Things are looking pretty bleak for Empire Interactive. One by one, several parties have lost their interest in acquiring the veteran British publisher during the past few months, starting with Vivendi Games, RedOctane, Take Two, and more recently SCi Games. Having successfully revived Eidos after last year's acquisition, SCi Games looked like a great candidate for taking over Empire Interactive, however they too have abandoned the troubled publisher, who's future survival now hangs by a rusty wire called FlatOut 2.

Empire's recent financial report reveals heavy losses of €3.59 million in the last fiscal year ending March 31, 2006. The drop in income to €38.1 million (from €42.3 million during the previous 12 months) was attributed to "the postponement of the European release of FlatOut 2 until June 2006, as well as the company's delay in entering distribution agreements pending clarification as to the future of the group".

Other games have also been delayed on account of the company's uncertain future, and since no other party is known to be in talks with Empire at the moment, the very survival of Empire Interactive may indeed depend on the success of their newly released FlatOut 2 crash test dummy simulator. Early reviews place the sequel just above Bugbear's original FlatOut, so there may still be hope for Empire after all.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)