Who would have thought that a Wii U game could cause so much drama in 2019? We recently reported on the news that Limited Run Games is finally releasing the Wii U version of Axiom Verge after a costly legal tussle with the Spanish company BadLand Games. The two firms had signed a deal back in 2017 to create physical copies of the brilliant Metroidvania outing, but that never happened – despite Limited Run handing over $78,000.
According to Limited Run CEO Josh Fairhurst, the company never got the 6,000 copies it was promised, and despite the threat of legal action, the situation remained largely unresolved until very recently.
BadLand has now issued an official statement explaining its side of the story, and it does little to smooth things over, as you might expect. It is claimed that there were attempts to make contact with Limited Run (a claim which has been contested previously) and that BadLand has made no profit from the deal.
Here's the statement in full:
Madrid, March 19th, 2019: As a result of the latest unchecked, non-contrasted news published and related to the sale of the Axiom Verge videogame, BadLand Publishing has been immersed in a succession of news stories that, without being related to the company, are damaging its image. It is for this reason that Luis Quintans and, by allusions, BadLand Publishing want to clarify that:
Neither Badland Games nor Luis Quintans have NEVER made any kind of profit from the sale of the game Axiom Verge.
Due to the commercial situation of the company Badland Games, motivated by the impossibility of financing due to the restrictive attitude of the financial market, last October 2018, goes into bankruptcy due to lack of liquidity.
As there were not enough assets to meet the claims against the bankrupt estate, the company's registration sheet was concluded, extinguished and closed. This entailed the absorption by the creditors of any possible profit or income derived from the sales or products belonging to or generated by Badland Games.
Both Badland Games and Luis Quintans have recognized at all times the existing debt with Limited Run Games and Tom Happ Games. They have repeatedly contacted them, attempting to resolve the debt, taking the initiative to reach out-of-court payment agreements to which either no response has ever been received or which were never accepted. The only answer is the filing of a lawsuit in the United States in which no execution took place in Spain.
It is suspected that all this is part of a defamation campaign that seeks to promote third parties to the detriment of our interests, something that is evident if we take into account the suspicious closeness with the launch of the title.
Badland Publishing also has a different administrator and shareholder structure from Badland Games. Luis Quintans is just another employee at Badland Publishing.
Finally, we would like to thank the patience shown by all media who have maintained a neutral and purely informative position on the matter.
We can't imagine this statement will do anything to calm the situation down, but do you think that BadLand has perhaps been unfairly painted as the bad guy in all of this? Let us know with a comment.
Comments 31
It’s hard to believe they are trying to paint themselves as the victims now. Pretty awful response.
they should have just paid up and quit stalling. that's y theres such a haze over the devs for Axiom Verge
Yeah, no. The guy's a scumbag who went incognito for months, left Tom Happ and LRG hanging with a loss of $78k and kept on releasing games while not even trying to respond to their attempts at communication. It's only now that he and his company are getting roasted to hell and back that all of this is being pulled out of their collective arse.
I find this video sums up pretty well the real, no-nonsense side of the story, if you're curious.
https://youtu.be/pKQunPXOEPM
Pathetic response from badland games.
Yeh, right... What a Dou*&#.
@justin233 unga bunga me spam f5 to find new article unga bunga me have life
Lol we he edited his post. He had said first.
Welp, didn't expect this turn of events, but here we are. No clue how this is going to end.
Smacks of not-too-carefully-worded disingenuousness. They should have just kept their mouthes shut as they have done nothing to invalidate what has been disclosed by Limited Run and Thomas Happ.
The fact of the matter is that other parties have suffered due to Badland's mismanagement and stupid financial decisions. No PR spin will gloss over that. They have not fulfilled the rights of LRG and Thomas Happ. If they wanted to salvage their image, they should have just paid them their due, but they didn't, so what exactly are they hoping to gain from this idiotic statement where they admit to wrongdoing but flatly refuse to make amends?
I hope they go bust.
Yes, we were all aware that you took the money that belonged to Limited Run Games and Tom Happ to pay other debts. That's exactly what you were accused of doing. Doesn't matter what you spent it on, it wasn't your money
Crooked shysters.
"Neither Badland Games nor Luis Quintans have NEVER made any kind of profit from the sale of the game Axiom Verge."
Neither have they never? Does that mean they did?
Man, there's an awful lot of finger pointing going on in this letter. Especially coming from a company that just lost a bunch of someone else's money, legally or otherwise.
@LinkSword correction, Badland screwed LRG for $78.000, but above that they screwed over Thomas Happ for more than $200.000 and that EXCLUDES the promised 75% he would get from Badland for each sold copy of the game.
this is such a transparently pathetic statement. they messed up, totally.
@TechaNinja Where’s the F5 key on mobile? I was just here at the right time and wanted to claim the spot and have time to think of a comment... please calm down.
@NintendoFan4Lyf an intentionally contradictory double negative is common in english but less so in other languages.
"Neither never made" in an actual statement. But, please correct me if I'm wrong, that is a double negative which means he is actually saying that they did make money off of it.
@LinkSword Saw that video yesterday.
Pretty scummy from what they did.
Hope these guys get blacklisted.
I'm still waiting for one of those from Comcept regarding the ghost versions of Mighty No. 9 for 3DS and Vita. Can't see it happening.
Geez, BadLand had the perfect opportunity to either remain silent or apologize politely, but this response just made things way more awkward for them.
Wait...what is that place in the screenshot? I've beaten the game twice now and I don't think I've ever seen it...
So as I am reading their statement, their defense appears to be that they took the $78k but reasons. Those reasons seem to either be they were already in a deep hole they were hiding (spent on other debts) or just wasted the money without delivering the goods. I am not an accountant but taking a payment on a product is a profit, regardless of the overall balance of the books.
Regardless, this doesn't make them look good but it does make them look like a shady operation that everyone should avoid. That second shouldn't be too difficult if they are bankrupt and going out of business.
Why is the video game industry filled with so much scam and drama? I didn't follow any of it until today, but this isn't an explanation, especially with the parent company trying to protect a scammer who is still an employee. They are just begging for forgiveness.
@ROBLOGNICK My thoughts exactly. They are pleading guilty with this double negative.
On top of that it looks like BadLands never paid the 75% of the profits for the disease of the creator's son like they promised they would.
So.... long story short the company is bankrupt and it’s risky to do any business with them, as a partner or as a consumer?
You’d have to be a novice in business to accept this statement as fact. It’s filled with so many glaring lies and clear nonsense one can only assume this bankrupt company and its owner are nothing more than full blown crooks.
@Moroboshi876 And that's pretty much the main reason why I double-dipped.
I have the physical version of the switch version (though I feel bad about owning it since it was published by these guys) but happy I bought it on Vita as soon as it was released digitally for it.
Might triple dip on it and get it on steam.
"Neither Badland Games nor Luis Quintans have NEVER made any kind of profit from the sale of the game Axiom Verge."
Is that a double negative or a triple negative?
@ROBLOGNICK Dang, you totally beat me to it. That doesn't not make me happy.
They owe so much money especially to Tom Happ that would've been needed to take care of medical bills for Tom Happ's child. It's beyond imaginable what sort of soulless people are in that Spanish company.
Also a huge warning sign to any indie devs operating with BadLand that they should stay away.
Hopefully this gets sorted out soon and Badland and Luis Quintans will have to pay all the debts back to Tom Happ and also LRG
Well, if they really have been trying to contact LRG with plans to repay the debt, then they have a point. After all, they couldn't release the game as promised if they truly didn't have any assets to actually do it.
Although, it is strange that it took them until 2018 to declare bankruptcy. If that means they did have the assests to release the game when they were supposed to do so, then merely stating a lack of profit is no excuse for folding on a business deal.
The biggest issue seems to be that both sides claim to be the one that attempted to contact the other with no response, so how do we know who's telling the truth? I guess that's what the law suit will investigate among other things.
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