Kotaku broke the story that Red 5, the studio made up of ex-Blizzard employees, had issues paying developers in time for Christmas. In November, Red 5 had to lay off around 40 employees and did the same last week letting go of several more employees.
The staff usually gets paid biweekly except for last Friday when this letter was sent out to employees:
Hi Team,
I regret to inform you that Red5 currently does not have the funds necessary to meet our payroll scheduled for today Friday, December 25. Due to this, there will not be payroll paid this week.
Red5 and The9, our parent company, is currently working to resolve this, during the holidays, as soon as possible. We are hopeful we’ll be able to resolve this and will update the team immediately.
The studio which is located in Irvine, California, held a meeting to explain the situation to workers.
At this time, employees are expected to be paid tomorrow, December 30.
Hopefully the studio can rebound from this and persevere through this setback.
