ran out of money halfway through the project and sold our game to SegaSoft." In August 1996, Rocket Science laid off its marketing team of 20 people in an effort to transition exclusively to game development, and signed with SegaSoft to publish The Space Bar, Rocket Jockey and Obsidian. By the 20th, Rocket Science's old marketing division had been picked up by the publisher and put to work on these titles' promotional effort. All three games were set to launch by Christmas. SegaSoft described the deal as an effort to break into the computer game industry; its first releases in this market—Puzzle Castle and Fractured Fairy Tales—launched later that year. Estimated in PC Gamer USs September 1996 issue as three-fourths complete and on track for October, The Space Bar ultimately missed Christmas, alongside Obsidian. The latter game failed commercially upon its January 1997 release, as did Rocket Jockey in late 1996. In reaction, SegaSoft split with Rocket Science in early April 1997 and the developer entered a financial downward spiral, closing later that month. This upheaval left The Space Bar "very much in peril", wrote Kate Hedstrom of GameSpot. The game was finished months before it shipped; Mike Dornbrook said development concluded in early 1997, but issues at SegaSoft regarding marketing delayed its release for half a year. Gamasutras Frank Cifaldi noted that SegaSoft had begun to pivot to "online ventures such as the ill-fated Heat.net", and was uninterested in heavily pushing The Space Bar. The first advertisements for The Space Bar, circulated in early 1997, were done in a National Enquirer style that Boffo greatly disliked. According to Dornbrook, the marketing staff responsible for the campaign and The Space Bars initial packaging was fired, but the replacement effort was hampered because the former team "wasted most of the marketing budget". He accused SegaSoft of ignoring contractual guarantees to involve Boffo in marketing decisions, and rumors arose in April that Boffo was seeking an alternative publisher for the game. SegaSoft similarly scrapped Boffo's plan to run a "hint line" for The Space Bar, according to Meretzky, who believed that this hurt its accessibility for players. Dornbrook later called SegaSoft's handling of The Space Bar "a disaster", and said that Boffo "actually had to threaten cancellation of the contract to even get the slightest bit of involvement". On July 8, 1997, SegaSoft released The Space Bar for Windows 95 and Mac