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Starvault Q1 Financial Results - OUCH
Slapshot1188
Member LegendaryPosts: 17,720
http://www.aktietorget.se/NewsItem.aspx?ID_News=58881&Language=2 (Original in Swedish)
http://www.aktietorget.se/pressdocs/StarVault/58881/STVA%20B%2020110526%208.pdf Full Report
Highlights:
* During the first quarter of 2011, profit after financial items -774 157 SEK (225 833) and earnings per share amounted to -0.03 SEK (0.01).
* The number of monthly payments during the first quarter of 2011, virtually unchanged compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. (So I guess this is the ultimate evidence regarding any claimed changes in population...)
* The sale of licenses in the first quarter of 2011 remained largely unchanged compared to the fourth quarter of 2010.
(Remember.. when Henrik was promising 25% increase in subs...?)
* Mortal Online launched February 24, 2011 1:14 day "trial" period (Free Trial) for new players. (note that Q1 ended 3/31..)
* With our current cost structure, the Board expects that an additional approximately 1000 players to achieve break-even, a goal that we hope to achieve during the second quarter of 2011.
Let's all hope that the upcoming DAWN expansion provides some financial stability for Mortal Online!
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Comments
Well, i guess they have atleast 500 more subs than last time atleast since their last goal was 1500 to break even. I hope they will be able to pull of profit soon enough but as long as the money loss isn't to big it sould be ok. As they are probaly bringing in alot of money to, a loan sould not be out of reach ecpecally since the company is stationed here in sweden. Also you have to remember that it's in its usuall that companies go back on money the first years. Think of twitter witch have like 400 million? people and is still not doing profit, and i think facebook just started earing while projects like xbox have not earned a single dime (in whole) since it's start over 10 years ago.
I dont think we have to worry about MO beaing shut down. They said that less than 1% of mmorpg gamers knew about Mo since they havn't done any marketing for it.
Hopefully henriks dad have some more money to spare
Also 20 000 people apperently have tryed the free trial. that is a good number and that could be from where the people talking about a growing poplulation have noticed from.
"During March / April 2011, we completed a rights issue. Through the offering we were about 3.6 million before transaction costs. Thus we were able to repay previous loans contracted to build in 2011 on a sound financial base. In addition, we calculate the capital have for Star Vaults operation until a positive cash flow is achieved. Server and broadband capabilities are already designed to be scaled up in the pace of Mortal Online is growing. With our current cost structure, the Board expects that an additional approximately 1000 players to achieve break-even, a goal that we hope to achieve during the second quarter of 2011."
So they have bacially it's looks better than late last year when they truly where near financiall breakdown in the company.
Maybe, or maybe they cut some costs. Probably a little of both.
I think we do have to worry about the game closing down. Anything can ghappen with such small population. A bad patch or similar can have dire consequences.
The game really should get a publisher so the word gets out more. I live in the same city as SV and few if any of my friends have even heard of the game, and many of them are MMOs players, many oldschool from EQ and UO days. If not potential customers who are neighbours even heard about the game, how are things in the rest of the world?
How did you get the from the finacial report when it says in black and white letters.
* The number of monthly payments during the first quarter of 2011, virtually unchanged compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. Star Vault began in late February 2011 a Free Trial to coincide with a number of other marketing activities. In this connection, some 20 000 people signed up to try Vaults Star game, Mortal Online, free during the company's Free Trial.
And
* The sale of licenses in the first quarter of 2011 remained largely unchanged compared to the fourth quarter of 2010.
The free trial started in Q4. I think they only need 1000 to break even now because they have downsized members of the company.
Both of those sentences in the report basically say the population has not changed. I do not see where 500 more people came.
And now I am thinking Basshunter is being paid by SV as a spokesperson.
And all those videos where he's waving a black dildo around and complaining about the server down-time was what, SV's money well spent? Really?
I would be worried about SV's future after reading this thread, but since the same people have been saying the same thing for the past 4 yearly quarters now, it feels a bit chicken-little to me...
I only said the basshunter thing because he is listed in the finacial report. And I am sure he could of used whatever (dildo) he wanted in the video it is a adult rated game with full nudity. You also have to remember what crowd he is pandering too.
Also reducing your staff by half is usually not a good sign of finacial stability.
Point is, a paid shill wouldn't make his first two 'commercials' entirely about the server downtime back-in-the-day...
They mentioned basshunter because a celebrity endorsement is a good thing, and CEOs always cram their quarterly reports with as much good stuff as they can. It's like a resume, except they have to submit them 4 times a year.
But yeah, this time MO is totally gonna shut down.
It's not about "this time", because a business shutting down is devolutionary. It takes time. I think SV has had its run with MO, and investors know that as well. If they can't pull the extra 1000 users by next quarter, what then?
I think they are running on borrowed time. You may of course disagree, but I think we can all agree that SV isn't getting the subs it wants to get, or planned to. Not even close.
Yeah.. I think they have a lot hinging on DAWN. They got a cash infusion by selling the extra stock but that deflated everyone's share value down to .36 SEK (about 5.5 US cents). As of today it's sitting at .32 SEK (about 5.0 US cents). Remember this stock was as high as 4.0 SEK at one point.
I know there is no direct relationship between the stock price and the company's survivability, but given the current deflated value I think it would be very, very hard for StarVault to issue more stock again.
Their big push with the trial accounts apparently didn't result in any significant subs. Henrik claims something like 20,000 trial accounts but he also says that subs and licenses (game purchases) were flat... so the vast majority of those that tried the game did not purchase it. It simply resulted in getting enough new subs to balance the lost subs as people quit, which would be OK if they were making a profit but they arent, and the status quo is no good. Additionally I would think that a free trial's biggest impact is at it's launch.. you get a big pop of people.. which then dries up to a trickle as time goes by. I said it before but I will say it again, I STRONGLY suspect that most of those trial accounts were people just making multiple alt accounts.
So I really think it all comes down to DAWN. There may be other people like myself who are waiting for it.. and will give the trial one more shot to see if it delivers on all the revolutionary gameplay promises and does so with a professional level of polish. Since they were originally announced on April 1st that they were launching DAWN in 2 weeks... and they have taken 2+months I am QUITE hopeful that the expansion will show a much higher level of professionalism (no rampant bugs) than we were given before.
Let's hope so... we should know soon!
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Yeah, my doctor used the same logic: I came in for a bad case of the flu; he told me I was terminal... he told me I was dying. I was shocked, and asked how long I had. He told me I had about 50-60 years. He's right, I am dying. My cells are breaking down, my immune system and the rest of my body aint what it used to be, and it's only gonna get worse.
In all seriousness, I'm not gonna take anyone seriously who cliams that MO is dying if they already predicted it's death a year ago ("any time now... any time now..."). Now, most businesses fail in the first year. SV has been around for more than a year; the game released almost a year ago. Want to solidify your doomsaying by saying that MO will not survive the critical first year? I mean, that's what, 2 months away? Or do you think we'll see another quarterly report from SV before the Big Fall? Or, maybe two more quarterly reports?
The only reason it hasn't died yet is they have borrowed as much money as they could to buy a bit more time in hopes that they will finally start making profit. They kept promising an increase of their subs and financial results, but so far they have failed.
What they resorted to to fund the game developpement recently is a strong sign of how dire their situation is.
They menioned in their report that they have payed back all depts from lons and doing that in such short time probaly gives them egoungh credability to laon more if needed. Every mmorpg die sometime and i dont see why people who hate the game anyways would care? if the people who actully like it dont...
1000 subs i think is a resanable goal. with the new expansion i dont think as many will unsub and probaly more will. Also, if they only sell 10 accounts per day they will make the goal and thats probaly what their selling right now.
Why are people so eager to gloat at an indie that is trying to establish it's place in a competitive market?
I don't get what folks gain from it, seems odd to derive seeming pleasure from this kind of report.
I think if you knew the companys CEO and his attitude a bit better, you'd understand why
Problem is really MO's community, to many fat kids that go around greifing newbies makes them not want to stay. I myself won't touch it because I dislike the idea of getting ganked by someone 2x my lv and he can take all my stuff. leaving me with nothing. I dispise that kind of pvp because it just promotes griefing even more. Yeah they have a flag system but I doubt that really stops anyone. Losing all my stuff after being pked is not fun, its just frustrating.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
Hmmm.. There are no levels in Mortal Online. So I cannot se anyone 2x your level to gank you! ;o)
Just a FYI =P
Back on topic: 1000 more subs should not be that hard I guess. When Dawn arrives with all the new stuff, there is more content for the people, better mount systems for the ones using that, gatherables and pickables will spread the people. And long time wounds and cooking will be a big factor for survival in the long run, so that will involve people as well!
I think the players will feel that the content is in, and finally do something with it!
Umm... your math is assuming that no current players leave in the 3 month period. This report shows that people quitting the game was equal to new subs for the previous quarter AND that quarter included the launch of the free trial.
I do not think that is good math.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Why are people so eager to gloat at an indie that is trying to establish it's place in a competitive market?
I don't get what folks gain from it, seems odd to derive seeming pleasure from this kind of report.
I think if you knew the companys CEO and his attitude a bit better, you'd understand why
Even assuming EVERY SINGLE conspiracy theory and proof less accusation is true, Henrik still wouldn't be the most insidious CEO whose products we use on a daily basis.
To reply to vesavius's observation: those who can't do, criticize.
I think there are plenty of people who can "do", they just don't have a rich dad to help them do it.
Henrik has proven thus far, he can't "do", but having a rich dad helps him subsidize that. It reminds me of Hulk Hogan's son, who wanted to be a race car driver. But he sucked, bad. But with a rich dad, he got to keep racing.
Ultima Online ran into problems by fixing that issue from what I heard. Carebears destroyed the original feel. Just saying what I've read.
I don't care who his investors are (note the plural). He founded and is operating a company that developed and is running an mmorpg. Therefore, he's a professional game developer. {mod edit}
I didn't need confirmation to know this...
And I don't care how many companies he founded, actions speak louder then words. And so far he have proven to be upper crap at both game design and development. Sorry, but in my books professional game developers are those who can actually release good, stable and fun (which is subjective, but still) games, not some guy with rich dad who approaches development with trial-and-error method. He is Uwe Ball of the gaming world.
Nowdays anyone can make a game in Game Maker and call themselves a game developer seems like.
First, the part I agree with: actions speak louder than words. He created a company and a game; you're just talking anonymously on a forum... did you really think that cliche would work in your favor?
As for the rest: A professional game developer is someone who released a commercial game. Don't try linguistic gymnastics to deny the fact that a man that started a game dev company that has since sold thousands of licenses for a game he created is a professional game developer... So, unless you have also created a company and proceeded to create a game that you sold licenses for, you're just another bitter wannabe. If you are a professional game developer, please let me know the company you started (or at least work for).
You're trying to win an argument using definitions rather than what everyone meant. I wouldn't call Jeff Skilling a professional anything, except a liar, yet by your definition he was because he ran a gigantic corporation (that tumbled under its hidden debts).
He who keeps his cool best wins.
Lets cut out the personal arguments please. And stay on topic.