Mythic finally give up on two projects

I don't know what happened to the giant Kickstarter thread. Anyway, the notorious shysters at Mythic have sold Hel: The Last Saga and Anastyr to CMON, finally admitting they can't get them made.

boardgamewire.com/index.php/2024/01/27/m...2m-sells-ip-to-cmon/

They still have a few outstanding, including Monsterpocalypse. I myself am getting stiffed on 6: Siege, having refused to pay their additional ransom. I did, however, fill out their final address confirmation, in the hopes that their ineptness lets them send me my copy anyway.

I myself am getting stiffed on 6:

Do you mean six preorders?

Nevermind, I just figured out that's the name of a game. Phew! I was imagining you out $500!

Heh, no. For some weird licensing reason, they couldn't call their RAINBOW SIX board game, RAINBOW SIX.

Yeah, sounds like they prioritized actually finishing the licensed ones to me by giving up on the other ones (and asking for additional money).

Probably makes sense from a legal perspective.

And even though CMON have promised to send all us backers (yup, I backed HEL) a free base copy their comments that both games are no where ready to be produced and will require considerable redevelopment seems to be at odds to the updates for HEL from Mythic in 2022 showing development well progressed - the more cynical of us (I be on that council) suggest that with CMON having to produce at least 17,000 (the number of backers from the KS) free copies they could be redesigning it so the base game will just be bare bones, maybe having a prologue scenario like Aeon Trespass had for its lowest pledge level, and leaving most of the game - the 13 Story sagas and all the miniatures - being provided as optional expansions.
We'll see in 2025 (maybe) what their intention is, I'm not expecting to see anything delivered until late 2026 or 2027.

^either that or Hel was in much worse shape than the parts they showed indicated! Hard to say!

Gary Sax wrote: ^either that or Hel was in much worse shape than the parts they showed indicated! Hard to say!

Yes, that is the other possibility - as far back as late 2022 they were lying through their teeth in how much development they had done.
But I don't think so, Mythic have severely badly managed their financial affairs and were basically caught with their pants down when Covid and the following shipping crisis hit - too many projects on the boil and no capital or income to support them all - but I don't think they have been that (if at all) dishonest, they have been doing their best (but not enough in the end) to get some projects out (reducing staff by over 60% and selling off IPs) but have run out of options and cash.

No, my money is on my suggestion - the HEL game designed by Mythic is pretty large and having to provide 17,000 copies for free is a big ask for CMON, that's a bloody lot of new backers they have to find to make enough profit to cover those free games and make a return on the project. I can't see them producing a game anywhere near as involved as Mythic's game with those factors taken in consideration - I'll expect to see a small core game with lots of big expansions for the actual story (exactly like the Aeon Trespass saga) when the KS is announced.

I think CMON used the word preorder in one of their statements, so some are assuming it will not be crowdfunding and instead will be a smaller project like their Metal Gear Solid and Dark Providence preorders.

Maybe they can get the MSRP down to $50, meaning their actual costs at that economy of scale could be as low as $10 a copy.

If Mythic backers need to pay shipping and VAT, and taking into consideration CMONs recent shipping prices, maybe they overcharge $5 on shipping, reducing their costs for previous backers even more.

I assume the cost of the intellectual property rights from Mythic included the cost needed to make the property worth buying. So I'm guessing that Mythic is still paying for those 17k copies (not CMON) out of the would-be profits, but Mythic also got enough leftover to work on their other projects. CMON probably made out with some cheap licenses because they were ding-n-dent.

ChristopherMD wrote: I assume the cost of the intellectual property rights from Mythic included the cost needed to make the property worth buying. So I'm guessing that Mythic is still paying for those 17k copies (not CMON) out of the would-be profits, but Mythic also got enough leftover to work on their other projects. CMON probably made out with some cheap licenses because they were ding-n-dent.

You obviously, and if you're not a backer of any of their KSers, have not been following the Mythic news that closely for the last two years - they have no money so won't be giving CMON anything. They are so broke that they even ruled out backer extra contributions for those two games, like they did with Darkest Dungeon (twice) and 6 Siege, because they would be require even higher contributions than than the high asks for those two games - all Mythic will be giving them with the IP will be their development work.

charlest wrote: I think CMON used the word preorder in one of their statements, so some are assuming it will not be crowdfunding and instead will be a smaller project like their Metal Gear Solid and Dark Providence preorders.

Maybe they can get the MSRP down to $50, meaning their actual costs at that economy of scale could be as low as $10 a copy.

If Mythic backers need to pay shipping and VAT, and taking into consideration CMONs recent shipping prices, maybe they overcharge $5 on shipping, reducing their costs for previous backers even more.

So a skeleton of a game compared to the impressive game Mythic was bringing out ... I doubt it would be worth my while paying shipping and VAT to get a game like that shipped to the UK.
Here's the original KS project, it would have been an impressive game www.kickstarter.com/projects/1162110258/...ast-saga/description

Mythic have always mismanaged money and then subsequently sold IP to try to stay afloat. They sold Mythic Battles, their first game, to Monolith, and recently sold Solomon Kane to Monolith as well.

They got sued for not properly paying the designer of Time of Legends.

I read a while back that Leo’s former business partner lost a license for taking money and not delivering.

I don’t think they have ever been so concerned with delivering as much as collecting and spending.

southernman wrote:

charlest wrote: I think CMON used the word preorder in one of their statements, so some are assuming it will not be crowdfunding and instead will be a smaller project like their Metal Gear Solid and Dark Providence preorders.

Maybe they can get the MSRP down to $50, meaning their actual costs at that economy of scale could be as low as $10 a copy.

If Mythic backers need to pay shipping and VAT, and taking into consideration CMONs recent shipping prices, maybe they overcharge $5 on shipping, reducing their costs for previous backers even more.

So a skeleton of a game compared to the impressive game Mythic was bringing out ... I doubt it would be worth my while paying shipping and VAT to get a game like that shipped to the UK.
Here's the original KS project, it would have been an impressive game www.kickstarter.com/projects/1162110258/...ast-saga/description

Just seen on the interweb, an interview with Mythic co-owner Leo where he's pretty open about their mistakes and states that HEL was finished but (due to their financial state) would take a huge contribution from backers to release it.
boardgamewire.com/index.php/2024/01/31/d...IhULZ3o5c3bLXEv7imfw

Bit of between a rock and a hard place for us backers there, if we theoretically could choose - pay a massive amount to get the original game or pay shipping and VAT to get a (most likely) shadow of what we backed game and pay more for additional content. I probably would/will choose neither, but if had to choose would probably pay Mythic for the proper game.

The big difference in the decision, of course, is if CMON told me they were going to do something, I'd be far more inclined to believe it.