Quoting David/Mindark on CalyForum: Fpc / sds Hi, Just to clear things up a little: SDS people were I think almost all former FPC (First Planet Company AB), they did a good job at FPC and continued at SDS until the SDS management commanded them to stop development on Calypso, and then dismissed them. FYI. SDS is not a "group or team of people", SDS (SEE Digital Studios AB) is a Swedish limited company solely owned by the American group of companies known collectively as SEE. Mindarks information on the subject can be found here: http://www.mindark.com/investor-rela...nkl_vdbrev.pdf (Swedish) and http://www.mindark.com/partners/ David (It seems quite a few peops lost their jobs including Hanne, Open for discussion go.......) What are the Implications for arkadia as is expected the entire Universe?
OMG!!!!!!! So if I understand correctly, SEE simply stopped the Calypso adventure, and MA didn't allow the planet to be lost in space. Seems SDS got owned big time! What about Marco!!!??? That can't be! :afraid: Not cool to loose your job, I feel for them. .LeZ.
HANNe stop posting around march even to sds started programs. I knew something was fishy. It sucks but maybr the will do planeg micheal as see still shows ma as pargner
So, "the American group of companies known collectively as SEE" didn't find the Calypso project to be profitable enough and they just stopped?
Perhaps mass exodus to Arkadia, and other planets, dimminshed income for Calypso drastically, insomuch that blind-panic insued with resulting impulsive decisions and actions. Who knows. Open to the entire spectrum of wild speculations, its uncanny. Make of it what you want lol Some ex-employees have expressed themselves in the open media to the community and has in turn sparked out into virtual panic. Many community members with large investments tied up in-game, are unable to grab and run. Fears that they may lose big-time. EULA doesnt give security neither do clients have rights. Many already, locked, banned, deleted and lost, even big-players from recent actions, few months ago. I did call out towards em, give your clients their moneys back, makes you look less like crooks. In a way. The big "Clean-Up" Action recently from FPC/MA. They werent all that "nice" with their clients over the years and favoratism played a big role in their actions. Just....ye...just be glad u aint on caly right now, dont look so good at the mo. The implications and how far it goes remains a mystery.
A lot of the people who were on Ark, NI, RT moved back to Calypso just before vu12. I made the opposite as Ark seems to have the most active development team and Calypso now has part timers. Well when SEE originally signed up to be a PP the net sales for EU were close to $10M after two years they were close to $5M and who knows where they are now. EU is a slow burn for profit, invest now and in a few years you'll see a return. May be they were expecting it to be almost instant as Calypso had almost all of the EU players. If MA held back the PP payments until the final payment handover and they were expecting to use those to make some or all of the payments and they just couldn't do it. Or they wanted a refund on the PP license as they'd bought a company that already had one. If it ends up being settled in court then we'll find out most of the details especially if it gets nasty They had money enough to buy the licenses for the Universal monsters and for Planet MJ but not enough to pay the platform provider. Pioneer was still posting up to the end of May with the video of Shinkiba's, most put Hanne's absence down to illness. As for listing them still as partners, that may be down to SEE not updating their website
Jeeze, stop over-reacting. Caly is safe. As are people's investments there. The only way caly delivers revenue to its owner (whoever that turns out to be) will be to keep operating it. A real shame about people losing their jobs though.
Moved this over to Entropia Universe discussion. If it helps answer any of the OP's questions about how this affects Arkadia, here is a quote from David on the subject in an earlier thread:
Maybe they had their hopes up but even that Hanne was down from january and he last message to me was i get back to you .... Other note it sucks the FPC crew is gone but I am glad to SEE gone.
SEE made the decision in March to cut ties with MA as stated by Martin Biallas (CEO) of SEE Virtual, and Arkadia didn't launch until May 25th, so any mass exodus to Arkadia had nothing to do with it.
Nah, MA mentioned in their annual report SEE not being able to pay any more than the first payment way before Arkadia even opened, so..
Okay then, cheers for clearing that up guys Perhaps what I had said in this thread:http://www.arkadiaforum.com/showthread.php?1142-Ore-distribution-%282nd-take%29&p=14989#post14989 is way more rellevant here. But it was my response to other posts. The kinda brainfart that makes u see double.lol
Just a little FYI, since it was sort of bothering me, others have said more than once (not just here ofc) that Hanne stopped posting back in March, or had been 'gone for months' etc. Maybe not massive news or what folks wanted to hear, but reality is both she and Pioneer had posts on PCF back in mid May, so only maybe a month before they posted the farewells. So if SEE (owner of SDS) ended the deal with MA as far back as March as they have stated (and from dates quoted apparently right before they got themselves in the Guiness Book of Records for the purchase of Calypso lol), it certainly looks like SDS employees still were acting as SDS employees into mid May. So, neither Hanne nor Pioneer were actually 'gone for months', Hanne made it very clear she was basically on sick leave and whatever needed to be and could be communicated would be, if not by herself than by another SDS employee. My personal take on it all was that she was not only ill irl, but was also well burnt out from the nastiness and impatience and even personal attacks that came at her on PCF, which I'm sure didn't help her recovery much or inspire her to post more often, but even more so if the company was in the middle of such upheaval as it seems it was. I wish all SDS (former FPC) employess the best of luck in finding new jobs and wish the very best of luck to Calypso and whoever may own it in future. Just my 2 pecs
Not entirly true. I posted that in PM to you it gets a bit personal for me. Anyways. it is nice to see MA failsafe is in place and I laughed it happend to claypso first and not Rocktropia/Next island. I was sure Rocktropia would go belly up first. Funny how things work out. But somewhere ...... I think behind the screens Marco is proably talking with Marco to be restart FPC again with an investor.
Well I did of course mean in terms of public postings on that forum, nothing else really. Thanks for the pm and all is good
Ye, the community cant blame Hanne, cos she was put into that position by her employers, hoping to calm the community and disspel fears. We cant immagine the pressure she was under. Skam has always been a nice friend, also on FB I speak fondly of her shes a sweetheart of a gall. Not a stupid person and certainly not someone who would feel comfotable amongst the wrong type of people. Dangling a innocent lamb before a ravenous crowd so, the foxes can escape via a secret route just isn't the right way to go. Just wasting time, stalling the inevitable. Then there is also the right active dedication to a job-prescription applied and implemented. Who decides who is qualified for such a position? Could be more a matter of profiling the correct personality type for the necessary position. Representative of the Hosting game-company as ambassadors with enthusiasm and natural talent for marketting. Did Hanne take the initiative? You tell me.... Ive seen other private affiliates, who have taken a load more initiative online. To name a few , Lykke & Peter, Robert David Westmoreland, MS9,etc. etc. etc. None paid or in Mindark/FPCs employ. Though I have my doubts about (Censored) and his connections to MA. Is it correct that Companies Market themselves? Yet Mindarks client do so with class, and the company avoids huge marketing costs. Yet they could've done so much better and reached so wide, which would've brought them the much needed influx of depoing gamers worldwide, instead of milking the existing base really hard. We like to depo and pay for this kinda fun, but please take it from us real slow, like before, not so fast that it hurts, put back the pleasure and enjoyment worth our buck.
