LOL. He’s the king or the saint?
Edit: Still unable to find the CGW cover. I think it’s 1996 April. Because I remember it’s related to the announcement that Mark Hamil is hired for the WC game.
I haven’t bought this, but I watch some of the videos on the youtubes.
They had a video about some item 2.0 change a week or two ago. A senior gameplay programmer spent about twenty minutes describing something about the change, the same guy they have showing his bug fixes, and I understood none of it. I think I came out of it understanding less about the change than I understood to begin with.
Then they had a second video about it. And they had the same guy talking the same confusing stuff they had in the first video.
Considering how most of the other people have scripts they read from, which probably ups the production level quite a bit, they should get someone else to translate this guy’s confucations into scripts.
Item 2.0 seems to be less of a high-level feature and more of the way their code is structured, although there are apparently high-level features which depend on that restructuring. I basically skipped those videos because I don’t need to see how the sausage is made when it comes to their programming.
In what it is a SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT, it seems they are in financial trouble, and they asked a loan with all their work and IP as collateral
Razgon
3729
Well, thats too bad for the apparently huge amount of people who saw this as the game to end all games. To the rest of us jaded people, not so surprising no.
Oh dear, sounds like the fat lady banker is beginning to sing. If CIG default out to 60 days, the bank can claim IP and foreclose. For CIG, servicing that debt is reliant on continued sales, which may slow as the risk of these loan terms becomes widely known.
So basically, the bank now owns Star Citizen, and they can’t get any further loans.
kerzain
3732
I feel bad for whoever it is at the bank that’s gonna be tasked to extract value out of that collateral once the loan defaults.
habibi
3733
If it defaults and the IP belongs to the bank, can the backers file class action lawsuits against the bank? Hope they are smart enough to take into consideration potential claims from backers. Then again, I think the backers have no claims, as it is a form of donation.
Menzo
3734
I find it very unlikely that a bank will offer them money with an incomplete video game as collateral. It’s effectively a worthless asset. You can’t sell it to someone else, really, and believe me, I know. I worked at 38 Studios, and for all the talk about resurrecting the MMO they were working on, it’s really just impossible.
Banks are generally not dumb. They don’t fall for hype like consumers do.
I am sure it will be fine, maybe they just need some spare cash to covers snack bills.
Yep. I knew 2 people who worked there previously, and the stories they gave me were not pretty. Not a shock at all. Whoever the project leader(s) of this were should be ashamed of themselves for pissing away so much money for so little return. As for Roberts, well…it’ll be a tough road back into the industry if this does collapse, IMHO.
Turns out maybe that he who shall not be named might have been …right? gasp aloud
GAF thread has been closed now, devolving into a defenders vs detractors debate. Hard to really know what this is about as the reason for the loan and it’s value is unknown. There could be valid commercial reasons for seeking a loan (cash tied up in illiquid assets or long-term investment, hedging, etc), but the breadth of the collateral offered for security seems extreme.
On the other hand, what collateral can be offered by a single IP, unreleased game development firm that is of value?
Basically it’s just IP, code and art assets right now that is of value which an investor may accept. The workstations used by employees are practically scrap if they are offered for auction.
Maybe that star trek style sliding door… a fan or museum may bid quite some for it…
I haven’t really followed development progress, so my question is:
Is anything they are eventually planning to release, coming out this year? And I mean finished, 1.0 , fully playable.
I think the silver lining is that they would not have taken a loan unless they felt that with the incoming funds, the game can be finished and released.
Nope. SC 3.0 is apparently due next month or the one after after being pushed again (I think) - but that is still a long, long, long way from gold, despite the versioning. Some poor sods still think SQ42 is due for release this year, but given we haven’t actually seen anything of that since basically the Gary Oldman trailer/intro scene reveal well over a year ago, I highly doubt that is ready to go, even if you buy their ‘we don’t want to spoil the story’ marketing.
I’d be pretty surprised if this were a bank, to be honest. It’s much more likely a fund or funds. I suspect Coutts is just acting as security agent.
Actually, I take that back, having read the deed of charge. The margin isn’t anywhere near high enough for a fund to take this sort of risk. I can only imagine the loan is pretty modest in size and pretty short term (some kind of working capital facility, basically). A 2% margin is not what you’d expect for a conventional loan to a company like this which has no visible revenue stream or tangible assets.
So are we nearing the end of the long, lazy death spiral now?
