Author Topic: Palladium in Trouble  (Read 7423 times)

Mr_Pleasington

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Palladium in Trouble
« on: April 19, 2006, 09:20:59 PM »
Have you all seen this:  http://forums.palladium-megaverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=57048&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0  


Now I'm no fan of Palladium and absolutely hate how their vigourous defense of their IP doesn't allow for conversions (since I'm a fan of the RIFTS setting but can't stand the Palladium system), but I sure wouldn't like to see them go under.  Variety is the spice of life and all.

That said, it's kind of crappy that you make a bunch of bad business decisions and then have to ask your fans to bail you out.  

Anyway, there's the scoop.

Spriggan

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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2006, 09:39:57 PM »
We'll I wouldn't say its crappy business decisions alone that caused this (since we don't know what did) but I do know they had a problem with thefts in the company and he mentioned some embezzling.

I'll be buying one of those prints.  They're not asking for handouts, $50 for a limited edition signed print plus your name in a book isn't that much.  To get a unsigned copy of EUOL's book cover at that size is roughly the same cost.
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Mr_Pleasington

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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2006, 09:44:37 PM »
I'd say there were some crappy business decisions.  Putting their first video game on the N-Gage which was a joke of a system well before the game was announced.  Bragging about the RIFTS movie for years, etc... It seems to me they may have started counting on money they didn't have.  Let me over-analyze:

I may not be a fan of Palladium, but I hate to see any hardworking RPG company go under.

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember KS bragging about how his company has held onto the third spot of the big 3 for so long doing it his way and the upcoming movie will just futher vindicate him and give him a pile of money so he could continue to do whatever he wants. This, then, would be irony.

His reasons for the trouble, other than the embezzelment he can't speak of, perplex me a bit though...

...I wouldn't think that any investment would have been lost in liscensing out RIFTS for the Nokia game. Sure, profits could come in well under projections, but as long as he didn't count on the income from that...which no businessman taking a new venture should then there should have been that much of a problem. It also seems to be poor research...most everyone knew the N-Gage was a joke by the time the game was announced. Why go with that system?

...Not getting into the book trade certainly sucks, but since Palladium was never there before it's not like they lost anything.

...Rifts movie stalled? Again, seems to be loss of potential income.

...RIFTS MMOG? Ditto.

It seems that all these "unfortunate events" represent more a loss of growth potential rather than big sinks in capital. I could be wrong, of course. If Ultimate RIFTS sold as good as he claims then one would think Palladium would be coming off of a big upswing in profits.

The question this whole thing raises for me is whether Palladium was actually sustaining itself on it's book sales. It's very possible they were and the embezzlement did them in, but there is also the possibility that profits at Palladium have just been plummetting and KS is embellishing the story to get aid, not willing to admit poor sales.

Again, this is all conjecture, but given the lack of details and KS's comments over the years it certainly does raise a lot of questions....

Spriggan

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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2006, 10:17:50 PM »
I see the movie and video games as a means to try and get out of the debt not the cause, he mentioned selling personal possessions such as art and rare toys for this and he started doing that quite a while ago.

The sad thing is Palladium is arguably #3 in the RPG field (they shift from month to month) and if they can tank then anyone can.  Palladium has been always seen as the over-zealous company that never took any risks since staying in business and paying employees was more important then any other flashy things (like colored pages).

I'm just as curious as you as to what actually caused this problem, though I can't place judgments since I don't know.

What I do know is their 2005 schedule got postponed almost a year due to thefts by employees (they actually couldn't print new books because the masters were stolen).

As for that I'm not sure what else "bad business decisions" would entail?  I just see them trying to make good ones that don't pan out (ie the movie, VG, getting into book store chains) offset by some really bad luck (all the thefts).
« Last Edit: April 19, 2006, 10:18:39 PM by Spriggan »
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Spriggan

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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2006, 10:24:19 PM »
I just re-read Kevin's statements and all he says is that this was due to theft and embezzlement.  There really isn't anything else to say about it I guess, I'm not a conspiracy type of person so I have to take his word at face value.

I see this as something we could add a banner to the front page on, if we had that stupid Save Farscape banner up for almost a year we could have a Save Palladium one up for a few weeks.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2006, 10:26:28 PM by Spriggan »
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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2006, 10:41:41 PM »
It sucks for Palladium, it really does, and I agree with Sprig, but it certainly points to one thing. You cant count on movie deals. Thats what almost sunk Pinnacle that and the Video game thing. If palladium does survive then its time to change with the times. New layout, new art, new everything. Frankly they need books like Ianus games did for Macross Plus (the ship books).

Robotech (if they get the liscense) would be a good place for that.
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Spriggan

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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2006, 10:45:59 PM »
Ya, I was surprised to see they're trying to re-acquire the Robotech license since before they dropped it due to how much Harmony Gold was asking for it.

Will they update their style, probably not, for every person that wants fancy layouts and color interiors there's people like me and Fell that would rather save $20 and not have it.

Now a rule revision is one thing I wouldn't mind.

edit: this is an intresting post http://forums.palladium-megaverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=53080
« Last Edit: April 19, 2006, 10:46:58 PM by Spriggan »
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Mr_Pleasington

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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2006, 11:14:18 PM »
I was just making observations and speculations...as I said, I have no desire to see Palladium go down in flames.


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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2006, 11:18:54 PM »
I know Mr. P.  I'm just not one to speculate in matters when the people involved say one thing and then  the internet rumors say "that can't be all!" as I'm sure is going on over at RPG.net.
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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2006, 09:32:18 AM »
well, I don't want to see anybody's business die off. WOrking for yourself is the American Dream, after all.

However, I'd be much more interested in Palladium if they had done some copyediting somewhere along the line and done some actual book design. I'm not talking about Wizards-style glossy-page hardbacks in full cover. I'm talking about legible text with an organization that flowed.

It's possible the Palladium system won't disappear, too, even if they go out of business. I think there will be companies willing to invest in the market that Kevin already created. The problem will be if Kevin refuses to let someone else market it.

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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2006, 09:36:53 AM »
I honestly cannot see him licensing out his stuff to other companies, nor do I really thinks he needs too (just to get cash that is).
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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2006, 09:42:52 AM »
My idea on selling the lisence would be if he goes out of business. When the only other option would be the death of Palladium as a supported game system.

Mr_Pleasington

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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2006, 10:39:16 AM »
Another example of a bad business decision:

Basically begging fans to help with dire consequences when you haven't exhausted all of you publishing options.  KS doesn't want to do PDFs, but it's certainly something I would have tried before making the big 'sky is falling' announcement.  

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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2006, 10:53:08 AM »
IMHO, Kevin Siembieda should step aside and let someone with more business sense run the business. He would be best suited to relegated himself into overseeing developement and doing some consulting. I think his stranglehold on the company is having the start of a big fall out.
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Re: Palladium in Trouble
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2006, 10:57:13 AM »
Would PDF sales alone have saved them?  I doubt it.

Also considering it would have cost them a significant investment to start up a PDF program I can't see that as a good business decision.  sure they could go with DriveThrough, but Drive through over charges and Palladium would have seen very little of that cash since those sellers keep a huge amount for themselves.  PDFs aren't worth it for every company, they didn't make WotC enough money to keep doing it so I doubt it would make enough to keep Palladium alive.

The RPG industry, and the book industry, has such small margins of profit off their products I'm amazed some of them even manage to last as long as they have.
Screw it, I'm buying crayons and paper. I can imagineer my own adventures! Wheeee!

Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.