Red5 has not had the greatest track record and this is not the first time they have hit hard times. In April 2009 they were forced to close their Shanghai office. This was followed by layoffs in January 2010. However the company seemed to be on an upswing after The9 bought them with several high-points through 2013. Of course things can change rapidly in the game development industry so the successes of the past are not always an indication of a future.

What we find interesting is that Red5 chose not to warn all of their employees about this incident. There was an email sent to a small number of people, but not to everyone. The email simply said that Red5 was not able to make payroll for December 25th, but was working with parent company The9 to get things fixed. We do not know of any other information being sent to employees… It was not until after news hit the streets that Red5 decided to have an all staff meeting to explain.

As of this writing they are hoping to have enough money to pay back the missed payroll by the 30th. That will not cover future payroll… just what was missed. We wonder if that would have happened if the press had not broken the story about this. We hope that Red5 can get back on their feet and pay their employees what they have earned.

If you want to help out the Red5 employees there is a GoFundMe campaign campaign that was started by a Blizzard Developer (on their own) to help out the people affected.