The six founders of Neon Machine, the game studio behind Shrapnel, have filed a lawsuit in Delaware trial court against 4D Factory investment firm CEO Cort Javarone, 4D equity holder Steve Horowitz, and private equity firm Northern Pacific Group's Scott Honor, and said these investors were trying to control the company's shareholders and plunder its coffers.
The Neon founders who filed the lawsuit include chief technology officer and studio head Don Norbury, chief creative officer Colin Foran, chief operating officer Aaron Nonis, chief marketing officer Mark Yeend, head of business development Naomi Lackaff, and others who were reportedly fired. CEO Mark Long.
According to Law360, Javarone appointed himself CEO of Neon on November 13 and removed original CEO Long from the studio's board of directors. However, Long posted on the X platform that he still serves as CEO.
Neon executives claimed that Javarone was trying to take over its studio and had violated its contractual commitments to new investors. (Decrypt)
According to previous news in October, game development studio Neon Machine completed a $20 million Series A financing, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Griffin Gaming Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Franklin Templeton, IOSG Ventures, and Tess Ventures.
Neon Machine will use this round of financing to further develop its shooting game Shrapnel. Its game team plans to release an early access version in December this year and fully release the game in 2024. The Shrapnel team currently has 70 employees.