Meanwhile, in North America, Acclaim still has servers (somewhat) open for The Chronicles of Spellborn, but the game feels as if it has been left chained in a dusty corner with a crust of stale bread and a tin of rusty water by its neglectful parents. There are enormous issues on the official site, such as a broken downloader setup, corrupted patches, and most recently, a bug requiring players to change their passwords each and every time they try to log in to the game. No fixes or responses are forthcoming, and we were unable to get any official comment from Acclaim regarding its intentions for the North American version as of the time we published this.
The full text of the section of Frogster's press release dealing with TCoS can be found behind the break. As to Acclaim's intent, we'll update this post if we get a response.
[Thanks, Cow Moo Flage]
Update on Frogster Asia
The 64% Frogster subsidiary Frogster Asia Co. Ltd. could yet again not reach an agreement on further cooperation with the Dutch licensor Spellborn NV regarding the intended enhancements and publishing of the free to play version of the MMO Game 'The Chronicles of Spellborn' in Asia and is thus forced to close down the development studio and to dismiss all staff who dealt with the free to play version by order of Spellborn NV. Herefrom arises an extraordinary negative P&L effect for the subsidiary which will have a negative impact to the group result in a small to medium six digit Euro amount. The Frogster Interactive management had informed the public several times before about the uncertain outcome of the ongoing talks. On the other side, Frogster Interactive will reclaim the paid prepayments for the product of a seven-digit Euro amount while it is unknown whether the developer could make such a payment. The company has already fully written off all prepayments on Frogster's balance sheet regarding the game so that no noteworthy negative impacts from the balance sheet are impending.
Frogster Interactive will finance the further, not yet break-even operation of 'Runes of Magic' in Korea and, as already announced, the market launch of the MMO Game 'Ghost Fighter' which was recently newly licensed by Frogster Asia from the Chinese market leader Shanda and is scheduled for launch in autumn. This funding will be done per a shareholder loan to Frogster Asia in a medium six-digit Euro amount. At the same time, the holding company will receive a call option on for the acquisition of further stakes in Frogster Asia at face value.
