Monumental restructures, but â??no layoffsâ??

UK developer Monumental today refuted growing rumours that the firm has entered administration, but revealed its subsidiary group “is technically insolvent”.

The company’s chief operating officer, Paul Mayze, told Develop today that the firm is undergoing restructuring, but claimed that the livelihoods of all thirty staff at its Nottingham base are safe.

“Recently Monumental had to make a number of redundancies in light of an unexpected project cancellation, as a result we’ve had to restructure the business,” Mayze told Develop.

He explained that ‘Monumental Games Ltd’ has served a notice of intent to appoint an administrator, yet its owning company ‘Monumental Games Group Ltd’ will continue trading.

The ‘Monumental Games Ltd’ subsidiary was described by Mayze as “technically insolvent”.

Despite the significant restructuring, Mayze said “we cannot foresee any redundancies”.

He added: “We’re securing funding for Monumental Games Group to continue trading, and that’s all in the process of being finalised right now.

“We’re going to continue to focus on the areas that we’re already working on. We’ll still have the racing studio, we’ll still focus on our digital online projects, and we still have the Prime engine business.”

In November Monumental began a series of staff cuts at the company following the “unexpected” cancellation of an unannounced project.

The number of staff affected is unknown, though a tip-off which suggested two-thirds of staff will be axed was branded as “nonsense” by an insider.

The news continues Monumental’s rollercoaster year, which in April saw the firm close its Manchester-based offices, while in September was named as the sixth-fastest growing technology company in the UK.

The company made £5.1 million last year, according to data in a Sunday Times survey, though it remained out of profit.

Much of the company’s future is pinned on its new 3D MMO engine, Prime, which Develop understands is gathering strong interest from a number of publishers.

In November the firm appeared at Game Connection in Lyon, France, to publicly unveil Prime to a host of potential partners.