Thread by @dsmart

And the final shoe drops. CIG raised $46M this past Summer from investors.

gamasutra.com/view/news/3333…

They have updated the UK listing showing that Ezer Eli KLEIN, one of the officers of Infatrade (the investor of this deal) is now a director of CIG, joining industry heavyweight @FlyingKameLA who I revealed earlier this week.

beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/088152…

Remember when I said Dan was either an investor or representing the investors?

So there you have it folks, nothing further can be said here, other than this is history repeating itself.

I can't say I'm surprised because for YEARS I've been saying THIS was going to happen.

Chris Roberts also wrote a blog about the news. Funny how I get to break all these news, long before he does. So much for transparency. Also, this happen back in May!!

cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/letter-fr…

They have also now published their financials. Funny how investors can make you do things.

cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate…

cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate…

And the Squadron 42 roadmap is now online.

Q2/2020 for the BETA

I can't even stop laughing.

robertsspaceindustries.com/roadmap/board/…

There you have it folks....

imgur.com/EBzch8j.jpg

Chris Roberts burned through ALL this money without ever shipping a SINGLE one of the two products.

The project - as I had predicted - is running in the RED. Hence investors.

cloudimperiumgames.com/uploads/025357…

Hey remember that time when Chris Roberts told backers that they keep healthy reserves and that if they ever ran out of money that the sales of SQ42 would be able to fund the game? Yeah me too. Fun times.

God, I can't even stop laughing. I called ALL THIS over 3.5 years ago.

Remember also when I took legal action asking them to refund backers who requested it, provide a schedule for the projects, and to post the promised financials? Yeah, me too.

YEARS later, they got around to it. But no more refunds since Dec 2017.

dereksmart.org/2015/08/star-c…

For the past 16 months (I checked), I wrote several articles in which sources had told me they were running out of money and actively looking for investors. NOBODY would give Chris money. Then this happened and the deal closed in May 2018. They never said anything until now.

I have now updated my latest article with current news.

I'm still not even believing any of this. It's just all so surreal to me.

dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6…

Remember how I kept saying that Chris basically took backer money to make him, his family and friends rich? Well about 50% of their yearly expenses was spent on exec pay and bonuses.

cloudimperiumgames.com/uploads/681060…

Remember how I wrote that in 2012 sources claimed that Chris had paid himself back from the initial KS proceeds? Take a look at 2012 column paid to execs. The crowd-funding started in Oct.

i.imgur.com/e0DibMr.jpg

In late 2015 sources had told myself and The Escapist that CIG barely had money to last 90 days.

Today's financial statement pretty much confirms and puts that argument to bed.

They have consistently been burning through more money than they raised. Most of it going to execs.

The spin Chris put in his statement today are lies.

They raised $46M in May 2018.

SQ42 was 2 yrs from Beta - if we believe (we don't) him. So why raise money for "marketing" TWO YEARS ahead?

And why split the money between US & UK?

Lies. All of it.

forbes.com/sites/mattpere…

When I wrote this Sept 2017 article that sources claimed they were bleeding money and actively looking for investors but getting rebuffed, some ignored it.

Now we know it to be true, and they found a sucker and closed the deal in May 2018.

dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5…

When I wrote this May 2017 article that sources told me the public dev schedule was fabricated, SQ42 was nowhere near ready, that the schedule goes to 2021, some ignored it.

dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5…

When I wrote in Aug 2017 that Chris had flat-out lied in a Gamescom interview about the state (all missions completed) of SQ42, some ignored it.

twitch.tv/videos/1694122…

dereksmart.com/forum/index.ph…

When I wrote in Oct 2017 that refunds were going to end because they were low on cash, and that 3.0 was the MVP, SQ42 was but a memory, some ignored it.

dereksmart.com/forums/reply/5…

When in June 2018 I said the same thing about SQ42? Well...

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1013040712429002752

Even Ben Lesnick, who is no longer on the project, had claimed back in 2016 that Tyler in tech support and the QA guys had played all the SQ42 missions.

Now we know they lied. I was right about that too.

staging.imperialnews.network/2016/07/revers…

"The great thing with the success of the crowd funding is that we now actually need a lot less of this money," - Chris Roberts, Feb 2013

archive.is/q4dxU#selectio…

In Jan 2017, even as they were bleeding money, Chris claimed that if funding stopped for Star Citizen, that SQ42 - which we now know was 3.5 yrs away at the time - would fund development to completion.

pcinvasion.com/squadron-42-fu…

via @pcinvasion

This whole thing, top to bottom, inside and out, is a SCAM designed to unjustly enrich Chris, his family, close friends and cohorts.

Now he claims SQ42 is going to beta in Q2/2020. Meanwhile, Star Citizen, which shares the same code & assets, is currently a broken mess.

I have absolutely NO idea what this investor thought he was investing in.

CIG has no product, no profit revenue, is in debt ($211M in pre-orders) - and bleeding cash.

If they think SQ42 is going to yield the expected ROI for their $46M, I would point them to Theranos.

And this is precisely why some are already raising the money laundering flag. I am not buying into that because I can't envision @FlyingKameLA being a part of anything with even a whiff of that.

Like most, I am at a loss as to what ROI they really expect from this.

In 2012, Chris told the media and backers that the games would be out by Nov 2014; and that anything more than 2 yrs, it would get stale.

Star Citizen is 20% complete in 2018. SQ42 isn't even 10% complete, and goes (probably not) into Beta in Q2/2020

web.archive.org/web/2017032004…

"To let us focus on quality free of the pressure to deliver by a certain financial quarter. To nurture a new original IP. To put fun ahead of shareholder profits." - The Pledge (2012)

imgur.com/xmA0aO0.jpg

"We keep a healthy cash reserve so that if funding stopped tomorrow we would still be able to deliver Star Citizen (not quite to the current level of ambition, but well above what was planned in Oct 2012)." Chris Roberts, Sept 2014

robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…

Never forget!

pcgamer.com/roberts-space-…

If you're struggling to understand why this $46M made sense to ANY investor who isn't brain-dead, read up on Liquidation Preference & Convertible Notes; two demands in any investor arsenal. Speculation is one or both of these are part of this deal. Nothing else makes sense.