It appears that the Gizmondo console may just be facing its final days, as Gizmondo Europe has filed an administration application to the UK courts, in order to try and get some breathing space from their creditors. The hearing is set for January 31st, but in the mean time this gives the company protection from any legal action that could be made by any the companies to which it owes money.

Parent company Tiger Telematics have released information stating that staff amounting to 50% of the total payroll have been made redundant, the first steps in trying to reduce operating costs. A bridging loan of $5 million had also been granted to Gizmondo Europe in order to help with the restructuring of the companies debts. One of the larger debts totals $21 million which is owed to two shareholders and is due to be repaid by the end of March.

It is claimed that this does not affect the US arm of the company, but it would appear that the Swedish arm of the company and development section Gizmondo Studios are likely to be filing similar administration applications in due course. This is a particular shame in the case of Gizmondo Studios, which was formerly the development house Warthog with operations in the UK, US and Sweden. Warthog were bought up by Gizmondo to provide some in-house development of games titles, and had some interesting look titles in the works including a version of PC game Richard Burns Rally and punk beat ‘em up Johnny Whatever.

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