I planned on ending the year writing a post about Cloud Imperium Games' financial statement for 2022. Instead, at 6pm Manchester, UK time, I am posting about the lack of a financial statement. A very unusual occurrence at this point. The question I have is, why did the makers of Squadron 42 and Star Citizen fail to post the information to their website on time?
Before continuing, I want to state two very important rules one must use whenever looking at the actions of CIG leadership.
Occam's Razor: When we have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better.
Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
With those two rules in mind, I can think up a few embarrassing reasons. The web techs didn't put the post on the timer, or the timer didn't work. Of course, that would mean no one followed up to make sure the post appeared. In my life, that usually involved security certificates. Or DNS. When in doubt, blame DNS.
A reason I would find completely believable is someone at CIG tried to revamp the statement format in light of the Turbulent acquisition and ran out of time. Someone at CIG add requirements to a project and then miss a deadline? Typical CIG if that is the explanation.
A third possible reason is circumstances changed. Not posting financial information when not required is perfectly reasonable. All of CIG's investors have a seat on the board of directors. If the company is not looking for additional outside funding, then not putting out any additional information hurts anyone.
I have blogged about Crowd Control Production's financial statements for over a decade. They also had periods where the authorities required the company to post financial records on one of its websites and then when no longer required, removed the documents. No problem, right?
Well, a problem does arise when the company incorporates the disclosure requirements into its marketing. CIG did so with the initial round of venture capital investment announced on 20 December 2018. In disclosing CIG's financial results from 2012-2017, the company stated:
Since the beginning, Cloud Imperium Games has always been vocal about the idea of building our games with the support and input of our community. This accounting for the years 2012 to 2017 is in line with our policy of openness and transparency and intends to share how the company has grown based upon what we have received during this period and the work required to meet the demands inherent in such an undertaking.
To put further complications into the picture, one of those times those interested in CCP's financial reports could not obtain them was the year Pearl Abyss purchased the Icelandic game studio. But I want to throw up one big caveat. CCP was very good about trying to file all their financial paperwork in with Iceland's version of the IRS in April, 8 months before the drop dead date where sanctions began.
CIG, by contrast, tends to file their previous year's returns in December. Last year the company filed on 22 December, 10 days before the deadline. The way CIG handles its finances, they don't leave room to withhold information like CCP did. Therefore, playing games with potential investors theoretically is less likely.
CIG's marketing team possibly have put the company in a hole. Where is the report? Is this CIG hiding something? See where people may violate Hanlon's Razor? Of course, I've written about EVE for over 14 years now. I have seen my share of cases where the people and events I've documented were motivated by malice or something else dark. The fact I don't think CIG reached its financial goals for the year 2023 doesn't help. But for now...
The financial report will likely show up by Friday with an innocent explanation. I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment