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Rift: Trion Worlds Considers IPO

MikeBMikeB Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555

Speaking to Reuters, Trion Worlds CEO Lars Butler revealed that the possibility of going public is on the company's "horizon at some point."

image

Lars went on to explain, "We've had a lot of bankers coming to us recently. We keep all of our options open at this point. We definitely have enough substance and enough skill to be a public company at the right time."

Trion Worlds has raised over $100m in venture capital since 2007, and according to Butler, their first game, RIFT, is "vastly profitable."

via Gamasutra.

Comments

  • PuremallacePuremallace Member Posts: 1,856

    I doubt this will happen anytime soon considering they need Defiance and End of Nations to be money makers before they even think they should.

     

    If it happens hopefully the competent people stay in control at Trion and they continue to fund Rift with no issues.

  • Joshua69Joshua69 Member UncommonPosts: 953

    that guy reminds me of Lex Luthor.

  • rojoArcueidrojoArcueid Member EpicPosts: 10,722

    Originally posted by Joshua69

    that guy reminds me of Lex Luthor.

    it reminds me of Kane from WWE.... with the creepy grin and psycho stare lol





  • ValentinaValentina Member RarePosts: 2,077

    Lol hahaha.

  • MyGaronaMyGarona Member Posts: 139
    In other words - we've made our investment back now let's sell the IPO quickly before TOR, GW2, D3 and Titan are out.
  • popinjaypopinjay Member Posts: 6,539


    Originally posted by Torvaldr
    This concerns me to a point.  I realize that capital is important, but it will definitely change the company environment.  It always does.  Whether a private company is purchased by a public entity or goes public it doesn't matter because it is an entirely different environment being public.
     
    I do think they might have what it takes to be successful and public, but it's risky.  This is one of the few games, at the moment, I think really is worth the subscription fee.  There is a visible development effort and pace that other publishers/developers don't show.  Would this remain after going public or would all the profits go into the corporate and shareholder coffers?  Would the development pace slow down to the glacial crawl of other companies?

    There's no other option at this point. You have to look at it purely as a business decision.


    Let's assume they paid off the 100 million they borrowed (I don't think so but lets say they did).

    Now they have no debt and they have to finish:


    1. Defiance

    2. End of Nations

    3. Fund their whole "Red Door" publishing platforming they just announced.

    4. Pay for headquarters, new expansions they are planning Montreal or Vancouver, pay for now over 500 employees.

    5. Continue to pay for Rift's development which means develop, test and get their first expansion out the door.


    Where does that money come from? One game, lol? Nope.


    Then it's either borrow from more bankers/capital ventures which means you now owe debt and a few people or few companies own Trion overall, or you go IPO and millions of individuals own Trion instead. Those are the only two options here. Rift is not WoW churning millions and millions in revenue to pay for everything else.

    So going IPO makes sense because at least they stay debt free. The problem is that will take a LONG time to do and in the meantime, they still have all I listed above to pay for right NOW.

  • PuremallacePuremallace Member Posts: 1,856

    Originally posted by popinjay



    There's no other option at this point. You have to look at it purely as a business decision.

     

     



    Let's assume they paid off the 100 million they borrowed (I don't think so but lets say they did).

     

    Now they have no debt and they have to finish:



    1. Defiance

    2. End of Nations

    3. Fund their whole "Red Door" publishing platforming they just announced.

    4. Pay for headquarters, new expansions they are planning Montreal or Vancouver, pay for now over 500 employees.

    5. Continue to pay for Rift's development which means develop, test and get their first expansion out the door.



    Where does that money come from? One game, lol? Nope.



    Then it's either borrow from more bankers/capital ventures which means you now owe debt and a few people or few companies own Trion overall, or you go IPO and millions of individuals own Trion instead. Those are the only two options here. Rift is not WoW churning millions and millions in revenue to pay for everything else.

     

    So going IPO makes sense because at least they stay debt free. The problem is that will take a LONG time to do and in the meantime, they still have all I listed above to pay for right NOW.

    Trion is not the producer of End of Nations or Defiance. They are the publisher which is completely different. They are distributing the game and letting those games use their platform to launch it.

     

    NCSoft is an example of the producer of Guild Wars 2 supplying the money. EA is the Producer for Bioware publishing ToR.

  • DKKOberonDKKOberon Member Posts: 75

    Please don't become another soulless corporation run by beancounters. Death to Wall Street!!

     

     

  • popinjaypopinjay Member Posts: 6,539


    Originally posted by Puremallace

    Originally posted by popinjay

    There's no other option at this point. You have to look at it purely as a business decision.
     
     

    Let's assume they paid off the 100 million they borrowed (I don't think so but lets say they did).
     
    Now they have no debt and they have to finish:

    1. Defiance
    2. End of Nations
    3. Fund their whole "Red Door" publishing platforming they just announced.
    4. Pay for headquarters, new expansions they are planning Montreal or Vancouver, pay for now over 500 employees.
    5. Continue to pay for Rift's development which means develop, test and get their first expansion out the door.

    Where does that money come from? One game, lol? Nope.

    Then it's either borrow from more bankers/capital ventures which means you now owe debt and a few people or few companies own Trion overall, or you go IPO and millions of individuals own Trion instead. Those are the only two options here. Rift is not WoW churning millions and millions in revenue to pay for everything else.
     
    So going IPO makes sense because at least they stay debt free. The problem is that will take a LONG time to do and in the meantime, they still have all I listed above to pay for right NOW.
    Trion is not the producer of End of Nations or Defiance. They are the publisher which is completely different. They are distributing the game and letting those games use their platform to launch it.
     
    NCSoft is an example of the producer of Guild Wars 2 supplying the money. EA is the Producer for Bioware publishing ToR.


    That's still going to cost them money on their end regardless. That's two projects still to pay towards whether it's partial or full.


    Trion wouldn't be doing IPO unless they have to have cash coming in right now. That said, it's probably a better move than outright borrowing from bankers and owing debt.

  • PuremallacePuremallace Member Posts: 1,856

    Originally posted by popinjay

    Trion wouldn't be doing IPO unless they have to have cash coming in right now. That said, it's probably a better move than outright borrowing from bankers and owing debt.

    I agree with this. It is better then going back to your financers and borrowing money back or something. Most people just want them to keep an independent operation.

  • MikeBMikeB Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555

    Originally posted by Puremallace

    Originally posted by popinjay



    There's no other option at this point. You have to look at it purely as a business decision.

     

     



    Let's assume they paid off the 100 million they borrowed (I don't think so but lets say they did).

     

    Now they have no debt and they have to finish:



    1. Defiance

    2. End of Nations

    3. Fund their whole "Red Door" publishing platforming they just announced.

    4. Pay for headquarters, new expansions they are planning Montreal or Vancouver, pay for now over 500 employees.

    5. Continue to pay for Rift's development which means develop, test and get their first expansion out the door.



    Where does that money come from? One game, lol? Nope.



    Then it's either borrow from more bankers/capital ventures which means you now owe debt and a few people or few companies own Trion overall, or you go IPO and millions of individuals own Trion instead. Those are the only two options here. Rift is not WoW churning millions and millions in revenue to pay for everything else.

     

    So going IPO makes sense because at least they stay debt free. The problem is that will take a LONG time to do and in the meantime, they still have all I listed above to pay for right NOW.

    Trion is not the producer of End of Nations or Defiance. They are the publisher which is completely different. They are distributing the game and letting those games use their platform to launch it.

     

    NCSoft is an example of the producer of Guild Wars 2 supplying the money. EA is the Producer for Bioware publishing ToR.


     

    Trion is in fact the developer of Defiance. End of Nations is a second-party development project.

  • fivorothfivoroth Member UncommonPosts: 3,916

    As companies grow they need to go public to raise further capital. It all depends on their future plans for the company.

    Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.

  • daltaniousdaltanious Member UncommonPosts: 2,381

    I just hope they will not ruin Rift. Or hurt any future projects.

  • FozzikFozzik Member UncommonPosts: 539

    Maybe merge the already existing thread with this one... we've been talking about this for a day or more.

  • SorrowSorrow Member Posts: 1,195

    Syfy has already invested 100 million into defiance, was my understanding the development costs were completely covered already as part of the partnership contract.

    image

  • PuremallacePuremallace Member Posts: 1,856

    Originally posted by MikeB




     

    Trion is in fact the developer of Defiance. End of Nations is a second-party development project.

    ahh ok thanks for clearing that up. I know they were partnered with Petroglyph on EoN, but not much about Defiance has been let out, so I am spotty on my knowledge there.

  • cagarcagar Member Posts: 98
    IPO = it's probably overpriced.
    Hard to tell ATM tho since I don't know what they are going to offer.
    Hopefully the market turns around before or if they do.

    70 monk eq1
    80 bruiser eq2
    43 druid wow
    Currently playing : rift

  • mCalvertmCalvert Member CommonPosts: 1,283

    This will make it easier to see their revenues decline as they stagnate.

  • PuremallacePuremallace Member Posts: 1,856

    Originally posted by mCalvert

    This will make it easier to see their revenues decline as they stagnate.

    Not sure how Rift is stagnating. We are getting a new area to run around with new mechanics and tier 2 raid level stuff + new 5 mans in maybe 2-3 weeks if that. If anything I wish Trion would sell that dev pace to a few other mmorpg companies out there.

  • popinjaypopinjay Member Posts: 6,539


    Originally posted by Sorrow
    Syfy has already invested 100 million into defiance...

    Total falsehood, hahaha!


    Where did you read that, lmao? That hasn't been disclosed at all. That hasn't even been reported or rumored.


    There is no way a company like SfFy is going to invest 100 million into a video game. They don't even invest 100 million into their own movies, lol!

    imageimageimageimageimage

    Trust me, if SyFy channel put 100 million into a video game, they'd insist it have a catchy title like "Riftshark" or "Riftasharkaoctopus".

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