As we suspected, Empire Interactive has entered administration with 49 employees now out of a job. While Silverstar Holdings, the parent company for Empire Interactive, attempted to dispel rumors of the studio’s imminent demise, our sources have been telling us that short of divine intervention entering into administration was all but assured.

KPMG who is handling the administration affairs for Empire Interactive has released a statement in which they claim that all but six employees have been laid off. The six who remain will wind-down the operations of the company. Our sources tell us that administrators will likely shop both the FlatOut franchise as well the Big Mutha Truckers franchise in an effort to raise some money to help pay off some of the debts that the company has on the books.

Our sources tell us that the company did have a new FlatOut title in development, but as to which platform this might have been for or how far along the title was into the development cycle remains a mystery. It is unknown if any studio or company might be interesting in picking up the FlatOut franchise, but it is possible that we might not have seen the last of FlatOut.