Sin City, Heroes Over Europe in limbo

SEC filing reveals Red Mile Entertainment too broke to publish graphic-novel adaptation, WWII air-combat sim.

In May 2007, Red Mile Entertainment acquired the rights to publish games based on Sin City graphic novels, which director Robert Rodriguez adapted into a popular 2005 film. Since then, the project has remained largely under wraps, resurfacing when the San Francisco Bay Area company announced it was restructuring last March. It made headlines again in August, when Red Mile revealed it had replaced the game's developer, Australia-based Transmission Entertainment, with a new, unnamed outfit.

Transmission did stay on, however, as developer of the World War II flight sim Heroes Over Europe, which Atari was to publish later this year. However, according to a filing made this morning with the Securities and Exchange Commission, both companies ended their respective deals with Red Mile last Wednesday. Red Mile admits that Transmission (referred to by its old name, IR Gurus, in the form) ended its agreement due to nonpayment of $281,000 in "software development and licensing."

Conversely, Red Mile is disputing the undisclosed grounds for Atari's termination of the Heroes Over Europe deal. It claims the France-based Ghostbusters publisher "ceased making milestone payments to [Red Mile] which has had a material and adverse effect on the company's ability to continue operations."

Unfortunately, it now appears that the Atari cancellation's effect may be so adverse that neither Sin City nor Heroes Over Europe will ever see the light of day. As part of the SEC filing, Red Mile revealed that its finances imploded during the last quarter of 2008. Its revenues plummeted from $5.7 million during the fourth quarter of 2007 to barely over $47,000 for the three months ending December 31 the following year. (On the flip side, the company's net quarterly loss shrank from $2.8 million to $500,724.)

Despite the smaller loss, Red Mile admits it is too broke to continue on alone. "We anticipate needing an additional $10,000,000 to finance our planned operations over the next 24 to 36 months," the company said as part of the filing's forward-looking statements. "We will be unable to complete development of Heroes Over Europe and Sin City: The Game (working title), or publish any other additional games if we are unable to receive copublishing advances on both the foregoing titles or raise additional capital through either sale of securities or issuance of debt."

25 Comments

  • fighterjock420

    Posted May 16, 2009 11:48 pm GMT

    Screw Sin City...it would make a lousy game. I want that Heroes Over Europe to come out, Heroes of the Pacific was the best WWII flight combat game of the last console generation...or this one, for that matter...

  • JohnnyRageing

    Posted Mar 8, 2009 7:55 am GMT

    An they could have alot of thing from the graphic novels that werent in the movie

  • JohnnyRageing

    Posted Mar 8, 2009 7:54 am GMT

    They should give the right to the game to rockstar who will keep it faithful to the movie a sin city game were you play marv dwight and hartigan would be amazing

  • Amir29

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 8:23 am GMT

    Good. Sin City Graphic Novels, and Movie were exceptionally good. We don't need a mediocre game by mediocre devs tainting it's glory.

  • m1rock

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 6:55 am GMT

    This is upsetting. I was really look forward to Heros Over Europe. Hopefully it gets out somehow....

  • Hedfix

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 4:41 am GMT

    Time for Ubisoft to step in, atleast on the Sin City front.

  • DarkDamo

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 4:34 am GMT

    Hopefully they are able to release Heroes over Europe. Hopefully it doesn't effect Transmission too much though.

  • simonsworld

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 3:36 am GMT

    my god, it hard for these smaller companies to make it with so many corprate powerhouses around, independent gaming companies the way forward come on!! :p

  • qaz88aof

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 2:20 am GMT

    damn pirates taking publishers money...... don't they know publishers fund developers

  • welshy023

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 1:43 am GMT

    A sin city game would have been SWEET!!!

  • norabbitnofun

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 10:41 pm GMT

    It is indeed unacceptable for such a big company as Atari not to honor its debts in time, especially these days.
    However, like others, I am not convinced I would be buying any of these games if they came out (though I personally liked Sin City, especially the comics, and even the fact that the movie carries through Frank Miller's style).

  • nate_c-12

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 8:14 pm GMT

    I was looking forward to Heroes over Europe, but I was wondering why nothing new was said about it. My 2009 game wishlist is slowly but surely getting smaller and smaller.

  • GeigerdolylWodd

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 7:35 pm GMT

    I don't know I think it could work. Does anyone remember Final Fantasy III. You know near the end especially but all through out that game you switched between characters and you could freely roam within reason but they each had their own stories. Why can't the same be done now with Sin City? Why does it have to be a straight up shooter/beatem up. If done right like Final Fantasy I think it could be interesting. At the very least consider the in game plot twists...

  • viewtiful_jay

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 7:04 pm GMT

    I just don't see how a Sin City game would work. I don't really think any of the stories lend themselves to the context of a video game, unless you just had Marv/Dwight killing in some kind of generic shooter, and that would completely piss all over the stories Frank Miller weaved together throughout the Sin City universe. The only way I see it working would be if Miller created a new story specifically for the game, and the game was built around it.

  • Quandry

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 6:02 pm GMT

    Hey, while your at it I to would like to have $10,000,000 to to create my ultimate evil plan I mean make a video game that all can enjoy. It would be a mix between gears of war and spore. with lots of guns and hot babes.

  • MecaShadow

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 5:55 pm GMT

    @Kravyn81:
    It's not like it hasn't happened before, a prime example being Goldeneye 007. The actual Goldeneye movie came out in 1995, but it wasn't until 1997 that the classic N64 FPS we know of today was released. Most often a longer timespan between when the movie was released and when the game based on the movie is released allows for a better quality game, instead of the typical shovelware we see today that is rushed in order to coincide with its particular film.

    I do only say "most of the time" for a reason, though, as more time doesn't always equal more quality (Robocop for the Xbox, anyone?).

  • ERoBB

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 5:08 pm GMT

    Sin City wouldve been damn hard to pull off. If MadWorld turns out to be any good, maybe a noirish bloodsoaked game could have a market. But I just dont trust the game industry to do it justice.

  • Sins-of-Mosin

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 5:01 pm GMT

    I'm sure the game would've been just as bogus as the film. Only good thing about the film is Alba and Willis.

  • Kravyn81

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 4:58 pm GMT

    Good move. Sin City came out in 2005 and we're already in 2009. Hmmmm...You think they could maybe wait a little longer before trying to capitalize on the license?

  • MrZentropa

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 4:45 pm GMT

    GREAT... the one new Spring release I was looking forward to Heroes Over Europe might not see the light of day. Maybe Blazing Angels 3 is in development???

  • Darkon_X

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 3:37 pm GMT

    Good. Sin City is one of my favorite movies of all time, however I don't think a videogame based on the movie would be very good.

    And who in the world decided to sell the Sin City rights to an uknown developer. Red Mile? WTF?

    Seriously check out their games:
    http://www.redmileentertainment.com/games/

  • ChaosTheFox

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 3:32 pm GMT

    For a moment I thought there was a new SIM City in development. Got me all excited over nothing, Gamespot.

  • nintendoboy16

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 3:22 pm GMT

    Oh well, never was hyped for Sin City: The Game anyway.

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