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Rune Factory's Neverland Company Suspends Operations, Files for Bankruptcy

Japanese video game developer Neverland Co. Ltd. announced on its website on Friday that the company is suspending operations as of Friday and will in a few days start bankruptcy procedures in Tokyo District Court.

Neverland stated in its announcement that in recent years the industry has changed, and as a result the company's sales have been sluggish. Neverland added that repayments on loans from various banks had also become an excessive burden, and its financing efforts deteriorated. Neverland said it tried with a great effort to reorganize the company with sponsor support, but eventually its hopes for gathering more financing were dashed, and the company reluctantly had to make this decision to suspend operations and file for bankruptcy.

Neverland apologized to all those involved, including its creditors, and also thanked all its fans for their patronage until now.

Neverland Company was founded on April 14, 1993, and currently has 36 staff members. The company is mostly known for its Lufia, Shining Force, and Rune Factory series of games, but also produced a Record of Lodoss War game for the Sega Dreamcast, as well as the Chaos Seed, Estpolis, Disney's Magical Park, Egg Monster Hero, and Las-Boss Hunters games, and the Petit Rock Shooter game for the iPhone.

XSEED Games most recently released Rune Factory 4 for the Nintendo 3DS in North America on October 1.

[Via Hachima Kikō]