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3DO Auction Yields Disappointing Financials

Posted by simoniker on from the microsoft-make-out-like-bandit dept.

Thanks to Yahoo!/Daily Deal for revealing the final bidding prices for 3DO's assets, totalling a mere $4.6 million, following the company's bankruptcy auction last week. The article indicates the main winning bidders were "...UbiSoft Holdings Inc. for the fantasy games 'Might and Magic' and 'Heroes of Might and Magic,' for $1.3 million; Namco Hometek Inc. for 'Street Racing Syndicate' at $1.515 million; JoWooD Productions Software AG for the 'Jacked' motorcycle game for $90,000; Crave Entertainment Inc. for 'Army Men' for $750,000; and Microsoft Corp. which paid $450,000 for the intellectual property for 'High Heat Baseball'." 3DO founder Trip Hawkins also bought an Internet patent and much of 3DO's back-catalog for $400,000. 3DO's lawyers claimed that the SEC investigation of games companies launched last month made possible suitors back off, saying: "It probably cost us $10 million easily."

19 comments

  1. Please, no more Army Men games! by Man+In+Black · · Score: 3, Funny

    Crave Entertainment Inc. for 'Army Men' for $750,000

    Damn... just when I thought we'd finally gotten rid of this crappy franchise...

    --
    -"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH
    1. Re:Please, no more Army Men games! by Rudeboy777 · · Score: 2, Funny

      With any luck, they bought it just for the satisfaction of holding the franchise under a magnefying glass on a sunny day. Hell, I would have bought it for that reason

      --

      From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc

  2. Crunching the numbers by NetDanzr · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The average game by 3DO sold 40,000 units worldwide (source: an investment report by Wedbush Morgan Securities). Let's be generous and say that the Heroes of Might and Magic game sold 50,000 units. Let's be generous again and say that 3DO got $20 per game in revenues. As a consequence, the Heroes game brought revenue of $1 million.

    According to the report I mentioned and a couple of other reports, the break-even point (a point where 3DO would not show any losses) is $85 million. As a consequence, they'd either have to sell 85 such games or jack up the sales of their exising titles. At $50 million in 2002, however, their costs were almost twice as high. So we can safely assume that developing an average game costs 3DO around $2 million.

    UBI Soft paid $1.3 million for something that generates $1 million in sales and $1 million in net losses per game (not counting expansions). Considering UBI's public relations department, they probably expect to loose most of their fan base, which was the driving force behind the sales. As a result, them buying the Might and Magic franchise actually sounds like a really bad deal. I'm not surprised 3DO has gotten so little for its assets; in fact, I expected less.

    1. Re:Crunching the numbers by simoniker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Very interesting analysis indeed - but I believe that UbiSoft bought the rights to all the old Might and Magic games, even those that have already been developed, and which they can essentially now sell without sinking much/any new money into them. That's good for starters. And the Might and Magic name still has some prestige value, and if you figure that you can pay up to $5 million just for the right license, then paying $1 million to get your own intellectual property/license forever seems half-decent.

      I think everyone got very good deals out of this, actually, considering the average game costs $3-5 million dollars, especially Microsoft, who got a respected and fully-developed baseball franchise for under $500,000 - crazy.

    2. Re:Crunching the numbers by 17028 · · Score: 1

      M&M were great games back then. I'd rate M&M 4 among my favorite RPGs of all time, with Pool of Radiance, and some others.

      They haven't progressed much since then, while Black Isle et al have far surpassed them, without any real fancy technology, just solid adventures and stories.

    3. Re:Crunching the numbers by Doctor_Jest · · Score: 1

      It seemed a bit steep when I first read it, but if they got the whole shooting match with Might and Magic and HOMM, it looks a little better. :) Of course, I'm biased. I love the HOMM series, and have found even a few things to love in HOMM IV, despite its problems.

      I'm just glad they got the franchise out of limbo. It's always frustrating when game series go extinct (for whatever reason....bad sequels, bad management...both) and no one is able to pick them up and try to solve the problems and repair the fanbase's love for the series. (Ultima comes to mind...heh.)

      --
      It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
    4. Re:Crunching the numbers by Doctor+Cat · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Let's be generous and say that the Heroes of Might and Magic game sold 50,000 units.

      The problem with that assumption is that it assumes most 3DO titles sold roughly comparable numbers. But computer games is a hit-drive industry, and it's likely that 3DO is typical there, with a lot of games selling very poorly, and a few hits selling far, far more. So their better selling titles would be well above 40,000 units sold.

      Since they also got the rights to all the Might and Magic games, as well as Heroes of Might and Magic (which I'm a big fan of, though in 3 and 4 they kept adding more features than the game needed, featuritis made it LESS fun in my opinion)... They got the rights to over a dozen games probably, maybe more than two dozen when you count in all the expansion packs. They could easily put out a collection of ALL the Might and Magic products in one box for $60, with zero product development cost, and probably sell enough to make a good profit.

      As for Trip Hawkins getting a "sweet deal" - having his game company still running would be a better deal for him. When a company goes bankrupt, leaving behind some "dregs" of titles that didn't sell well even when they were brand new, their future sales potential is generally pretty dismal. Plus not having your own game company to manufacture and sell them also puts him in a worse position to ever do anything with them. It's likely most or all of them will never see the light of day again, and he bought them up cheap because of sentimental value and/or Don Quixote syndrome. After losing control of his old company EA, he was determined to "show them" by making 3DO bigger and better. Guess he didn't succeed...

      --

      Furcadia - A free online game with user created content, DragonSpeak scripting, & more.

    5. Re:Crunching the numbers by BulletMagnet · · Score: 1

      After losing control of his old company EA, he was determined to "show them" by making 3DO bigger and better. Guess he didn't succeed...

      It's not that he didn't succeed, he tried to the wrong way. EA was always a publisher. 3DO was a hardware vendor (of some very expensive hardware I might add) before they turned to the soft stuff. Frankly, he could have made 3DO bigger or better, but EA did come 1st and when you're not the 1st out of the gate you're at a disadvantage and Trip and Co had to play catchup right up to the end.

      I've never played any 3DO game outside of High Heat and I have seen noticable quality slips as 3DO's fortune waned. This year's product is really a beta title at best, when in past years they owned the market, and EA's baseball titles were minor league in comparison.

      I can only hope and pray that Microsoft re-enters the baseball sim market and throws out all the crap 3DO conjured up for 2K4 and does it the justice that a fat wallet can do.

    6. Re:Crunching the numbers by NetDanzr · · Score: 1

      I'd like to point out that the moment the deal was anounced, I sent an e-mail to the UBI Soft customer support, asking for help with Might and Magic VI (the two locked doors issue) and Might and Magic IX (which had so many bugs that 3DO abandoned their support). If you are right, I should expect a resolution of these problems in short time ;)

    7. Re:Crunching the numbers by WoTG · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I agree. It sounds like a lot of dough, but UbiSoft gets a reasonably recognized brand and the code to the old games. There's a good chance they'll be able to repackage and sell the games in the future. Collectors editions? Handhelds? Mobile phones? Online versions? Who knows.

      Nintendo has done this a lot in the past. It seems to work for them.

  3. No Trip'D? by Flwyd · · Score: 1

    Was Trip'D not a 3DO game? That's been my one experience with the console, and quite a fun game. (It's essentially an enhanced competitive Tetris.) I'd love to see a PC version.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature.
    1. Re:No Trip'D? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trip'D was a Warp game. They also made "D" and "D2". Notice a trend?

  4. Some questions by Daetrin · · Score: 2, Interesting
    3DO founder Trip Hawkins also bought an Internet patent and much of 3DO's back-catalog for $400,000. 3DO's lawyers claimed that the SEC investigation of games companies launched last month made possible suitors back off, saying: "It probably cost us $10 million easily."

    First off, why would SEC investigations make companies back off from the auction? To the best of my understanding the investigation is mainly focused on accounting issues, so why should that affect decisions to purchase new properties? That seems only slightly more likely than claiming that the investigated companies have decided to stop working on games because of the SEC. It's not like they're going to stop everything and wait in breathless anticipation until the investigations are over. Is there some correlating factor i'm missing?

    Second of all, doesn't it seem like Trip Hawkins got a good deal out of this? Especially if they're right about the investigation lowering the prices. He drove the company into the ground, and then managed to grab most of the non "A" titles and a pantent at bargain basement prices. I bet he'll evntually be able to sell the pieces at a much higher price once they're not part of a bankruptcy "everything must go now!" type auction.

    Using the intelectual property as leverage he might even be able to get the venture capital to found a new, smaller game company. Wash, rinse, repeat.

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    1. Re:Some questions by Maserati · · Score: 1

      So how long until he's burning CD-Rs in his den ?

      --
      Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
    2. Re:Some questions by rhuntley12 · · Score: 1

      Actually Trip Hawkins invested a ton of his money out of pocket to keep 3DO from going bankrupt alot earlier.

  5. Four Horsement by rhuntley12 · · Score: 1

    No word on Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? This game looked awesome, was really looking forward to it this Winter. Guess I wont have to wait now...