Artifact Entertainment Purchased By Tulga Games

Late last month, Artifact Entertainment was purchased by Tulga Games, a move ending the downward spiral of the company. Artifact was the maker of the Massively Multiplayer Game Horizons, and was the victim of a cynical financial takeover at the hands of its COO James Jones. The seminal work on this sordid tale is A Story of Artifact Entertainment, on the GameMethod site. Anyuzer.com has some interesting commentary on the purchase, relating it to the recent purchase of Asheron's Call 1 & 2 by Turbine from Microsoft. "With MMOGs that have smaller subscription numbers than was projected by the publisher, they offer the perfect opportunity for a development company to become independent."

Comments

Tulga is a shell company, this is all a sham...

[Shivetya]

Look into the history of this company. It was created by Chris Tulamello who formally worked for AE. Chris is also the sole member of Tulga games. They did not even have a web presences until days after the announcement.

Chris Tulamello and Steve Favorito are members of a corporation, 67TH AVENUE HOLDINGS, incorporated on 6/09/2004

David Bowman, Steve Favorito, and Rick Simmons are members of a corporation, ARIZONA ONLINE GAMES, incorporated on 6/10/2004.

All of this points to a shell game. AE will be liqudated as well all of its unsecured outstanding debt. The "so called" secured investors will agree to this transfer, which by the way keeps David Bowman and crew intact and in charge of Horizons", because it keeps them from losing their investment. The intellectual property is protected!

Another way to look at it. They used other companies to finance their way to a low population but stable income model. The people getting the short end are the companies which provide services. Technically legal but totally unethical. I really don't know what is worse, the actions of these guys or the fanbois of the game cheering them on, justifying anything for their selfish enjoyment.

A copy of their current bankruptcy documents is available here for the time being (zipped PDF assembled by someone else)

http://www.archonon.com/artifact.zip

5mb, mirror if you would.