news

[Egobarn]

Swedish articel
http://www.di.se/Nyheter/?page=/Avde...%3BDagensBonus

at work, dont have time to translate

[John Critchon]

Anyone care to translate?

[spixen]

Ok this is done realy fast and my spelling is likley horrible but it is hopfully understandable.

---
The planet is fiction – the business is for real

The former bankrupt company Mindark I Gothenburg is preparing for entry to the stock market with its internet based role-play universe, Entropia. Here does 600.000 participant, where 40.000 is Swedish, conduct business in Entropias own currency PED. Mindarks CEO and biggest owner Jan Welter says that 20.000 PED is a normal monthly wage.

The 20.000 PED translates roughly in to 14.000 Swedish crowns, the participants can withdraw the funds in ATM-machines in the real word using Mindarks own ATM-cards

Mindark recently sold five bank licenses in Entropia for a total of 404.000 real US-dollar that means 2, 7 million real Swedish crowns. The company has earlier sold an asteroid for almost 700.000 Swedish crowns to a participant who now uses it as a nightclub and sells apartments on his asteroid.

But this revenues is of little impotents for Mindark, explains Jan Welter, 95 % of the revenue instead comes from decay on the participants clothing and equipment. Mindark charges a fee that represents the decay on the various items.

“It has been a long journey but we have now proven that our idea and our unique system works” says Jan Welter

“We are convinced that this is just the beginning. The market for our kind of online game grows as a rapid pace and the potential is enormous if we play our card correctly”

Jan Welter recently received a new recognition from the financial committee in USA. He is invited to speak for the committee and inform them about Entropia.

Mindarks long journey began in the beginning of 1980 when Jan Welter studied at Chalmers technical University. He then got the idea of Entropia when he visited the arcades at the amusement park Liseberg (located in Gothenburg)

“Against all odds did we later on manage to see this seemingly unreachable dream come true, to go from the early simply computer games to a breathtaking 3-D virtual universe” Jan Welter explains.

The development of Entropia that ended up with a total cost of 150 million Swedish crowns started in 1990.

Around the beginning of this century were the Swiss owned high stake capital investment firm Value Venture Capital primary owner and the calculated with a fast launching of Entropia. The annual revenue where projected in terms of billions of Swedish crowns.

But this forecast where to say the least over optimistic, like many other forecasts when the famous IT-boom collapsed.

Not until the beginning of 2003 where Entropia ready for launch to the public. But the money that was promised by the owners for the launch did not arrive


Bankruptcy was filed shortly after.

But Jan Welter refused to let go of his idea. He acted swiftly. Jan Welter bought the now developed software and all other assets from Mindark together with two other persons. The price was about 15 million Swedish crowns.

Looking back at it now it seems like a real bargain.

Profits inside the game become real money. The game takes place in a large fiction planet named Calypso in a not so distant future. The participants create a digital alter ego of themselves, called Avatar. The avatar can move freely in the world and explore tows, different continents and interact with other players avatars.

”Entertainment and recreation is of course a vital goal. The participants can for example hunt wild animals, attend nightclubs, art exhibits and go shopping” Jan Welter explains.

”It’s a big difference compared to other games since we have our own economy with our own currency. This makes it possible to purchase and sell items and even to make money that can easily be withdrawn in to real cash”

It is free to download the software and to gain access to Entropia

”What we make revenue from is mainly that all tools, weapons and other equipment, like many decide to purchase decay and needs to be repaired for a fee”

2003, when the game made it’s entry to the market, Mindark had a turnover around 5 Million Swedish crowns and a small profit. Last year the turnover was 59 Million, the profit after financial post where 14,6 million, almost as much as the owners paid to acquire the company.

”It has proven to be an excellent purchase.” Says Jan Welter. He recently received a 9 million Swedish crown one-time compensation from the company, in return he had to say no to future commission.

”This was a necessary action in order to prepare the company for the stock market. The work with selecting the investment bank that will help out with the launch on the stock market is going at full speed. Entry to the stock market is projected within a year” Says Jan Welter

The Stockholm stock market is one of the options being considered

”But right now it seems more likely that it will be the London stock market. There are already several companies there that resembles Mindark and there seems to be a big interest for the investors in our relatively young market” Says Jan Welter

The background for the launching at the stock market is a promise made to the 900 share holders that bought shares in 2005 and helped fund the company with an additional 25 million.

”With an introduction to the stock market we give the share holders an opportunity to trade there stock. At the same time we gain access to the capital market and we can easier raise funds for coming expansions” Says Jan Welter

But thanks to the good profits the company has not yet had the need to use the extra funds from the new share holders. The profit margin under the first quarter this year was close to 35%

Mindark recently signed a cooperation contract with the Chinese Internet-entertainment company Cyber Recreation Development Corp.

”The is a milestone in our development and opens up the Chinese market. The goal is to expand Entropia to a world with several new planets and gradually attract several millions of new users” Says Jan Welter

The goal is to sign similar contracts with other partners and continually expand Entropia with new planets.

”We are negotiating with several media companies with the aim of starting cooperation with both European and American companies as soon as possible. The interest in Entropia is really big witch don’t seem strange since the virtual worlds opens the possibility to create own relations with an attractive and rapidly growing target audience.” Says Jan Welter.

After picking up speed after the bumpy start does Jan look bright on Mindarks future. Exactly how the goals look like is not something he wants to reveal.

”It would just sound silly. But with our good starting position in a fast growing market it’s clear that we can count on making our turnover and profits several times larger then they are today in the near future” Says Jan Welter

The End.

[Hulyss]

Oulala !!

I hope they will share the profits whith US, the ones without Entropia Universe can't exist !!

U keep an eye on US, EBN, but dont forget we have more eyes than u. Ur money excitation can bring u to make hard mistakes.

The community is agree whith that i think.

Regards,

[AlphaGeek]

Interesting, an IPO. Finally it will be possible to actually invest in Entropia, not merely buy virtual stuff that the EULA says isn't ours anyway.

"...owner Jan Welter says that 20,000 PED is a normal monthly wage..." Not sure if this is a translation error, Jan trying to put in context the value of a PED, or Jan trying to tell people they can get this much out of the game every month.

So, anyone have data on how Americans can interact with the Swedish Stock market? Thanks in advance if you do.

It'd be interesting to see what might happen to the game if by some wild chance the majority share of the stock was held by players.

AG

[vumba]

Originally Posted by spixen

Profits inside the game become real money.

What profits, i only experience loss, and have done so from day one

[MorbidX]

hmm intersting reading


didnt know MA went bankrupt......... worries me a little

[JaKst3r]

Originally Posted by MorbidX

hmm intersting reading


didnt know MA went bankrupt......... worries me a little

Not worried.. it was before it changed to Entropia Universe.

Happy also I might have the opportunity to actually *invest* in the company whose profits I seem to have a reasonable part in helping deliver

JaKst3r

[JayDee]

Well there is no way around it. If they are making money we as players are loosing money. A very small number of players are at a point were they might actually make money. Those players give hope to the majority that they might get to that level.

This says a lot:
”What we make revenue from is mainly that all tools, weapons and other equipment, like many decide to purchase decay and needs to be repaired for a fee”

All my losses so far are from decay. If it wasn't for that I would be profiting every day. For the average player without a ton of cash this is more of a game of hope/chance that you will hit a Uber HOF.

Personally I am doing pretty good. I have spent $400USD so far and still can account for $350USD of it in PED, equipment and skills. The only thing really saving me is the markups on Ores and Matters and Empty Skill chips.

As said don't worry about the bankrupt part. SecondLife almost went under after it's first launch also. These games were just simply before their time at the time. Now that people have easier access to high speed internet and a dozen social disorders these games should flourish for sometime.

[Grounder]

More of the same old stuff.

They make their money from decay - this has been established and admitted to for some time.

EU is like a casino - most lose but a few win. New players are brought in with hype about the winners.

and what I though most appropriate "Exactly how the goals look like is not something he wants to reveal." - they are not telling the press anything... just like they dont tell us anything (although they have shown some slight improvement over the last 6 months).

Grounder