You Probably Won't Be Playing Awesomenauts This Week [UPDATED: Yes You Will]

UPDATE: Good news, everyone! According to the folks at Ronimo Games, the launches for PSN and XBLA will go on as scheduled. No word on exactly how all that came together, but those looking to play some Awesomenauts this week will be able to as originally planned. Hooray!

Those who were particularly looking forward to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network release Awesomenauts this week might want to just take a seat over here and relax for a minute, while we explain a bit of bad news to you. You see, while we know you may have been looking very much forward to getting your hands on developer Ronimo Games' 2D multiplayer arena shooter, that probably isn't going to happen this week, as originally planned. That's because DTP Entertainment, the publisher originally set to bring Awesomenauts to those platforms, is now bankrupt.

News of the insolvency filing by DTP just came to light yesterday, mere days before Awesomenauts was to hit digital stores. Now, nobody seems to know when precisely the game might come out, if at all. Speaking to IGN, Ronimo developer Jasper Koning said, "At the moment we're unsure what this means for [Awesomenauts]."

Depending on DTP's level of debt and potential ability to reorganize to its creditors' satisfaction versus out-and-out closure, the amount of potential time this could all take to suss out is as wide as the situation itself is complicated. Ronimo Games is looking into the situation to try and figure out the best way to get the game out, but for the foreseeable future, you're not going to be playing Awesomenauts. Certainly not this week, at least.

Damnit. I was looking forward to getting for free with my PS+ membership.

How does that work?

That's disappointing.

How the hell does this even happen?

@Hailinel: I'm not stupid, I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about how suddenly it came up. Like, did they just find out a week ago they had no money? How does something that huge just sneak up on you?

That's awesome... naut!

Why does a developer need a publisher to send Microsoft a finished game? I don't get it. If the game is done, put it up. So it will be missing 1 spammy intro logo, good. Business realities are depressing as shit.

Holy crap does that suck. I have not seen anything about this game before but it sucks for those who were looking forward to it.

DAMN IT. This game looks fantastic.

@TechnicallyProficient: Sir, I want to punch you in the face.

@CaLe: Because the publisher owns the game, the code and everything in it. The developer doesn't. If the publisher goes bankrupt, then ownership of the game doesn't pass to the developer, it passes to the creditors, and so it's ownership is up in the air. It could be months before this is figured out. Microsoft and Sony already have the code, but since no one owns the game anymore, they can't put it on their service, there's no one to pay them to put it up.

Depending on the contract, it's possible that the devs could make a PC version or something. Or they could try to buy back rights. The most likely solution is that another publisher like THQ or Acti will buy the game at a low price since the creditors just want it off their hands then put it out and profit, but that could take awhile.

@TechnicallyProficient: Fuck. You.

Maybe they can release it on Steam?

Christ, you'd think it'd be in their creditors interest to let them keep running for an extra week so they could put out the title and get some extra income in order to actually, you know, pack back their creditors.

I have more problems with the relatively opinionated (and possibly written by the developers) wiki than the fact that the game isn't coming out. I didn't even know about it until the guys mentioned it was coming out on the Bombcast, and when I looked stuff up, I wasn't rushing to buy it.

@wh1terav3n: The Awesomenauts website says copyright Ronimo. DTP doesn't own it, but it's possible the contract says only they can publish or distribute it. That would suck.

Someone save the music!

@Napalm said:

@Hailinel: I'm not stupid, I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about how suddenly it came up. Like, did they just find out a week ago they had no money? How does something that huge just sneak up on you?

didnt sneak up on anyone, they just never told anyone until now.

you dont spill bad news until you have to.

That's a shame. I'm always interested in seeing what these guys do since I read that they did De Blob.

You Probably Won't Be Playing Awesomenauts

Even if it comes out I don't think I will either. Never heard of it until now, which doesn't make it bad, it just means I have no interest in it.

@stinky said:

@Napalm said:

@Hailinel: I'm not stupid, I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about how suddenly it came up. Like, did they just find out a week ago they had no money? How does something that huge just sneak up on you?

didnt sneak up on anyone, they just never told anyone until now.

you dont spill bad news until you have to.

Maybe they should have planned it better, then, instead of having it spill out the week they are supposed to publish a game.

Damn, i was really looking forward to this game

Usually someone is appointed to control the company. In this case I would presume that this guy wants to release the game since it is his job to realise all the assets in the company. An unreleased game is not worth much and a release would definitely mean money into the company. I would believe that he wants to release the game but I'm not sure about how Microsoft and Sony will handle this. They might feel that the legal situation is unclear and refuse to release it.

how can you not publish a digital game, don't you just push the game out when its ready. also how can you suddly be bankrupt

If worse comes to worst, they can self publish on PSN, as far as I know. They'll still need a publisher for XBLA though, so that's a big problem. Pity, this looks really really fun, and it's supposed to be free on PS+ this month too. The devs just seem like a really nice bunch of guys too from all the press this got last year. A real pity.

Dang it. My weekend is ruined. Ruined!

Wasn't planning on playing it but still that's a downer.

@TechnicallyProficient said:

That's awesome... naut!

Yeah let's make jokes about people losing jobs! Not that time for that at all.

Man what a bummer.

That's sad because DTP published a bunch of really awesome Adventure games.

That sucks...I wonder if Sony is going to give us a different game for free then?

So do you absolutely need a publisher before Sony or Microsoft will put you on their service? It's not like they have to pay for boxes, manuals, and shipping to put out a game on PSN or XBLA, so what purpose does a publisher actually serve in this situation?

Too bad, the publisher put forth some games that made for some memorable Quick Looks.

@PlasmaBeam44 said:

So do you absolutely need a publisher before Sony or Microsoft will put you on their service? It's not like they have to pay for boxes, manuals, and shipping to put out a game on PSN or XBLA, so what purpose does a publisher actually serve in this situation?

I may be mistaken in some of the finer details but to my understanding the company that backs the publication of the games onto said services fronts the money that Sony and Microsoft demand to get the games listed on their service. It isn't just that sony and microsoft put the games up for free and take their cut but that they demand a certain down payment as a kind of insurance in case the games don't sell that way they always make profit on any game posted. It is only the developer and publisher that would take a hit from a game not selling.

PlayStation's Twitter account just stated Awesomenauts will publish tomorrow in North America.

Sony just confirmed that it will "publish tomorrow on PSN in N. America" on twitter.  
Free for PSplus Members

‏ PlayStation

We can confirm that Awesomenauts will publish tomorrow on PSN in N. America and will be free for PS Plus subscribers

@Alex said:

Ronimo Games is looking into the situation to try and figure out the best way to get the game out

It's pretty much never "try and", and almost always "try to".

I don't mean to be a grammar fucker, it's just this always gets to me. You have a loose style and that suits the articles fine, but being grammatically incorrect in this statement serves no stylistic purpose. It's just incorrect.

It's coming out on Playstation tomorrow.

@Goldanas: I will now try and use "try and" in all of my sentences, forever.

I've been looking forward to this since last September, so I do hope it comes out Wednesday (or tomorrow for you lucky PlayStation owners).

@Phatmac said:

@TechnicallyProficient said:

That's awesome... naut!

Yeah let's make jokes about people losing jobs! Not that time for that at all.

Chill out dude.

@Alex

@msavo said:

It's coming out on Playstation tomorrow.

release date not changed you will still play the game tomorrow if you want
http://games.ign.com/articles/122/1223990p1.html

@CaLe said:

Why does a developer need a publisher to send Microsoft a finished game? I don't get it. If the game is done, put it up. So it will be missing 1 spammy intro logo, good. Business realities are depressing as shit.

Because the publisher owns the game since they paid the developers to make the game for them. The publisher will likely try to sell the rights to another publisher so they can pay their debts rather than buy servers to release the game.

@TechnicallyProficient: That felt like a slap in the face.

Dissappointing... almost discourages me from wanting to become a game developer.

Dissappointing... almost discourages me from wanting to become a game developer.

@OriginalArticleText said:

Ronimo Games is looking into the situation to try and figure out the best way to get the game out, but for the foreseeable future, you're not going to be playing Awesomenauts. Certainly not this week, at least.

Words from Ronimo:

We have just confirmed that the game is coming this week! We cannot comment on the exact situation any further right now, but rest assured that you can all play Awesomenauts this week! :)