Holy Grail Games, Publisher Rallyman: GT And museum, announced that it would close immediately due to delays and increased costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In an article posted on the company’s blog earlier this week, Holy Grail explained that delays caused by the pandemic have doubled over the past two years, resulting in a lot of retail revenue being lost over the past two years. While the company has recovered somewhat in the past year, a fulfillment issue with Bollore Logistics not only resulted in games being mis-shipped to the wrong customers, but also resulted in Bollore keeping the entire inventory of Holy Grail Games on their website, preventing any further sales from happening. When Bollore demanded payment for three projects simultaneously, Holy Grail’s financial prospects diminished and the company decided to close after seeing no way forward for the company.
“Holy Grail Games is now in the process of bankruptcy, which means that all of our assets have been turned over to a government official who will use them to pay our creditors,” the blog reads. “Starting this week, we will lose access to all of our work and email accounts, and all of our team will be laid off.”
Holy Grail Games notes that its bankruptcy will mean that some Kickstarter backers will not receive the games they were promised during the campaigns. Holy Grail Games has apologized to these backers, saying that they did everything they could to deliver the games and are still trying to find a way to make it right even as the company goes into bankruptcy.
The problems Holy Grail Games are facing are an example of the shaky financial condition of many board game publishers even after the pandemic. Many companies are dealing with mounting costs and shipping delays, often relying on relatively small windows to receive payments in order to pay their bills and keep businesses going. As evidenced by the Holy Grail Games meltdown, production delays are more than an inconvenience for gamers who want to play the game — they can be fatal for businesses.
Holy Grail Games admit they don’t know the future of their games, though they hope another publisher will pick up the rights to the games so they can continue in print.
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