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CCP's financial situation AKA ccp need moneys to develop Dust and Wod=milk eve
cosy
Member UncommonPosts: 3,228
copy pasta
Disclaimer:
I am not an accountant, I'm just passing on information. Please read with caution and double check things stated here yourself. No guarantee on this being correct at all. Also, the annual report is not a 'leak'. It's information that is available to the public.
Someone got their hands on the latest annual report of CCP. You can check it out yourself here. edit: link got nuked go to post 19
CCP is a profitable company but it looks like it is having some cash flow problems because development costs for Dust and WoD are high. You can read an analysis of their situation here.
EDIT: The Market Discussions forum on Eve-O seems to agree. And Goon lawyers are also looking into it (couldn't make this up even if I wanted to).
They will have to repay a large loan later this year which will require most of their cash assets therefore they'd have to take another loan or sell parts of their company. For that to be feasible though CCP has to show that it's making a profit and apparently they're trying to use MT to make their cash flow problem look less serious.
Which explains pretty much everything that CCP has done, said and hinted at so far.
TL;DR
Dust and WoD are burning too much cash and therefore CCP needs to at least show that MT can work in EVE so they can convince banks/investors to give them a cash injection (through loans/equity deals). Ideally yesterday.
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A personal note to CCP: One way out of this mess would be to just be honest about all of this and let us buy those idiotic scorpion skins to solve your darn cash flow problem in the short term. Granted, the words 'Sorry, we ****ed up, please help us keep this sandbox alive. We'll do vanity items only, forever - ok?" would have to be spoken. Just my 2 cents.
EDIT: People on FHC are already talking about setting up an investment group so players can buy a share of CCP.
Another very personal note: Thanks to the EVE sandbox for teaching me how to do stuff like this. Learned how to run a corporation in EVE, done the same IRL after that, now I get a shot at helping save CCP's own ass. Epic win.
Also: can SOMEONE, PLEASE get someone to cover this? Massively? Kotaku? I mean what's happening here is pretty darn epic, even if CCP ****s it up in the CSM meeting.
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1541173
BestSigEver :P
Comments
They need to cancel Dust tbh.
What they need to do is put WoD in the back burner for now and focus on Dust 514. WoD can wait I believe.
This is not a game.
The developer time already spent on it is counted as an IP asset on the books. If they failed to complete DUST and thus failed to realize the value they have assigned that asset, it would be bad mojo.
edit: link isn't working
Does anyone really believe any of that rubbish.. honestly ?
That CCP, a small indie developer a few years ago, is now in bad financial shape due to simultaneously developing two MMOs while supporting a third with the profits from a single MMO? Yes, I believe that.
So is the next tinfoil hat theory that someone is inciting the riots to attempt to weaken CCPs hand in negotiations?
CCP already has investors that own shares in it so the investor's group isn't going to happen unless somebody decides to sell their portion of CCP.
If the above is true and it probably is, CCP has a few options including an extension on their loans probably at a higher interest rate or sell off their assets like white wolf.
If the absolute worst should happen eve online is still profitable and would be bought out right by another company.
Dust 514 is a fail if eve fails tbh, i only say so because those game have an connection and people are quitting the game. I would vote for WoD since that would proably be the game that finances Dust.
Why risk it? is there realy so much hype for dust rather than WoD? Dust isn't even a PC game, people will have to buy a PS3 or Xbox360 to play that game, what about those who can't afford to buy an console to play a game that also need to be bought + paid monthly. WoD is a safer card to play from CCP and what of the report that was uploaded it seems that they could squeeze in those 2 games, NOTE: Squeeze is nothing a dev wants to hear in a representation.
Bless your soul no troll!
lol to that one, actually laughed :P
OP, ex-finance guy here. The link you posted for the annual report is dead. I will look into this, but I think they already publish a financial report on the the state of EVE. That might be something different entirely from the report your looking for.
As far as shareholders rights:
In the US anyone with I believe owns 5% or more of the company gets you a seat on the board as a shareholder. The problem with that is CCP is not publicly traded and the finance/investment laws might vary overseas. I am not familiar with Icelandic Laws.
Looking into the balance sheet might not really be something useful, other than to pull the companies public covers, making them very vulnerable to competition and would be raiders.
If they are looking into it from a productive standpoint, working with the CSM to try and come to some agreement that might work with CCP financial goals as well as pacify customer demands, they might have a chance.
If this is an attack ploy then I would warn against it, unless they can come up with enough financial clout to make a difference. In the case of the size of CCP it would take millions. Also think about the Icelandic government, they might have a say in this since CCP has to be part of the national economy.
Fix your link and keep me up to date. This looks like it might be interesting.
I would pay at least $300 into a EVE player investment group. I wouldn't do this because I'm a huge fanboy for EVE or anything, but because I want to invest in an MMO company that I have respected in the past, so I can have some small say in making sure CCP stays a company I can respect.
I would also be fully willing to bet on rthe future of EVE, DUST, and World of Darkness.
Know what dust is what is WOD though?
If dust flops.. witch will most likely happen then CCP is finished.
It wasn't that they wanted to restrict it to only the PS3 it was that, the PS3 was the only one willing to open their networks and experiment. If you feel left out because you only have an Xbox, blame microsoft.
Because flying a Minmatar ship is like going down a flight of stairs on an office chair while firing an Uzi.
If this is the truth, then CCP has no one but themselves for biting off more than they can chew.
If they truly don't have the capital to continue development, then they need to postpone or cancel one or both projects. Using Eve to milk their existing customers may give them a short term influx of cash, but in the long run consumer satisfaction and loyalty will go down, which means future subscriptions and sales for Eve and their upcoming games will also go down.
i will get you some links just give me few minutes
use this http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Herschel/CCP_Financial_Statements_2010.pdf
if that also get nuked you can get the pdf over freenet http://localhost:8888/SSK@NRcPstdNmE8LHqGjL7GEJx2SsIa2QzFiqNFQOqg4gJo,s1H2mR0rq-vUzP89tb1YEvTwHLNFUUOv2PPuRCeaGyU,AQACAAE/ccp%20moneys.pdf
BestSigEver :P
CCP isn't publically traded, it's a private equity deal. So unless you have a million dollars in free assets lying around, or have an annual income of $200,000, you aren't qualified to be an investor in it by law.
Just sayin'
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
I was shocked when I first read Dust would be a PS3 only title. I mean if you're going to restrict it to one platform why not go with PC, especially if it's a FPS. The Keyboard and mouse are so much better than a controller.