Animation TPS The Second Wave One month, customs service developers defaulted on salary liabilities of 2.4 billion won and went bankrupt

Korean developers Challengers Games recently announced the closure of the studio, and said that the company signed 2.4 billion won, and failed to pay employees' salaries for several months.

The studio that developed the second wave of the second round TPS/MOBA and mobile game iLLANG announced the news on the official website and explained that the company had been closed after "months of development difficulties and financial challenges led to inability to pay salaries or retain employees".

Koji, Head and CEO of the studio Tamura explained that the core project of the studio failed to attract players' interest or win them to come in person. Despite some investment, the studio soon ran into debt. stay By the end of 2023, when the Second Wave confirmed the beta test, the studio had already owed 2 billion won of debt.

At the same time, the entire animation team and half of the artists in the studio left the company, forcing the company to quickly hire new employees to fill the vacancy. At the beginning of 2024, the company will 70 developers, about half of whom joined the company from November 2023 to January 2024.

The match, performance and bug problems encountered during the testing of the Second Wave game itself announced that the development cost of mobile game iLLANG was huge. Tamura In the blog, he explained: "By January 2024, the company has run out of funds, and we cannot create sales for iLLANG while seeking more investors, which makes our dilemma even more serious."

The company tried to push out the "desperate wave" by taking the Second Wave as a preemptive experience. However, Tamura admitted that this was a "suicide" strategy, but had no choice but to promote it. In the next few months, the publisher broke off contact with the studio, and the continuous arrears of wages led to more employees leaving. Finally, The Second Wave On May 31, the preemptive experience was launched, and the development team of this version only had 20 people - 60 employees were lost in the studio in just four months.

At the end of April, the studio tried every means to add content to the game and tested it as much as possible. However, many content, including human-computer, training mode and in-game store, could not be produced before the deadline. After the game was released, the studio used cheap services to track the game because it was unable to pay for it BUG， And tried to repair and test the game, but the final game is still unsatisfactory. At present, the users of the Second Wave on Steam rated it as "mixed", but most of the actual comments are negative.

Tamura said that he would find a way to pay everyone's salary, and said that he would not be ashamed of this experience, and that he was "proud and honored" for creating the Second Wave and working with the team.

The studio has been officially closed, and the refund of the Second Wave will be made through Steam, but Tamura still believes that the game may revive. He said: "Although this is very difficult and sad, I would like to say that this is not the last chapter of the Second Wave. You may see it again in the near future."

"We apologize to all those who have met this situation. Thank you for your trust in us. I'm sorry to disappoint you. This is not our last step, but this is the last chapter of the Challengers Games Corp."

The game will be launched later from Steam Remove.