Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs

[dsmart]

Well if there's no game coming, I don't see how they can buy back in  :smuggo:

[dsmart]

My take on the UK financials filing

[jwh1701]

Hello Derek,

Thank you for taking the time to research this, I have a question about the cash.
Does F42 need to have any cash on hand? Would CIG send them payments needed
for operation on a monthly or biweekly basis? As I don't understand the company structure do they even need to have cash on hand would not CIG hold all the money?

Thank you

My take on the UK financials filing

[dsmart]

All companies should have cash on hand. The fact that they don't, means they're running on empty and just spending what's being paid to them by the parent company.

Which makes the payday loan they took out in Summer 2017 make more sense now.

[Wipeout]

My take on the UK financials filing

A few things I have seen someone else mention on another forum, and they do make a good point.

This filing is for the period ending June 2017.  June 2017 is also when they got that cotus loan.  So it makes sense it would still be in their filings, since that loan was only like a week or 2 old by the end of June 2017.  It is also a loan for their tax incentive, and they do not get that tax incentive till Fall 2018.  Since this is basically a pay day loan, it makes sense it would not be paid off till some time Fall/Winter 2018.  We won't know when it is paid off till we see their filings for period ending December 2018, which we won't see that filing till June or July 2019.

Your part about employees being paid less I felt can easily be misunderstood.  Some people might think you are talking about F42 is spending less total money on employee wages compared to last year, which is not correct, they are actually spending more money over all this year on employees because they increased the employee count.  In 2016 they spent 8.5 Million on employee wages, this year they are set to spend approximately 10.5 million on employee wages.  I am sure you knew this, and you were talking about the over all average wage per employee was going down, which according to one person I saw another forum is equal to about 135 less per month per employee on the average, which could be explained by hiring more QA/Junior level developers.

[Kyrt]

A few things I have seen someone else mention on another forum, and they do make a good point.

This filing is for the period ending June 2017.  June 2017 is also when they got that cotus loan.  So it makes sense it would still be in their filings, since that loan was only like a week or 2 old by the end of June 2017.  It is also a loan for their tax incentive, and they do not get that tax incentive till Fall 2018.  Since this is basically a pay day loan, it makes sense it would not be paid off till some time Fall/Winter 2018.  We won't know when it is paid off till we see their filings for period ending December 2018, which we won't see that filing till June or July 2019.

Your part about employees being paid less I felt can easily be misunderstood.  Some people might think you are talking about F42 is spending less total money on employee wages compared to last year, which is not correct, they are actually spending more money over all this year on employees because they increased the employee count.  In 2016 they spent 8.5 Million on employee wages, this year they are set to spend approximately 10.5 million on employee wages.  I am sure you knew this, and you were talking about the over all average wage per employee was going down, which according to one person I saw another forum is equal to about 135 less per month per employee on the average, which could be explained by hiring more QA/Junior level developers.

I'd comment on the financials, but unlike the GLA where I can operate...to a degree...on a WYSIWYG principle, I know nothing about accounting

[Wipeout]

I'd comment on the financials, but unlike the GLA where I can operate...to a degree...on a WYSIWYG principle, I know nothing about accounting

In this case, it really is a WYSIWYG thing.  When I first read his rollout I took it as they spent 8.5 million in the last 6 months of 2016, and then in the first 6 months of 2017 they spent that 5.25 million, while increasing their employee count.  Till I saw someone mention that the 2016 number shown in his roll out is for the whole 2016 year and the 2017 number is only for the first 6 months.  So in this case it really does not need any kind of accounting understanding to see what is being shown there once you realize the 206 number is for the whole year and the 2017 number is only for the first half of the year.

The part about the loan is just knowing that the loan happened in June 2017, and this filling is for period ending June 2017 which it states the period ending June 2017.

Everything else in that report is all jibber jabber for me.

[dsmart]

The amount of tax credits is also directly tied to employee count. If they are saving money in one area, while increasing employee count at the same or higher cost, that means they are either hiring low tier employees, or they are reducing (which they are not, AFAICT in this filing) costs in other areas which makes up for the increased cost of the increased employee count.

Either way, they are operating on a month-to-month basis as a studio being funded by a parent company. They have no outside income, and their structure is no different from any publisher-owned external studio. If the parent stops sending money, or runs into financial trouble, the studio is dead.

[Flashwit]

As a side note, is the UK known to pay low wages like this or is this just a CIG thing? Obviously we just have the average available through these filings but it still gives an idea. Being in Canada, it's not an outrageous difference but it's still slightly less than what I would expect and certainly in comparison to the States it's way down there.

[Wipeout]

As a side note, is the UK known to pay low wages like this or is this just a CIG thing? Obviously we just have the average available through these filings but it still gives an idea. Being in Canada, it's not an outrageous difference but it's still slightly less than what I would expect and certainly in comparison to the States it's way down there.

I found this:
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/games-developer

Salary
Typical starting salaries for artists/animators and programmers in games development are around £19,000 to £25,000. Entry-level roles, such as quality assurance tester, may attract a lower salary.
Once you have a few years' experience, you may earn salaries in the region of £35,000 up to £50,000.
At the higher end of the scale, technical directors, developers, producers and team managers can earn up to £70,000 and beyond.

[dsmart]

My latest Star Citizen blog is live.

http://dereksmart.com/2018/01/star-citizen-the-fall/

[jwh1701]

My latest Star Citizen blog is live.

http://dereksmart.com/2018/01/star-citizen-the-fall/

Great write up and an lot of links to read over as well, crazy all the promises that have been made.
Seeing his words written down it seems if he goes off script like with vr and sq42 you get almost incoherent tech talk.

[dsmart]

It's amazing to me that he has been doing this same shit for 6 years straight.

[David-2]

It's amazing to me that he has been doing this same shit for 6 years straight.

Those interview transcripts are remarkable.  I understand that when people talk off-the-cuff in response to questions the answer, for most people untrained to it, is most likely to be a "stream of consciousness". 

But "consciousness" means "the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings" and I see precious little of that in his remarks. 

So maybe I'd call it a kind of circumstantial speech or disordered thoughts - or maybe just "stream of fantasy".

Whatever it is it is certainly not conducive to getting a game out.

[Spunky Munkee]

Imagine sitting through daily meetings as a dept head having to have to listen to that for direction...How can they fail to fail.