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Earlier this year, the world of physical retro gaming welcomed 33 Games, a UK-based firm with big ideas for ensuring classic games got the legacy treatment they deserved.
Kicking things off with Gremlin's Zool on the Sega Mega Drive, 33 Games also revealed it would reissue the SNES title Utopia, along with First Samurai and Stone Protectors, all in lavish physical editions.
However, since report on these ventures, Time Extension has learned of serious issues with 33 Games and the past business practices of its boss, Steven Charles.
The first cracks appeared in September, when former Rare Community Manager and Playtonic Game Designer Daley Eve Johnson, who had been employed as 33 Games' Creative Strategy Lead, reached out to tell me she had been let go months after starting the job.
"I worked for 33 Games for a grand total of 3 months, after being assured by Steven that a long-term arrangement was more than possible," Johnson tells me. "I left my previous job for the role, believing in Steven and his vision. He had secured some well-known IP and told me of future deals that led me to believe he was legitimate."
When Charles terminated Johnson's employment, he attempted to withhold wages owed to her. "When it came to my final salary owed – as a PAYE employee – Steven emailed me asking if he could pay me 50% now and 50% later, as the business 'wasn't in a position to pay me in full'," she explains. "I declined his generous offer of giving his business half my salary as a loan, and let him know that withholding the full amount would be unlawful. Minutes later, the 100% owed magically appeared in my bank account."
Time Extension also understands that a key 33 Games contractor integral to the company's operation remains unpaid to the tune of several thousand pounds.
33 Games' troubles extend to the companies it is working with, too. Umbra Dynamics holds the rights to Zool and Utopia and has licensed them to 33 Games for its products. Boss Marc Williamson has revealed to Time Extension that the company is owed thouands of pound but yet to recieve any payment. "It's fair to say that we are upset that we are owed money, but we are most concerned about other contributors in the process that also are owed money and potential customers that have paid for things that might not make it to print."
During our investigation, we also heard that Beyond The Pixels, a retro-focused developer established by HaZ Dulull, had cut ties with 33 Games (the two companies were due to collaborate on a physical release of Astro Burn).
We reached out to Dulull, who provided the following statement:
"Following events that have only recently come to light, we are informing our customers and our community that we have ceased all business operations with 33 Games effective immediately. We will no longer be affiliated with the company in any way.
As a result, all Astro Burn physical media operations, including production, manufacturing, distribution and fulfilment, will now be managed entirely in-house by Beyond The Pixels.
We remain fully committed to delivering the quality, transparency and professionalism our customers, partners and supporters deserve."
Soon after Johnson got in touch to explain she had been let go by 33 Games without full pay, I discovered that Charles – whose full name is Steven Charles Gauntley – has a long and troubling history of financial irregularities. In fact, our paths had crossed many years ago amidst one of his previous bungled business ventures.
My first encounter with Gauntley dates back to 2018, when he approached me as editor of Nintendo Life regarding some hand-made shadow box artwork under the 8bit Boutique branding. Gauntley supplied two sample pictures, took part in an interview, and privately told me via email that he intended to secure official licensing deals with the likes of Nintendo and Capcom. He would also appear in Retro Gamer magazine around the same time.
Pretty soon, it became apparent that Gauntley wasn't being entirely honest with his customers – customers who, to my own shame and regret, had heard of his company via the article I had published on Nintendo Life. Reports began to appear on social media of unfulfilled orders, with Gauntley often using the excuse that he was hospitalised, only for images to be posted daily on the 8bit Boutique Instagram showing him working on commissions for other customers.
The wave of complaints Nintendo Life received about his actions led me to take the article about 8bit Boutique offline, and the 'company' quickly vanished without a trace – presumably taking its customers' money with it.
When Gauntley contacted me about 33 Games earlier this year, he used the name 'Steven Charles', so I didn't connect the dots and realise it was the same person who had reached out under the guise of 8bit Boutique almost a decade earlier. I'll be honest, the fact that he had hired people as talented as Johnson (who I know through her work at Playtonic) and Gary Harrod (Mean Machines legend and former Visual Design Lead at Square Enix Europe) didn't give me any reason to doubt him.
Once the dots had been connected, I dug a little more into Gauntley's past business practices, and discovered that in 2023, he was accused of fraud after the the collapse of his One Pro Wrestling / 1PW wrestling promotion in the UK, which he founded back in 2005 and relaunched in 2022.
After an event at the Doncaster Dome was pulled, Gauntley found himself in the firing line from fans and wrestlers alike. "Numerous fans say they have been left out of pocket by the firm’s collapse and say that Mr Gauntley has gone into hiding, with emails and messages going unanswered," reported the Doncaster Free Press at the time.
Wrestlers Matt Cardona and Steph De Lander, along with commentator Joe Dombrowski, were all expected to attend the 'Know Your Enemy' event on October 28th, 2023, but later made various claims about Gauntley on social media.
"This 1PW show isn’t happening and the promoter, Steven Gauntley, didn’t have the balls to tell me himself or respond to my messages," said Cardona at the time. "I should have learned my lesson after I had to tweet to get paid my deposit for the last show. Sorry to the UK fans who were planning on seeing me."
Dombrowski would accuse Gauntley of “dishonesty and deception as well as fraud," while De Lander said she wasn't even made aware the show was cancelled until she saw it on social media, highlighting the crippling mismanagement of 1PW. Dombrowski also posted extensive evidence to support the notion that Gauntley had embezzled funds from the company.
Gauntley would eventually address these claims, branding them as “absolutely ridiculous” and stating that he was the victim of a "smear campaign". In the same statement, he said he "nearly lost my life" less than 48 hours previously (very similar to his hospitalisation claims during the 8bit Boutique scam, you'll note), "and that is on top of losing dozens of thousands of pounds of my money, my car, and my house. I have genuinely sacrificed everything for this company that I loved."
1PW announced it had ceased trading in September of 2023, with money still owed to its fans. In 2024, Dombrowski would post on social media that he was aware of Gauntley "committing fraud & stealing money, particularly in the gaming community."
Given the evidence, it would seem that 33 Games is just the latest in a long line of dubious business practices undertaken by Steven Charles Gauntley. Needless to say, I regret giving the company any media attention on this site, and have retrospectively updated all of our previous coverage with a link to this piece.
Johnson says she's "disgusted" to now know the full extent of Charles' antics. "He has taken advantage of extremely talented, kind and professional people. When I dug deeper into who he really is, I was horrified to learn about two previous retro businesses he failed to mention, and a massive scandal in the wrestling industry. I've cut all contact with Steven, and I am supporting others affected by this mess. One positive from all of this is I met some fantastic, brilliant people - it's just a shame that getting duped by Steven is what connected us."
Time Extension has reached out to Gauntley for comment and will update this piece if any statement is forthcoming.