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Does it really matter?[message #130943] Mon, 26 February 2007 21:10 Go to next message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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Does it really matter discusing changes to the game when the game is on the verge of becoming vaporware?

[Updated on: Mon, 26 February 2007 21:11] by Moderator

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #130946] Mon, 26 February 2007 21:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Annapolisjohn is currently offline Annapolisjohn

 
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Richard is working on the game... You do need to voice your imputs so that his groups knows what you like about JA so they know what to change or more importantly what not to change

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #130954] Mon, 26 February 2007 21:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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The game as of now, has almost ZERO chances of seeing the light. With a net loss of close to one million dollars during first quarter fiscal 2007, i really dont see Strategy first worrying about anything other than paying it's debt to Introversion and mass personnel departure. Did i mention that because of it's losses it can go bankrupt?

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131080] Wed, 28 February 2007 00:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Annapolisjohn is currently offline Annapolisjohn

 
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I dont think you'd see Richard here if the project were Dead would you?

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131087] Wed, 28 February 2007 01:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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I think you don`t understand, Therrien's department is creative development, he has nothing to do about SF financial difficulties, that is handled by other people.

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131200] Wed, 28 February 2007 21:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ZaPPPa is currently offline ZaPPPa

 
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Richard is a partner in the firm, which means he's got his hands in basically everything. Also, he leads the creative development group and is ultimately responsible for the products that Strategy First delivers, either in-house or out-sourced to other companies. The quality of those products (partly) determines how much money the company makes.

If SF decides to cancel products, Richard will know about it, because he has a deciding vote. So, Richard being here means the project isn't dead (yet).

Besides, a net loss of $1M is not necessarely a lot for a company. I have seen many companies that have seasonal fluctuations in income. In software Q1 is traditionally a bad quarter because it follows a quarter of many holidays. Now, if SF posts a $1M loss for four quarters straight, that's a different story. Do you really think that cancelling products is going to solve the issue? They still need to make money and you can cancel everything, but unless you lay off all your employees, you might as well put them to work. That's the beauty of software engineering, you don't have a lot of base costs.

Heck, GM posted $13 BILLION loss last year and it's still running. Barely I admit, but new car models are still being designed.

[Updated on: Wed, 28 February 2007 21:26] by Moderator

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131204] Wed, 28 February 2007 21:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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1) Richard is a partner in the firm, which means he's got his hands in basically everything. Also, he leads the creative development group and is ultimately responsible for the products that Strategy First delivers, either in-house or out-sourced to other companies. The quality of those products (partly) determines how much money the company makes.

That's not entirely true, SF hasn`t developed anything in about 4 years, so SF's creative development are not actually the ones responsible for the company's financial problems.

2)Besides, a net loss of $1M is not a lot for a company. I have seen many companies that have seasonal fluctuations in income. In software Q1 is traditionally a bad quarter because it follows a quarter of many holidays. Now, if SF posts a $1M loss for four quarters straight, that's a different story and even then it's only a problem if they can't get any loans and have no money in the bank AND there's no blockbuster products close to release.

Maybe $1M ain`t much, but Strategy First is a small company. They do, however, have blockbuster titles close to release. I recently read tho, that SF not only owes lots of money to Introversion, but also to Battlegoat studios and yet another developer called Legend. They seem to have a nasty habit of not paying royalties. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10741


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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131219] Wed, 28 February 2007 23:43 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ZaPPPa is currently offline ZaPPPa

 
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As Richard has said before, even the out-sourced software that is developed for SF is being closely monitored by Richard himself. If you read the JA3D interview, you read that Richard pulled all the strings and the russian development team had little to no creative input. So, even if games are not developed by SF themselves, they can still be responsible.

A couple of tens of thousands of dollars owed in royalties is child's play. I really would not worry too much about it for a company the size of SF. Also, don't let the low number of employees fool you. The number of employees is not a good indication of the financial 'size' of a company.

Microsoft needs 28,000 employees to rake in 44 billion ($1.5M p/p). NASCAR only needs 800 to rake in 4 ($5M p/p).

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131231] Thu, 01 March 2007 01:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Annapolisjohn is currently offline Annapolisjohn

 
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Thanks for The Back up Zapppa ... Lot of gloom & doom here!

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131240] Thu, 01 March 2007 02:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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ZaPPPa
As Richard has said before, even the out-sourced software that is developed for SF is being closely monitored by Richard himself. If you read the JA3D interview, you read that Richard pulled all the strings and the russian development team had little to no creative input. So, even if games are not developed by SF themselves, they can still be responsible.

A couple of tens of thousands of dollars owed in royalties is child's play. I really would not worry too much about it for a company the size of SF. Also, don't let the low number of employees fool you. The number of employees is not a good indication of the financial 'size' of a company.

Microsoft needs 28,000 employees to rake in 44 billion ($1.5M p/p). NASCAR only needs 800 to rake in 4 ($5M p/p).


Good point there, i forgot that even if you are a publisher you can still have a lot of input on how the game is made. However you must realize that a publisher that apparently suspends royaltie payments to pay their own wages(im assuming that because, on what else would they spend the money destined for royalties?) don`t have a very good chance of securing new deals in the future, its all about reputation. With that in mind, SF, as a company, have difficult times ahead.

[Updated on: Thu, 01 March 2007 02:59] by Moderator

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131252] Thu, 01 March 2007 04:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ZaPPPa is currently offline ZaPPPa

 
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Remember that SF owns the rights to the JA franchise which puts them in a particularly strong position when it comes to JA sequels.

Business is a tough world. There could be a million reasons for SF not to pay royalties. Because we're only talking about a couple of ten thousand dollars, I doubt it is used for salaries (they could pay one employee with about $70,000). My guess is there is a dispute of some kind and SF took the liberty of taking liabilities out of the royalty check. This is more common than you may think.

Sometimes when a big company deals with a small one, the big company will refuse to pay anything. The small company often cannot afford the lawsuit and will not pursue the money. My brother went bankrupt that way.

All in all I am not too worried about whether the game will be finished, I just hope it will be good quality. Until I see good screenshots of the interface (I could care less about all those eye-candy shots developers keep posting nowadays), I have my hopes set on Apeiron's 7.62.

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131258] Thu, 01 March 2007 05:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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1)Business is a tough world. There could be a million reasons for SF not to pay royalties. Because we're only talking about a couple of ten thousand dollars, I doubt it is used for salaries (they could pay one employee with about $70,000). My guess is there is a dispute of some kind and SF took the liberty of taking liabilities out of the royalty check. This is more common than you may think.

That's what im talking about, suspending royaltie payments it's not a good way to bolster your reputation. I insist, if they keep doing this then no one will want to work with them. They'll start to lose even more money...

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131315] Thu, 01 March 2007 15:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ZaPPPa is currently offline ZaPPPa

 
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Agreed, but that's why companies get good salesmen who can sugarcoat things like this. Also, developers are often desperately trying to find a publisher. The software development market is in favor of publishers, which is why SF can get away with this.

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131316] Thu, 01 March 2007 16:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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Let's hope they can effectively sugarcoat the situation... It won`t be easy tho

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131367] Fri, 02 March 2007 02:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Annapolisjohn is currently offline Annapolisjohn

 
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More Gloom & Doom ... I am sure there will be a game as well lets just hope its the 1 we all hope for!

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131513] Sat, 03 March 2007 06:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
LCJr.

 
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Among the gloom and doom you forgot to mention SF has already filed for bankruptcy once. About 2 years ago IIRC. And Akella isn't developing JA3 but they are overseeing a company by the name of F3.

Allright Amalgram you're really slacking on the doom and gloom bit. You didn't even link to the Wiki entry on SF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_First

[Updated on: Sat, 03 March 2007 06:50] by Moderator

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131526] Sat, 03 March 2007 10:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Annapolisjohn is currently offline Annapolisjohn

 
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Kudos LCJr. ... Glad someone had some ammo!!!

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131896] Wed, 07 March 2007 03:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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I had no reason to cite my sources, if you just asked me for it i would have.







PD: If Akella isn`t developing JA3, and a first timer development house is doing, we're just as screwed.

[Updated on: Wed, 07 March 2007 03:55] by Moderator

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131968] Wed, 07 March 2007 18:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Annapolisjohn is currently offline Annapolisjohn

 
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Doesnt matter .. If ST were in the toilet I believe Richard would be sayinh as much.. I dont think he would be leading us on about a new game.

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #131987] Wed, 07 March 2007 22:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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If SF was in the toilet of course Therrien wouldn`t say a thing, he is a partner of the firm. Imagine how embarrasing it is to say something like t-t-t-th-that's all folks! to the community.

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #132031] Thu, 08 March 2007 16:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ZaPPPa is currently offline ZaPPPa

 
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So, the conclusion is that SF is not in the toilet. Ok, can we stop with the negativity now? You've made your point, I hereby acknowledge that I have read and understood your argument.. There's really no use in trying to scare the community.. That's what the US government is for. Smile

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Re: Does it really matter?[message #132046] Thu, 08 March 2007 20:31 Go to previous message
Amalgam is currently offline Amalgam

 
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I know scaring the community like this is absolutely useless, i wrote this topic at a time i felt extremely frustrated about
the franchise being sold to SF in the first place, and then the whole Mistland thing, i felt like bashing. Discussing things like this makes you wonder if selling the franchise to a very small but talented company is all that difficult :sadyellow:

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