Speaking to Reuters, Trion Worlds CEO Lars Butler revealed that the possibility of going public is on the company's "horizon at some point."

Lars went on to explain, "We've had a lot of bankers coming to us recently. We keep all of our options open at this point. We definitely have enough substance and enough skill to be a public company at the right time."

Trion Worlds has raised over $100m in venture capital since 2007, and according to Butler, their first game, RIFT, is "vastly profitable."

via Gamasutra.

This concerns me to a point.  I realize that capital is important, but it will definitely change the company environment.  It always does.  Whether a private company is purchased by a public entity or goes public it doesn't matter because it is an entirely different environment being public.

I do think they might have what it takes to be successful and public, but it's risky.  This is one of the few games, at the moment, I think really is worth the subscription fee.  There is a visible development effort and pace that other publishers/developers don't show.  Would this remain after going public or would all the profits go into the corporate and shareholder coffers?  Would the development pace slow down to the glacial crawl of other companies?

I doubt this will happen anytime soon considering they need Defiance and End of Nations to be money makers before they even think they should.

If it happens hopefully the competent people stay in control at Trion and they continue to fund Rift with no issues.

that guy reminds me of Lex Luthor.

Originally posted by Joshua69

that guy reminds me of Lex Luthor.

it reminds me of Kane from WWE.... with the creepy grin and psycho stare lol

Lol hahaha.

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Originally posted by Torvaldr
This concerns me to a point.  I realize that capital is important, but it will definitely change the company environment.  It always does.  Whether a private company is purchased by a public entity or goes public it doesn't matter because it is an entirely different environment being public.
 
I do think they might have what it takes to be successful and public, but it's risky.  This is one of the few games, at the moment, I think really is worth the subscription fee.  There is a visible development effort and pace that other publishers/developers don't show.  Would this remain after going public or would all the profits go into the corporate and shareholder coffers?  Would the development pace slow down to the glacial crawl of other companies?

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Let's assume they paid off the 100 million they borrowed (I don't think so but lets say they did).

Now they have no debt and they have to finish:

1. Defiance

2. End of Nations

3. Fund their whole "Red Door" publishing platforming they just announced.

4. Pay for headquarters, new expansions they are planning Montreal or Vancouver, pay for now over 500 employees.

5. Continue to pay for Rift's development which means develop, test and get their first expansion out the door.

Where does that money come from? One game, lol? Nope.

Then it's either borrow from more bankers/capital ventures which means you now owe debt and a few people or few companies own Trion overall, or you go IPO and millions of individuals own Trion instead. Those are the only two options here. Rift is not WoW churning millions and millions in revenue to pay for everything else.

So going IPO makes sense because at least they stay debt free. The problem is that will take a LONG time to do and in the meantime, they still have all I listed above to pay for right NOW.

Originally posted by popinjay

There's no other option at this point. You have to look at it purely as a business decision.

 

 

Let's assume they paid off the 100 million they borrowed (I don't think so but lets say they did).

 

Now they have no debt and they have to finish:

1. Defiance

2. End of Nations

3. Fund their whole "Red Door" publishing platforming they just announced.

4. Pay for headquarters, new expansions they are planning Montreal or Vancouver, pay for now over 500 employees.

5. Continue to pay for Rift's development which means develop, test and get their first expansion out the door.

Where does that money come from? One game, lol? Nope.

Then it's either borrow from more bankers/capital ventures which means you now owe debt and a few people or few companies own Trion overall, or you go IPO and millions of individuals own Trion instead. Those are the only two options here. Rift is not WoW churning millions and millions in revenue to pay for everything else.

 

So going IPO makes sense because at least they stay debt free. The problem is that will take a LONG time to do and in the meantime, they still have all I listed above to pay for right NOW.

Trion is not the producer of End of Nations or Defiance. They are the publisher which is completely different. They are distributing the game and letting those games use their platform to launch it.

NCSoft is an example of the producer of Guild Wars 2 supplying the money. EA is the Producer for Bioware publishing ToR.

Please don't become another soulless corporation run by beancounters. Death to Wall Street!!

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Originally posted by Puremallace

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Originally posted by popinjay

There's no other option at this point. You have to look at it purely as a business decision.
 
 

Let's assume they paid off the 100 million they borrowed (I don't think so but lets say they did).
 
Now they have no debt and they have to finish:

1. Defiance
2. End of Nations
3. Fund their whole "Red Door" publishing platforming they just announced.
4. Pay for headquarters, new expansions they are planning Montreal or Vancouver, pay for now over 500 employees.
5. Continue to pay for Rift's development which means develop, test and get their first expansion out the door.

Where does that money come from? One game, lol? Nope.

Then it's either borrow from more bankers/capital ventures which means you now owe debt and a few people or few companies own Trion overall, or you go IPO and millions of individuals own Trion instead. Those are the only two options here. Rift is not WoW churning millions and millions in revenue to pay for everything else.
 
So going IPO makes sense because at least they stay debt free. The problem is that will take a LONG time to do and in the meantime, they still have all I listed above to pay for right NOW.

---

Trion is not the producer of End of Nations or Defiance. They are the publisher which is completely different. They are distributing the game and letting those games use their platform to launch it.
 
NCSoft is an example of the producer of Guild Wars 2 supplying the money. EA is the Producer for Bioware publishing ToR.

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Trion wouldn't be doing IPO unless they have to have cash coming in right now. That said, it's probably a better move than outright borrowing from bankers and owing debt.

Originally posted by popinjay

Trion wouldn't be doing IPO unless they have to have cash coming in right now. That said, it's probably a better move than outright borrowing from bankers and owing debt.

I agree with this. It is better then going back to your financers and borrowing money back or something. Most people just want them to keep an independent operation.

Originally posted by Puremallace

Originally posted by popinjay



There's no other option at this point. You have to look at it purely as a business decision.

 

 

Let's assume they paid off the 100 million they borrowed (I don't think so but lets say they did).

 

Now they have no debt and they have to finish:

1. Defiance

2. End of Nations

3. Fund their whole "Red Door" publishing platforming they just announced.

4. Pay for headquarters, new expansions they are planning Montreal or Vancouver, pay for now over 500 employees.

5. Continue to pay for Rift's development which means develop, test and get their first expansion out the door.

Where does that money come from? One game, lol? Nope.

Then it's either borrow from more bankers/capital ventures which means you now owe debt and a few people or few companies own Trion overall, or you go IPO and millions of individuals own Trion instead. Those are the only two options here. Rift is not WoW churning millions and millions in revenue to pay for everything else.

 

So going IPO makes sense because at least they stay debt free. The problem is that will take a LONG time to do and in the meantime, they still have all I listed above to pay for right NOW.

Trion is not the producer of End of Nations or Defiance. They are the publisher which is completely different. They are distributing the game and letting those games use their platform to launch it.

 

NCSoft is an example of the producer of Guild Wars 2 supplying the money. EA is the Producer for Bioware publishing ToR.

 

Trion is in fact the developer of Defiance. End of Nations is a second-party development project.

As companies grow they need to go public to raise further capital. It all depends on their future plans for the company.

I just hope they will not ruin Rift. Or hurt any future projects.

Maybe merge the already existing thread with this one... we've been talking about this for a day or more.

Syfy has already invested 100 million into defiance, was my understanding the development costs were completely covered already as part of the partnership contract.

Originally posted by MikeB

 

Trion is in fact the developer of Defiance. End of Nations is a second-party development project.

ahh ok thanks for clearing that up. I know they were partnered with Petroglyph on EoN, but not much about Defiance has been let out, so I am spotty on my knowledge there.

This will make it easier to see their revenues decline as they stagnate.