UK Publisher Mastertronic Goes Into Administration

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Richard Walker

Veteran UK games publisher Mastertronic has gone into administration, with a deal in place to purchase the company's assets and keep the existing team on. Managing Director Andy Payne will no longer be involved with the business, and Mastertronic will focus on flight and train sims only, according to the former MD.

Mastertronic had applied for a CVA in July of last year to avoid a winding-up order, according to a report on MCV, shutting down its retail business and laying off 40% of its staff in the process. The company managed to carry on for a time thanks to an investment deal in February 2015.

That deal turned out to be somewhat unreliable, meaning the firm had to secure new funding from another source, which failed to materialise. “We signed an investment deal with a Bahrain/Qatar based organisation back in February 2015 which would have seen our majority Dutch shareholder exit and be replaced by these new shareholding investors and the company financed going forward,” Payne explained.

"Sadly, this organisation did not honour the contract and as a direct result have put us in the position we find ourselves in today. We made strategic investments into game development, based on this investment deal. When the Middle Eastern investors reneged on the deal, it left us desperately needing an alternative investor. Sadly we failed to find one in time.

"The new company will focus on flight and train simulation only and I will not be employed by the new company, although I may be asked to advise, and my future is now in my own hands again.”

The Mastertronic brand has had a 32 year history in video games, with its current guise dating back to 2004 when Sold Out and The Producers merged. Mastertronic has published retail versions of recent Worms titles, as well as digital games like Spectra and Foul Play.

Comments
5
  • "Spending Money You Don't Actually Have Isn't Good For You" Shocker!
  • Never heard of them
  • I remember these from Commodore 64 and Vic 20 days and most of their games they made where crap, never knew they was still going.
  • Who?!
  • Another UK based company bites the dust -_- We in UK pay for EVERY other contries' good lives
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