Topic: Would you buy Taldren Stock?  (Read 7893 times)

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ChamadaIV

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Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #40 on: February 18, 2003, 09:21:38 pm »
Quote:

This is a similar problem to that in the music industry. An artist or musician doesnt have the resources or capital to publish their own work, so they must rely on a publishing company that has already made the capital investment and has the infrastructure in place to do so. All too often this leads to profitable contracts for the publisher (because they essentially have a monopoly over the artist) and a raw deal for the artist themselves, if they can find a publisher at all.

Here's a piece of useless trivia for you. Back in 1973, a young unknown musician (quite talented) was working in a music recording studio doing some of his own work. His name was Mike Oldfield. The owner of the studio, liking his work, allowed him to use the studio in free time to put together a recording over 12 months. It was, at the time, a concept album, quite different to anything done before. Mike Oldfield recorded the entire album on his own, playing every musical instrument himself, and the music score was completely original. He then took his album to every music publishing company and was knocked back at every door. The owner of the recording studio became so annoyed at this, that he decided to put up the capital to create his own publishing company, just so that Mike Oldfield could get his album out.

That album was called Tubular Bells and went on to become one of the greatest classics of the 70s and is still making money today. The owner of the studio was a young Richard Bramford (speling??) and the label to which he created was called Virgin Records.

The rest is history.....

(For those of you not familiar with Virgin Records, it is now one of the largest multi-national recording companies in the industry and has now expanded to into other areas, including an airline company, Virgin Blue.)

Self-publishing is definately the way to go, IMHO.  




Aye, you're right, Tracey, independent ventures like self-publishing are worth it. It's part of what free-enterprise is all about. But as I'm sure you know and understand, it's a highly risky thing to do. You need something new, something killer, something refreshing that everyone will go after. Richard Bramford (yeah, I think your spelling is right) had something with Tubular Bells. Now look where his company is....

The question at hand is.....
Does Taldren have the killer app that warrants taking on the risk self-publishing involves?

Also, could Erik's little hinting about  Project Polaris be Taldren's entry as a developer/publisher? Gods, how I wish I knew.... but it sure sounds possible, eh?

As for the aforementioned stock thing, I would, not at $5/share, but I would. Maybe at 25-68 cents a share might be more reasonable. It depends on Taldren's assets, company size, and all that other whimsical stock market blah blah.

Hey Erik, if Black9 kicks ass and sells 500,000+ units, maybe you guys should go public should you decide to self-publish. Just a thought.....  

AlphaMeridian

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Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #41 on: February 18, 2003, 09:48:32 pm »
Not without seeing a couple of things first:

1) Fiancial statements - Hard numbers (which they'd have to release before going public anyway) which puts on paper what they spend, what they owe, how much they make and/or how much they run in deficit.  

2) Future projects - They've got SFC 3 and they've got Black 9.  What next?

3) General appeal - They've got the niche ST market.  However, a niche does not nesscarily make one a good company.  I'd like to see coupled with the anser to #2, how they plan to break out of the ST market w/r/t future projects (things like Black9) and get into mass market appeal.  If this means trading things like complexity for a slight learning curve, then do it.  If a game is like 'perfect', but only 10 people want to buy it, you lose as a company.  

4) The sfc3 patch! (okay, this one is a joke )

5) How they intend to get other investors out of the gaming market who don't know about them to get to invest.  In essense, I'd like for people looking for companies to look over taldren's numbers and mission statements and future projects to say, "Hmm.  I'm not a gamer, but this company has vision.  I think i'll put a bit of money into them".

-Alpha

KBF-JD

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Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #42 on: February 18, 2003, 09:57:00 pm »
Quote:

Assuming of course that it is cheap.   Let's say $5.00 a share.  




Well, why not, I've bought just about every other POS they have put ont he market!!!!

I could store their stock certificates at the same place I keep my copy of SFC3.  (mutters to self,  Ok what did I do with the plunger....)

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Those where, for the humor impaired, jokes.

But the truth is, investing in Taldren stock, like most small company stocks, is a crap shoot.  I would not bet the farm on it, but if I had some money and wanted to gamble, it might be fun.

I think someone else said it the best, I wish I could invest enough money in them to finish SFC2/OP(GAW, any one?) but I'm broke so there is no hope of that....

jd  

Ducttapewonder

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Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #43 on: February 18, 2003, 10:26:24 pm »
bump  

Erik Bethke

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Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #44 on: February 19, 2003, 01:59:13 am »
Thanks guys... cool thread.

We are currently product-financed through publishers and when times get lean we invest our own money back into (management and employees to a lessor degree) Taldren.

A developer as a publically traded company is basically a bad idea.  Developers sell milestones to publishers.  Developers generally have 1 to 2; maybe 3 or 4 customers at a time.

You folks are not our customers in the financial sense.  Spiritual sense, yes.  But not the financials.  Generally speaking you do not want to invest in that kind of company.

We are looking to transition from being a developer to becoming a developer/publisher.

Much more is going on below the surface than is appropriate to share in a public forum;  however we have several different strong business developments of various time-lines that will get us there.

We have boot-strapped ourselves to get here and we have run for 3+ years without any outside investors our outside debt.  This is an amazing accomplishment for a start-up.  Most start-ups borrow money to get started.   And many run in the red for a number of years before the turn a profit  I am sure we could all name dozens.

We manage ourselves well fiscally.

(Little note:  the price of the share does not have anything to do with the stock being "expensive" or cheap.  For example if I offered Taldren stock for $5 a share and there was only 20,000 shares issued - then you should snap them up instantly for we have cash assets that well exceed that.   However if I offered you shares of Taldren at 0.5 a penny and we issued 100 billion shares then the company would be far too expensive.)

-Erik

Demandred

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Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #45 on: February 19, 2003, 11:13:09 am »
I might if I wasn't a poor student.  

On the publisher issue, the increasing use of broadband internet connections means that it may now be feasible to release a game entirely online and have it sell just as well as any game in a shop. This is the real reason the likes of the RIAA is throwing a screaming fit about music being available online, the internet will break their monopoly. All it will take is one major artist deciding to sell their music electronically at a price cheaper than CDs.

Marauth

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Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #46 on: February 19, 2003, 12:16:29 pm »
maybe if I weren't broke it'd be something for a ibt of fun - not a big investment, but as they say it's a bad idea to invest in a developer, maybe once they become a publisher aswell.

Oh and I think you'll find the guys name is Richard Branson, the guy who makes a complete ass of himself trying to fly round the world in a hot air balloon, and then failing.

J'inn

  • Guest
Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #47 on: February 19, 2003, 12:26:37 pm »
Well it's decided then.  Glad to hear it.

I'll forward my contract proposal to Taldren soon for setting up a nice IPO deal.   I've never done an IPO before but hey how hard could it be?   All those regulations aren't very important any ways.

I think Taldren will find my fee very fair.   Especially since I cut it in return for some other deals.  Such as:

1)  J'inn being the sole authorized broker for Taldren stock.  A very fair 5% transaction fee will be charged on all sales, purchases, and whatever.

2)  J'inn getting a nice 5% cut off the "backside" of the deal on all stock sales from Taldren.

Please mail all inquires to:

KAT J'inn
c/o
First National Bank of Nepal
Numbered and Secret Accounts Unit
P.O. Box  4657
Grand Cayman Island


Oh this is going to work out just great!!   I'm so happy I can help out.


 

Hale

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Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #48 on: February 19, 2003, 12:45:55 pm »
I've never sold a stock short before, but I'd seriously consider doing so if Taldren goes public.  Especially if they publish their own games.  

ChamadaIV

  • Guest
Re: Would you buy Taldren Stock?
« Reply #49 on: February 19, 2003, 11:03:15 pm »
It's good to see Erik giving publishing some consideration. It's a very risky thing to do, but I truly wish Taldren well should they embark on such an endeavour. Look forward to the future! (and Black9 of course ;-)