Sandy Petersen has Changed the Terms of Your Interest-Free Loan to Him

Very interesting news here about Petersen Games - they are suing (in Utah) a German shipping company alleging RICO behaviour

Apparently the Catalyst deal has fallen through according to Arthur in a private Discord channel...

Ooof, I hope as many backers are made whole as possible for as many products as possible but...

Feckin' Ouch to hear that.

So predictable there's no way you could've taken a bet on it.

I glanced at the CTHULU WARS KS page and it looks like most, but not all the pledges have been fulfilled. Granted, its stretched out over many months, since like mid summer time. From the sounds of it, it appears some fulfillment centers have product but due to Petersen probably failing to pay, its sitting there. But I take it they have more projects in the pipeline that will probably turn into vaporware once Petersen implodes ?

Msample wrote: But I take it they have more projects in the pipeline that will probably turn into vaporware once Petersen implodes ?

Stealing from my previous post a ways back:

Hyperspace: $609k
Eternal Adversary: $150k
Glorantha reprint/expansion: $250k
Dinosaur 1944: $187k
Plant Apocalypse reprint: $491k

Yeah, not looking good. Arthur apparently said something like that they were chasing "something better" than Catalyst...not holding breath.

Sandy and Arthur forced everyone to join their discord, to subsequently abandon it because customers weren’t happy.

Now, it looks like they’ve been bought out/partnered with a new company that makes laser cut plywood gaming products. Although this company wants its identity hidden for now.

Lincoln, the other son, was hired by that company as part of the deal and he took over the discord channel. He immediately started punishing anyone who was critical of PG or asked uncomfortable questions.

There he shared some hints and information about the new mystery company (that wants PG customers to sign up for a package from them giving hints as to who they are, because refusing to announce who you are and asking people for personal information is always a winning approach).

Today, everyone but PG’s closest friends and fans were booted from discord, because it seems Lincoln shared “too much” information about his new employer and got into trouble. His response was to kick everyone out, because reactionary running away from mistakes seems like a genetic trait in that family.

What a mess. Backers now have zero exposure to information and no ways to communicate with PG.

Yeah. The Mystery Package. It's been a hot topic on BGG, but I found out about it because they emailed everyone in their database- even those, like me, who have no KS projects in their schedule -to offer the "mystery gift that everyone will REALLY want" per said email from Sandy. I wasn't interested even before I found out that they'd be asking for all kinds of personal info that they're handing off to the "mystery partner." I have no desire to interact with those clowns ever again and, the way things have been proceeding, that opinion is arcing into the majority. The Cthulhu Wars Discord has nothing positive to say about PG and this kind of behavior is why.

It's difficult to separate the art from the artist when the artist keeps pissing on you.

Well at least it makes the motivation for the mystery package bullshit (which must cost a decent amount of money) make sense. I mean, a horrible, 2024 sinister sense, but...

Nobody with any business sense would send a gift bag to angry customers. They only want the shit they paid for. So whatever idiot they got to invest has already lost my confidence and I'm not even a backer. This is going to fail so spectacularly that I'm looking forward to reading about it. Also, 50/50 that the puzzle box is just a marketing ploy for another KS and nothing else.

J.J. Abrams taught me that the mystery box is often empty... or filled with bullshit.

The cake is a lie, yo.

And I’m equally tired of people claiming that it’s not a no strings attached interest free loan. Because it is, and people know it is when they pledge. It’s the whole idea behind the platform.

Yes, I completely agree that it’s being used as a preorder platform by many companies that shouldn’t. Although unfortunate, it doesn’t change anything. People are pledging on the platform fully informed of the risks.

If you are saying that you are surprised people continue to back projects. Despite these terms and despite the questionable practices of a number of recent companies… I’m also curious to see if these events will have an effect on crowdfunding revenue long term. It’s no longer a theoretical threat of losing money, there have been several high profile recent examples.

I also think Kickstarter (and others) could do more to communicate about bad actors to the potential backers. If a company is not fulfilling and looks like they are in trouble they shouldn’t be able to launch another project.