Cool Mini Or Not secures $5.3M in venture capital

cmon.com/cmon-limited-secures-us5-3-mill...s-a-financing-round/

Cool Mini Or Not now has investors. "Quantum Asset Management PTE Ltd" appears to be the new stakeholders.

Here's hoping they make their numbers.

I wish I cared more about their games, but I really just kind of don't. Blood Rage was awesome, but everything else they've done I've sort of not really cared much about. Aside from Xenoshyft, which my friend designed but somehow only got a "based on ideas by" credit which is total bullshit.

I see their games and they are pretty much emblematic of everything shitty about Kickstarter, even though I would agree that their games are better developed (in general) and more refined. Tons of exclusive shit, superfluous extras, tons and tons of miniatures...ick.

I guess this means they won't need Kickstarter to fund their games anymore. [/sarcasm]

Mad Dog wrote: I guess this means they won't need Kickstarter to fund their games anymore. [/sarcasm]

I'd wager it was heavily featured in their business plan.

Sagrilarus wrote:

Mad Dog wrote: I guess this means they won't need Kickstarter to fund their games anymore. [/sarcasm]

I'd wager it was heavily featured in their business plan.

"We'll give you $5 million in VC based on your ability to draw millions out of other people to fund your stuff!"

I feel that this means they're looking to go more traditional distribution with this money.

VonTush wrote: I feel that this means they're looking to go more traditional distribution with this money.

That and they'll probably try to market their existing more aggressively. Though their current games seem rather niche, so I wonder whether they'll actually profit from wider distribution. Maybe the next games will be targeted at a broader audience, or they might go for some licensed property, which might eat into that venture capital.

Wonder how broad an audience they'd be looking to get. Because of all the plastic they pack into their games, the retail prices always seem to be in the $80-100 range. You can sort of get away with that if you're FFG and selling a Star Wars game, but if they're thinking they're going to try and get on Target shelves or something, the price tag is going to get them laughed out of the buyers' meetings.

The minis-heavy are their KS bread and butter, they won't move away from that.
I'm seeing The Grizzled ($25) and The Queen's Necklace ($30) the direction they're going to use this money for.

$5.3 Million for the Grizzled and Queen's Necklace? Those things generate a few bucks per copy.

And?
I feel CMoN is feeling the perils of bypassing traditional distribution to deal direct to the consumers.

The thing that stuck out to me in that article is that they're hoping to use the cash to acquire some licensed properties for games. I happen to think they put out some pretty good stuff so I'm excited to see them grow n expand.

Yeah I think they'll use this to farther their Grizzled type releases. Bring games normally outside their purview to market. The Grizzled expansion was just announced too, hoping they bring it over.

I also wouldn't mind seeing a lot of this money funneled to new Eric Lang designs. Think he's working on another big box game for them right now.

Venture Capitalists are looking for returns in a relatively short period of time, assuming they're not game lovers at heart. Given the writeup on the company I don't think they are.

If Cool Mini or Not brought a designed game to the VCs and said "we need a Disney Princesses license to make it work" I can see it. That's something you go after with five million dollars. But it's likely not our kind of game. If you're talking about a Heroscape-level effort on a Mad Max license, that's a neat idea, but you have to dig out of a five million dollar hole before you're in the black. That's 27,000 units at $200 apiece to make book.

The only other options I can think of are tripling staff size with some big name designers (for a significant number of years), or, frankly, video games. Much bigger leverage arm on video games. I think that would fit firmly in the "Or Not" part of their name.

Video games is an interesting possibility.
So would them taking one of the miniature lines they watch over, like HellDorado, and blow that up as a way to take on GW, PP or Infinity.