Red Ant Enterprises Pty Ltd was an Australian owned video game,

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

, home video and PC software distributor. Red Ant is the largest such company in the country, as well as the local distributor for over 30 publishers that are based overseas, including

505 Games 505 Games S.p.A. is an Italian video game publisher based in Milan. It was founded in 2006 as a subsidiary of Milan-based Digital Bros. History 505 Games was founded in 2006 in Milan as a subsidiary of Digital Bros. The company found its earl ...

and Oxygen Games and previously European subsidiaries of Japanese companies such as Capcom Europe and

Rising Star Games Rising Star Games Limited is a British video game publisher based in Hitchin. History Rising Star Games was founded on 10 July 2004 by Martin Defries as a joint venture between Bergsala Holding and Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment ...

before Red Ant went into receivership. The company was deregistered by

ASIC An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficien ...

on 23 August 2011.ASICs Gazette 2011 August 23
Red Ant Enterprises has partnered with Rialto Distribution to start their home entertainment division which features independent and/or less-known films. In 2008, Red Ant announced they acquired the license from

Gainax Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; , Hepburn: ) was a Japanese anime studio famous for original productions such as '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'', '' Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise'', '' Gunbuster'', '' Nadia: The Secret of Blue ...

to release '' Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone'' as their first move into the anime industry. Red Ant currently owns the licenses to ''Evangelion 1.0'' and ''

Oh! Edo Rocket is a 2001 stage play written for the Gekidan Shinkansen theater troupe by Kazuki Nakashima and directed by Hidenori Inōe, with a novelization released in August of the same year. A manga adaptation illustrated by Una Hamana was serialized ...

'', and has secured the rights to ''

Perfect Blue is a 1997 Japanese animated psychological thriller film directed by Satoshi Kon. It is loosely based on the novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, with a screenplay by Sadayuki Murai. Featuring the voices of Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shiho Niiya ...

'', which

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, stylized as MADMAN, is an Australian film and television production, distribution, entertainment, and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising ...

(Australia's largest Anime sub-licensee and distributor) lost in late 2008. Red Ant Enterprises only owns the rights to the Japanese

subtitle Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, caption ...

d versions of these titles. Red Ant Enterprises had announced a new distribution deal with

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

of Europe, whose products were then distributed in Australia and New Zealand by

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

Australia. The deal was to come into effect early in 2009, but since Red Ant went into administration, Konami of Europe decided to return to Atari.

Receivership

On 21 January 2009, Red Ant announced that the company had gone into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

. This affects all their distribution deals with Red Ant having done deals with European subsidiaries of Midway, Konami and Capcom. Konami immediately reacted with KOE President Kunio Neo breaking their deal with Red Ant Enterprises and staying with

Australia Pty. Ltd. On 11 February 2009, Capcom Europe returned to their previous distributor THQ Asia Pacific.

has assured Australian retailers that Red Ant Enterprises' collapse has not affected the sale of their products in Australia. Rising Star Games had signed with AFA Interactive in August 2008 with Red Ant Enterprises distributing games submitted to the

OFLC The Office of Film and Literature Classification (), branded as the Classification Office (), is an independent Crown entity established under Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 responsible for censorship and classificatio ...

on behalf of Rising Star Games before then. All remaining Rising Star assets at Red Ant are being moved over to AFA, with

Nintendo Australia is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...

having all distribution rights to the Harvest Moon series on all Nintendo systems and use the Rising Star Games version. This event also affects all home entertainment licenses held by Red Ant Enterprises. Red Ant Enterprises partnered with Rialto Distribution when Red Ant ventured into home entertainment. Most likely all licenses held by the company will be sold by receivers

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

to try to pay as much back to the creditors as possible. The 3 anime licenses, ''

'' (Previously held by

under license from

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1991, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyr ...

) was given to

Siren Visual This is a list of anime industry companies involved in the production or distribution of anime. Japan-based companies Animation studios There are over 500 animation studios in Japan. Below are those notable enough to have an article. *3Hz * ...

, '' Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone'' was given to

, and ''

'' hasn't been relicensed as of 2014. On 14 April 2009, European publishers

, Black Bean, N3V Pulblishing and

System 3 System 3, System/3 or System III may refer to: Computing and electronics *Acorn System 3, a home computer produced by Acorn Computers from 1980 *Cromemco System Three, a home computer produced by Cromemco from 1978 *IBM System/3, a low-end business ...

went to Gold Coast based distributor, All Interactive Distribution.

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a Division (business), division of Media Technology Limited. In 1999, it became a subsidiary of Z ...

subsequently also went to All Interactive Entertainment to handle distribution for their titles. The company was deregistered by

on 23 August 2011. Within a month of the company's announcement of receivership, the former owner of Red Ant Enterprises, Julian White, was able to create a licensing consultancy agency by the name of Tuff Kat. The agency brought former Red Ant client 505 games. In October 2009, the Red Ant's Report As To Affairs revealed that over $2,000,000 had been loaned to subsidiaries and trust funds all owned by Julian White.

References

{{reflist

External links

The Rise and Fall of Red Ant, Kotaku Australia
Defunct video game companies of Australia Mass media companies established in 2001 Video game companies established in 2001 Mass media companies disestablished in 2011 Video game companies disestablished in 2011 Home video distributors Australian companies established in 2001 Australian companies disestablished in 2011

Receivership

See also

References

External links