Mindark Annual Report & Accounts for 2009 now out : Swedish : http://www.mindark.com/press/financial-reports/documents/MindArk-arsredovisning-2009.pdf Google Translate to English : Google Translate Digesting... Pennsif
MindBank scrapped (for now) Page 6. Not enough funds to make MindBank happen. Scrapped/put on hold for now. Pennsif
Interesting: MA knew last year, that with the new engine the income would drop in game. But this year new updates to the engine will be made and they are sure that will rise the income again. Also interesting that they actually reduced the marketing budget last year because the planetpartners will have to make their own marketing (clever). And as far as i can tell they are 9 mio behind the budget for the first quarter of 2010 ... oh well, not done yet ...
First Planet Company being sold (Page 6) First Planet Company being sold - for US$6million. Sale to be completed by 15 August. Presumably this will help unhealthy negative cash flow. Pennsif
First Planet Company being sold well the agreement and the first payment of one million, right? The rest (5mio) is being paid off and untill june 2011 ...
This report is really interesting: - Mindbank is dead (temporarily at least). Although they invested 11.9 Million [STRIKE]€[/STRIKE] [edit: my bad, it's SEK not €] into the banking project they weren't able to meet the necessary 5 Million € operating capital. - CRD planet is officially dead now. [PR: 150 Million Chinese are not coming to EU] - But luckily SEE will bring on 2 planets based on 2 Hollywood Intellectual Properties [Anyone wants to fly around in Batman costumes?] - They (almost) sold 50% of Planet Calypso's future revenues for shabby 6 Million $; 'in order to increase earning power' [MA logic ] - Net earnings have been dropping since 2006 and dived into negative numbers in 2009 [but just go ahead building the 3D internet thing...] Well... it's dynamic, huh? I just hope they will realize asap that 'RCE' is the only original thing they have (and of course it's heavily under attack) but in any other aspect (Mob AI anyone?) the competition is far ahead. And I hope they will act accordingly.
This financial report makes the (attempted) CND sale a lot more logical. I have to dust off my conspiracy hat.
In all honesty its nothing to get concerned over... yet. 2009 was a rough year when many companies shut down or were forced to streamline. Mindark should not be held to a higher standard simply because we the players wish to continue getting paid! On the other hand, Mindark does need to wake up and realize that the game industry is passing them by. Vehicles wont cut it anymore, especially not with the hugely contested and much maligned RMT based economy! They need to focus in on what counts: The gameplay. Games like The Chronicles of Spellborn, Ryzom, and Darkfall have left them in the dust with regard to gameplay and world "life." Ryzom has mobs that herd together, have their own unique natures (not all aggressive), and that hunt each other. The Chronicles of Spellborn has Monsters and NPC's that fight each other, and larger mobs prey on smaller mobs. Darkfall has extraordinarily deep player vs player, player and guild town and property ownership and construction, and is implementing a worldwide ecology. In order to remain competitive Mindark must be competitive. Ecologies and world interactivity are the cutting edge of MMO technology. MA has the graphics, but the mob technology reminds me more of Asheron's Call (made in 1998-1999). Come to think of it, even 1996-1997's Ultima Online creatures fought each other if they came too close to an enemy designated mob. EU does not even have this...
