Ouch

[lederhosen]

Via Kos, a chart of Left Behind Games Inc's recent share performance.

To quote a recent company report:

As of the three months ended December 31, 2006, we have started to generate revenue, and through December 31, 2006 have incurred net losses of $31,157,019 and had negative cash flows from operations of $6,383,394 since our inception through December 31, 2006. Our ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon out ability to generate profitable operations in the future and/or to obtain the necessary financing to meet our obligations and repay our liabilities arising from normal business operations when they come due. We plan to continue to provide for our capital requirements by issuing additional equity.

I don't think the concept was the problem here. It wasn't really any sillier than Mario Brothers, or any more offensive than GTA. I suspect, had the gameplay been good, people would've looked past the preachiness or even managed to enjoy it in a campy sort of way.

The problem was expecting people to buy it for the concept alone, without good gameplay. (At least, I have to assume they forgot about the importance of gameplay; if they'd been paying even a little attention on that front, $30 million should've got them more than it did. And as per the comments over at Kos, $30 million is a LOT to spend on a computer game; you have to sell an awful lot of copies just to make your money back.)

Comments

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Dude, they had $30 million to spend on game development and they didn't manage to do a totally bitching game? They deserve nothing, no matter what their subject material. And you are completely right that people would have enjoyed the game in a campy way if it had been fun or well-done.

My mental image of that game was always a budget title, anyway.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

I think that figure includes marketing etc. too, but still, that's a lot for a game. And somebody on Kos has pointed out that Left Behind Games' CEO is Troy Lyndon, who previously developed Madden Football, so inexperience can't be the reason.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Someone was skimming an insane amount of money off the top: that's the only explanation. Go look up the history of IonStorm here in Dallas: they burned through a comparable amount of money only to produce one game that flopped about as impressively as this. When you're spending more money on getting exclusive offices and on executive salaries than on actual development, you know you're in trouble, and the only programmers they were probably able to find were either True Believers or half-asses willing to take the paychecks and laugh about it.