Quoted from frolic:Yeah, I think that's where we're at... nothing makes sense on paper as a business.
I think Ben guessed the BOM at $6k/game, which is probably a fair guess, and may very well be low. Then you look at the work that is still left to do.
I don't invest in businesses without business plans. I don't know how anyone would invest in John if he can't provide numbers and a road map to success.
My first rule for business investment is "Is there a strong demand for this product or service?" and unfortunately for just about everything pinball related, that answer is "no", which has stopped me from getting involved in any pinball business. Let alone something set up as a zidware with extremely high costs and extremely limited revenues and extreme risk for my money.
Any investor will judge things the exact same way. The only "easy" money was by crowd funding and getting people to send money in who don't have the same criteria and had a desire to see the final product. There was no need for a regular investor, he had sidestepped that. Raising $1M is a big deal.
John unfortunately screwed that all up.
Well, on the plus side, PDXmonkey is still involved apparently, even despite him almost rage-quitting because John hired Kaneda as his PR guy. Maybe he has the combination of funding and John's cooperation to pull something off. I just hope whatever their solution is, JPOP'd vendors are made whole, and ALL zidware customers are taken care of. Nothing is solved if RAZA and AIW owners are left hanging while a few MG owners get their games, and any solution that involves converting existing customers into additional MG games needs to involve compensation for the original buyers.