AirLockAlpha.com

Money is running out for Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, and a new lawsuit isn't helping matters much.

The Mesa, Ariz., developer is the company behind the massively muti-player online role playing game "Stargate Worlds," which was introduced with a lot of fanfare at last year's Comic-Con in San Diego, but since has been in a financial crisis.

The latest to pile on is IO Capital Princess LLC, which claims it's owed an unspecified amount in an "unpaid open account," according to The Escapist magazine. The company already was struggling to pay its employees, but many stayed on hoping Cheyenne Mountain could find the funding it was looking for.

Instead, it could be the beginning of the end for "Stargate Worlds" if Cheyenne is not able to cough up the money.

"We have always been upfront with the media and our fans that we are a startup," Kevin Balentine of Cheyenne Mountain told reporters back when it struggled to pay employees. "Like many startups, we face the same cash-flow issues that all pre-revenue companies face."

Not helping matters right now is a recessed economy and tight credit markets, meaning that Cheyenne's business prospects are limited mostly to private investors or venture capital firms willing to take a risk on an MMORPG, an industry that itself has struggled to find too many successes outside of "World of Warcraft."

The game, according to Cheyenne's Web site, will allow ranged combat, stealth, exploration using Stargates for instant travel, and player accessibility with options for crafting and research for non-combat game play. It will be based on "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate: Atlantis," but not on "Stargate: Universe," at least not initially.

No release has been set for the game, and it's unclear what stage of development it's in.