dragonchild: To put it more simply, if the studio goes under then the middleman goes away and this deal becomes, in the most simplest terms, a government action to take money directly from even the poorest Rhode Islanders and shovel it into the pockets of out-of-state investors.

Oh, I'm with ya. This was rotten from the start, and my outrage factor was pretty high. It was an unnecessary gamble and the money could have been put to better use elsewhere.

We cannot change the past though, I just do not think that right now the company is in as horrible a shape as it's made out to be.

Kreigenstein: We cannot change the past though, I just do not think that right now the company is in as horrible a shape as it's made out to be.

well lets see here... released one game to decent reviews, but mediocre sales (compared to its budget.) Only other title on the horizon is an MMO which will be entering a saturated market and has been in production for 6 years and has released exactly 1 screenshot as publicity. Its still years from release and they're already missing loan payments, an independent audit from a year ago thought they were likely to go under. Their largest financial supporter (the state) is not going to give them more money and the president of the company has been caught lieing about the state of their finances.

yeah, thats pretty bad all around.

tlchwi02:
well lets see here... released one game to decent reviews, but mediocre sales (compared to its budget.) Only other title on the horizon is an MMO which will be entering a saturated market and has been in production for 6 years and has released exactly 1 screenshot as publicity. Its still years from release and they're already missing loan payments, an independent audit from a year ago thought they were likely to go under. Their largest financial supporter (the state) is not going to give them more money and the president of the company has been caught lieing about the state of their finances.

yeah, thats pretty bad all around.

What is their cash flow? How much cash do they have on hand? What are there accounts receivables?

None of us have a clear enough picture of their finances. All we know is that they have already paid back 29 million of the 75 million they borrowed and have just recently missed 1 payment.

Kreigenstein: What is their cash flow? How much cash do they have on hand? What are there accounts receivables?

well outside of the tickle of sales of their first game, they obviously can't have that much cash flow. They only sell the one product. the PWC audit is the most worrisome aspect. They thought they were in trouble before they released their game, and then the game underperformed. they don't have any other products on the horizon to go to market

tlchwi02: Kreigenstein: What is their cash flow? How much cash do they have on hand? What are there accounts receivables?

well outside of the tickle of sales of their first game, they obviously can't have that much cash flow. They only sell the one product. the PWC audit is the most worrisome aspect. They thought they were in trouble before they released their game, and then the game underperformed. they don't have any other products on the horizon to go to market

And why exactly are you attaching so much concern to a an audit you haven't read? There have been exactly 4 words quoted from that audit, with no available context.

They could be riding along on investment cash? Where did the cash to develop Reckoning come from? Who knows how much cash they have they have? If it's 100 million then they are fine, if it's $4.25 than maybe not. The point is we don't know.

Also, I thought Reckoning was going to go multi player at which point they will also add subscription revenue.

Kreigenstein: What is their cash flow? How much cash do they have on hand? What are there accounts receivables? None of us have a clear enough picture of their finances. All we know is that they have already paid back 29 million of the 75 million they borrowed and have just recently missed 1 payment.

We know quite a bit more than that. TheSelphie already mentioned in this very thread they were audited, and that said audit didn't look good (and PwC is one of the most cocksucking auditing firms out there -- you have to REALLY screw up to get them to say, "they could be doing better").

We also can deduce their cash flow and AR situation based on their line card, which is. . . one old game that sold OK. We even know how many copies it sold. We know how many employees are on the payroll, and -- given it's a video game company and going off cost-of-living census data for RI -- a basic idea that they're probably making more than federal minimum wage. With just this information we can conclude their balance sheets are gushing blood like your fat mom during her period.

Yanks_RSJ: [blog.news-record.com image 400x624]

Hah hah!

dragonchild:
We know quite a bit more than that. TheSelphie already mentioned in this very thread they were audited, and that said audit didn't look good

You mean someone on the internet said so?

Cough up the audit.

dragonchild: We also can deduce their cash flow and AR situation based on their line card, which is. . . one old game that sold OK. We even know how many copies it sold. We know how many employees are on the payroll, and -- given it's a video game company and going off cost-of-living census data for RI -- a basic idea that they're probably making more than federal minimum wage. With just this information we can conclude their balance sheets are gushing blood like your fat mom during her period.

Is that....deductive speculation? Now make up some more things to fill in the blanks with the data you are choosing to ignore.

I get what you're saying. As things look, questions need to be asked. The problem is there is more to the financial picture than what we see, which means it's a bit pre-mature to claim that the company is bust and a royal screwing is in order for the taxpayers.

Kreigenstein: And why exactly are you attaching so much concern to a an audit you haven't read? There have been exactly 4 words quoted from that audit, with no available context.

The last audit they had was from PWC. that audit said there were serious concerns about the companies liquidity. Now if they had gone out and sold 6 million copies of Amalur, that report wouldn't mean much. But they didn't. and now they just defaulted on their loan payments and are desperately seeking a bridge loan from a third party. In laymans terms, they are trying to pay their credit card bill with a payday loan. No matter how much you love schilling or want his company to succeed, thats a REALLY bad financial sign. And next year they have to start paying the balance on the loans.

also, you'll not that curt schilling himself- a multimillionaire many times over- has not only not stepped in and loaned his own company the relatively measly 1.125 million dollars needed to get past this hurdle, he has specifically removed all of his own personal money from the company.

Kreigenstein: You mean someone on the internet said so?

Ah, well, in this case I do have more info than you. TheSelphie is a CPA and knows a thing or two about PwC.

Kreigenstein: Is that....deductive speculation?

It's deductive, but I'm not speculating because I'm going off information that's publicly available and independently verifiable. Unless (for example) you know the developers are making less than federal minimum wage, in which case the burden of proof is one the one making the spectacular claim and it'd only further weaken your case anyway. I basically set a floor for their cost-revenue situation and their best case scenario isn't good.

I'm really not sure why you're trying to "win" this argument. I get what you're saying; our information of the situation is limited, but your demands are unreasonable. We don't have to know all the details. A lot of professional careers, especially scientific fields, are based on making accurate assessments from limited information via deductive reasoning. Hiding behind requests for unobtainable information is an old coward's trick, but it only works on idiots.

Smelly McUgly: Iceberg659: Mike_LowELL: JoanHaus: I think you're all missing the bigger picture here, which is that video games are completely lame. I won't talk to a human being over the age of 13 who plays video games. Get lives.

Submitted links approved: None

Stopped caring there.

That person is obviously a troll but your post doesn't make sense to me. What does "submitted links approved"(or the lack thereof) have to do with anything?

It's a GameFAQs joke. And yes, I'm ashamed that I know this.

Fair enough. I tend to treat visits to GameFAQs like an eleventh hour trip to the store for TP. Get in, get out, and don't make eye contact.

Oh man, just saw the story on the local Boston news and the clip of Curt walking to his car getting hounded is baaaaad. Besides all the local NE "real news" it looked like every shock jock in NE sent someone to hound him. Sucks, but them's the ropes when you open your mouth to politics then become a big fat hypocrite.

Cue the librul media is out for me cry in 3, 2, 1...

New news is that the "CEO" has been out on maternity leave. Indefinite maternity leave.
http://pbn.com/38-Studios-CEO-on-indefinite-leave,67619

She was also a former executive at Comcast and AOL. Nice pedigree there.

Reading the audit is not necessary if "going concern" is mentioned at all. You have to be in deep doo-doo to get that on your audit report. Oftentimes companies who need the disclosure don't get it at all, so you know they mean business if it's on there.

TheSelphie: New news is that the "CEO" has been out on maternity leave. Indefinite maternity leave.
http://pbn.com/38-Studios-CEO-on-indefinite-leave,67619

She was also a former executive at Comcast and AOL. Nice pedigree there.

Reading the audit is not necessary if "going concern" is mentioned at all. You have to be in deep doo-doo to get that on your audit report. Oftentimes companies who need the disclosure don't get it at all, so you know they mean business if it's on there.

I'd hit it.

meddleRPI: Considering I kno only had 4M w people working on Copernicus, 38 Studios is fine.

This is just the political drum machine beating against Schilling, because he doesn't fall in lockstep with liberal policies. Maybe he should re-brand his games as "green technology".

They announced they can't cover payroll today, after begging for more taxpayer money and being told to suck it. Apparently Schilling only had 4M at risk in the venture, and already paid that off with taxpayer funds, so it's all on RI. Estimates with interest are 112M. That's a hell of a drum machine.