game, where you actually have to AIM your shots rather than this "soft tab" crap most games are going with of late.

Yup. Have to agree 100% here. They had an FPS MMO engine so solid that no matter how much they fumbled around with the rest of the game mechanics they could not kill the pure giddy joy of jumping around killing stuff in the game.

ste2000

That really sucks.
It's a shame CEO never pay with their own cash when they sink their own company due to their ineptitude.
They should held responsible, it is not fair that the hard working people pays the prize for their mistakes.