Maximum Entertainment has revealed that they have cancelled a long requested fan game. But it looks like there’s a thicker plot going on in the company behind the scenes.
Last February, the studio revealed that they have licensed with Paramount to make a new multiplayer competitive Avatar: The Last Airbender fighting game. At the time, no less than Maximum’s founder Christina Seelye made the announcement, though she didn’t share that many details. What Seelye promised was that they would be sharing more details later in the year.
As shared on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit by user Jasonvsfreddyvs, Maximum has cancelled the game. On page six of the company’s latest financial report, they said this in the section about their operating expenses:
“R&D Expenses is up from 1.2 MEUR Q3 2023 to 15.3 MEUR Q3 2024 and includes a one-off write-down on 13.2 MEUR. The write-down is a result of impairment test during the quarter on games and includes canceled projects and underperforming launched titles. Of the 13.2 MEUR write-down amount 9 MEUR canceled titles Mudfest, Project Velos and Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
Now, Maximum Entertainment does not have the name recall of a Konami, or even a Saber Interactive, so you might be wondering what this company is. But you have probably heard of some of their games. This year, they released Squirrel With A Gun, Cat Quest 3, Wild Bastards, and the curious re-release of Oregon Trail on the Nintendo Switch.
While we don’t know much about the Avatar: The Last Airbender fighting game they were making, other parts of this report reveal there’s been a serious shakeup behind the scenes. On page 3 of the report, they revealed that their chairman of the board, Petter Hjertstedt, has resigned, and that they have named a new CEO in Philippe Cohen.
Hjertstedt also assigned for a special examiner to investigate Maximum Entertainment’s management, as the board added three new board members. And the report also revealed that Christina Seelye, alongside Maximum’s former CFO, Thierry Bonnefoi, have “filed request for arbitration against Maximum Entertainment” and that they are demanding payment of approximately 0.116 MSEK from the company.
Unfortunately, as of this writing, we could not independently verify from other sources what the situation with the company is. But suffice to say that they may not be in a position to make a demanding and expensive project like an Avatar: The Last Airbender fighting game at this time.
We’re sure Avatar fans aren’t too happy about this news, but as best as we can tell, this project has simply given way to some real life events going on in the company right now, that they are better off not getting involved with. But given that Paramount has a renewed interest in bringing their IPs to the video game business, they could find their way into making this game again.
