Argonaut warns of financial difficulties News
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Games Industry.biz
Shares in British developer Argonaut Games have been suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange this morning after the company issued a short notice to the markets indicating that it may be facing serious financial difficulties.
The brief statement indicated that Argonaut has experienced additional delays in the signing of a number of key development contracts, and can survive for only an "extremely limited period" on its existing cash reserves if the deals are not signed immediately.
The company had originally hoped to sign the contracts in question before it issued its annual results during the summer, but failed to do so, resulting in the reporting of weak financials for the period, and has now been dealt an additional blow by this continued delay.
Shares in the firm (traded under the AGT ticker) have been suspended from trading this morning, pending clarification of the financial position of the group - which is also looking into the possibility of a capital reconstruction.
"In the absence of these development agreements being immediately secured, the Group's existing cash resources will provide funding for only an extremely limited period and Argonaut may not be able to continue to trade," this morning's statement warns.
Argonaut is one of the UK's largest independent developers, and along with its headquarters in North London, operates studios in Oxford (LTStudios), Cambridge (Just Add Monsters) and Sheffield (Particle Systems) as well as the Morpheme mobile games developer.
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ralphwolfenstein
15/10/04 @ 11:49
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It doesn't make a stoat's pocket worth of difference how many times you remind all and sundry that you made Starglider 20 years ago Jez...
The key phrase here being '20 years ago' |
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Indeed, from what i remember all the major publishers were happy to get rid of Malice. in the end it was the unheard of 'Mud Duck Productions' who finally took it to sale despite 50% review averages.
Microsoft had it down as an exclusive 2nd party title back in the day, so i doubt they'll ever get a game signed up with them again. |
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While the workers have my sympathies because inevitably it's managements job to make a company profitable.
I have to say that Argonaut haven't really being making games that are interesting or, apparently, enjoyable. You can say all you like about marketing, but word of mouth is the biggest marketing out there. |
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Thamuhacha
15/10/04 @ 16:30
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>asd - any other companies you'd like to see go out of business? Maybe we could do away with the concept of independent publishers/developers altogether...
Yes, I don't think we need unregistered posters coming in at this point with comments like that either. Argonaut are a developer with a long history (admittedly mixed) and a large employer in the British games industry. Their demise is nothing to celebrate and ASD would do well to consider what he says more carefully before sounding like a cock. |
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Thamuhacha
15/10/04 @ 16:48
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>asd - ah! the 'ignore' button. *clicks*
I am getting close to that but since the prick won't register, ignoring him means ignoring all unregistered posters ... |
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Well - in which case, I'm glad I'm registered now.
What's going on in the industry as a whole, is very, very worrying. When large plc's like Argo start to get into this kind of trouble, then - well - interesting times. I would suggest that ASD gets out a bit more... He's clearly extremely bitter and twisted if he derrives pleasure from news of redunancies. D. |
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Thamuhacha
15/10/04 @ 16:56
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>Unless of course they are shit, in which case I don't want them in my industry.
Good job you're such a fucking talent isn't it? |
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Thamuhacha
15/10/04 @ 17:07
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By all means comment on the industry, bring your perspective and opinion, but don't expect to be taken seriously if you tout yourself about as a genius.
I seem to remember we have a history of people who talk themselves up without giving any evidence round here. According to form, you should probably "run silent run deep" at this point. |
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Thamuhacha
15/10/04 @ 17:10
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>Come on guys, just ignore him.
I know, I am suffering from Friday-boredom. And he wound me up (as I expect he did to anyone who knew people at Argonaut). Back to PES4 ... |
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SCi has increased profits. That's about the only one I can think of.
And he worked for 2 companies that went belly up so he obviously had no qualms applying to work for doomed companies. He's just the kind of dickhead that can give the rest of us in the industry a bad name amongst passionate gamers, as we tend to be on this site. I certainly won't be laughing at my ex-Argonaut friend this evening when he tells me what's been going on. |
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Thamuhacha
15/10/04 @ 17:23
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>Why on earth would a passionate gamer be upset that a company like Argonaut go under? They MADE SHIT GAMES.
We'd be upset if we ere in the industry. It's not the fault of the majority of people working at Argonaut that it went tits up. It damages our domestic industry and signals a further shift in power towards the massive companies at the top. And I have always thought that you're in the US ... for what it's worth. |
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That would appear to be a veritable chipshop on your shoulder about British devcos and publishers, asd.
Surely if these companies aren't making the kind of commercial and successful games they need to, we should be hoping they can change their direction and/or management in order to do so - not hoping they go down the can. The more British games co's go under, the more it hurts the British industry. As you point out, it's inevitable that this is going happen if such companies consistently under-perform, but either way I don't see how this is desireable. From your comments it reads to me as if you somehow need to justify having left for the States... I could be wrong. Bad experiences with a UK devco? Care to name names? |
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Royal Fool
15/10/04 @ 21:16
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I encourage everyone to register. It takes less than a minute and EuroGamer is not one of those companies that are going to sell off e-mail addresses. In fact, if I remember correctly there are no confirmation e-mails sent at all, you can start logging in right away.
Please register. It weeds out the real posters from this sad prick. |
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Clive Dunn
18/10/04 @ 09:02
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Condolences to all those that have lost their jobs, good luck with finding something new.
Jesus that ASD is a tosser. |
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Was this really that much of a surprise.. Malice was a flop, Powerdrome the same and surely you guys working on Catwoman the game must have known the film was gonna be a catastrophic flop? Blame the management for sure as it was their decisions that ultimately made this mess but bad sales never bodes well for the future.
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