July 12^th, 2005 (8:32pm) - Last night it was revealed that Hip Interactive’s North American publishing arm filed for bankruptcy due to heavy financial losses and an inability to pay off past loans. The week prior to this revelation, it was announced that the Canada-based publisher was experiencing financial difficulties, and despite a last minute effort to save the company’s North American publishing arm, the company shut its doors last night for good and was declared bankrupt by the Canadian courts.

Earlier today, however, Hip Interactive Europe clarified its situation saying that it will pursue its activities as a publisher, a distributor as well as a peripheral provider. So, despite the fate of its North American division, Hip Interactive Europe is still fully intact.

Interestingly, while Hip Interactive Europe will publish games such as George A. Romero’s City of the Dead, Ghost Wars, and Call of Cthulhu Destiny’s End in 2006, it is expected that other publishers will pick up the publishing rights for these games in North America.

We’ll keep you up to date on the possible fate of these games.