(Shocking) News!!!!!

[Fyron]

There is no post!

Back to your regularly scheduled shocking.

[geoschmo]

Nobody get all paranoid now. It was just a slight misunderstanding. Fyron and I got it straightened out and decided the best thing was to just remove the posts rather than add additional confusion.

Nothing to see here citizens, move along.

[Annette]

Wow. Some interesting reading today. We truly appreciate the show of support for Shrapnel Games and Malfador Machinations. Our wish is for continued success for both companies.

I see some comments being thrown around that I'd like to expand upon.

Well, the last I heard the 'filing for bankruptcy protection' was about a year ago, since December the company has shown positive cash-flow and are slowly getting back above ground.

Strategy First filed for Chapter 11 protection from bankruptcy on August 18, 2004, with their largest debt being a reported $1.7 million USD owed to game developers around the world. Yes, this may be cause for concern as to what kind of support will exist for their future releases with stories like this being publicised:
Ideal Games Explanation for No Patches

Something like this may or may not be an issue in the future if the proposed buyout by Silverstar Holdings meets the conditions set by the Montreal bankruptcy courts.
Silverstar Holdings Aquistion of Strategy First

There was definitely a lot of "I can't get the game!" complaining.

Our games are now carried by retail outlets in over ten countries (see my blog of March 7). It's true that when we released Space Empires IV five years ago our network was not as large. Since then we have been focused on expanding that market. We also restructured our shipping rates some time ago so that shipping a single game to most international destinations via USPS Global Priority Mail is $5.00 USD.

There are folks who will always complain about not being able to find a game. Heck, there's a thread on the Strategy First forums right now about customers not finding their newest release of Disciples II Gold in stores. No publisher can please everyone. The best we can do is to listen to what is being said and take action to make corrections when we can. It's the response to complaints that will make or break any company.

David is correct about the prizes for the PBW tournament not being affected. The tourney was conceived and implemented by Malfador. Shrapnel donated a small prize even knowing we would not be publishing SEV.

Thanks for allowing me to hopefully straighten out some of the misconceptions.