Studio Kixeye has accused its owner Stillfront Group of non-payment of $ 30 million of the required remuneration. According to the materials of the lawsuit, Stillfront deliberately understated the financial results of Kixeye in order to evade the mandatory payment.
Screenshot from the VEGA Conflict game
Last week, VentureBeat wrote about the scandal that broke out between the creator of MMORTS games Kixeye and the Swedish company Stillfront Group.
According to the material, Fortis Advisors, the financial representative of Kixeye shareholders, filed a lawsuit accusing Stillfront of violating the terms of the transaction and financial fraud.
Stillfront Group bought Kixeye in 2019 for $90 million. Previously, the parties agreed that Stillfront will pay the studio another $30 million as a bonus for the results of fiscal 2019. As a result, the company did not do this.
Fortis Advisors Claims that Stillfront Committed Financial Fraud: she faked the results of her expenses before buying Kixeye so that it would be harder for the studio to close the goals and earn the required bonus.
«(…) Kixeye did not achieve results in accordance with the condition in our deal agreement, so we did not pay an additional bonus,” Stillfront commented on the situation.
At the time of the purchase of the studio in 2019, Stillfront representatives said that there were four strong IP in the “Kixeye portfolio”. It was also noted that the total user base of the studio is about 70 million.
Stillfront Group was founded in 2010 and currently owns 21 studios. Recently, the company posted a financial report for the second quarter of 2021 — net revenue amounted to 1,382 MSEK or $160 million, which is 16% more compared to the second quarter of last year. In the third quarter of 2021, Stillfront expects revenue of 1,275-1,325 MSEK or $147-153 million.
The report also has a few words about Kixeye: in a comment from the CEO, it is said that over the past 24 months, the rate of organic revenue growth from large studios corresponded to the company’s plans. But Kixeye failed to meet its goals.
Kixeye is a game studio founded in 2009 in Canada. She has released such hits as Rogue Assault, Battle Pirates, War Commander and VEGA Conflict — online multiplayer strategy games for PC and mobile devices.