Def Jam Rapstar studio in deep financial trouble
Words by: Jonny Neeves | Posted: 1 year ago | Filed under: News.
4mm Games, the studio behind Def Jam Rapstar has declared recently that its production of any games was on hold due to financial instabilities and lack of funding.
In a statement to Games Industry, founder Jamie King said:
We have not got any new funding and obviously we need to resolve everything with Rapstar. And we’ve also got to eat.
It is indeed true that the studio have to resolve matters with Def Jam Rapstar. Lack of funding is the least of their problems at the moment, what with being faced with a lawsuit by music label EMI for unpaid music loyalties. It would appear that the situation is grave then, with King adding:
I would like there to be a way out of it but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.
He continued by listing a number of factors for the current situation:
We didn’t get accepted into the Kinect launch window. “We met everyone and it took a long time to get a publisher of note. And that meant we couldn’t get product code. That meant we couldn’t test the servers so we had months of delays there.
And when we did a deal with Konami we needed multiple SKUs and we weren’t given as much time on the Wii as we warned them we needed and it showed.
Currently, the various members of the studio are off pursuing other avenues, whilst they wait for more funds to produce a potential sequel. Whilst the future may be bleak for 4mm Games, King maintains that creating the original Def Jam title will forever be a moment to cherish:
I will forever be dead proud that I got to make a hip-hop music game with Def Jam and make a complete knob of myself in front of people like Kanye West.
About Jonny Neeves
Jonny's a 21 year old student with a passion for third-person shooters and foreign film. When he's not failing horrifically at any multiplayer game ever created, he's fine tuning his linguistic skills in an attempt to make himself seem more sophisticated.
