Some good Posts from the Yahoo board
<<Subj: MPRS presentation 2/24/98
By: snake1132
Date: Feb 25 1998 7:48 P.M PST
Reply To: Msg. 245 by snake1132
I met with Steve Race for 45 minutes on Tuesday. Two games will be out within the next 3 weeks. Ultimate Race Pro has
mastered in Europe. M-1 will master early in March. The rest of the release schedule (Steve stressed the following schedule is the
best estimate that can be made at this time... the multiplayer elements of some of these games require extensive debugging, and
releasing these games with poor multiplayer features would be (I think we can all agree) a big mistake) looks like this: Pinball
addiction will come out in April or May. Ultimate Civ II will be out in the last half of Fiscal Q1 (april-may quarter) Falcon 4.0 will
follow, either late in Q1 or in the first half of Q2. Mech Commander, which looks fantastic, I must add, (and I am not a fan of the
genre) will be out early in q2, or perhaps moved up to Q1 if Falcon is delayed until Q2. Later in this year we can look forward to
a Star Trek title, (either Birth of the Federation or Klingon Honor Guard) Agents of Justice, MechWarrior 3, European Air War,
and one or two additional titles which may include Starship Troopers.
ubj: Continued...
By: snake1132
Date: Feb 25 1998 7:55 P.M PST
Reply To: Msg. 255 by snake1132
Perhaps the best news is that management is taking the right steps. 900,000 stock options were handed out to employees at a
strike price of 2 in December. These options vest over 5 years. Race and Louie did not receive any. Designers were given the
lion's
share. Management knows that getting quality titles out on schedule is the only priority of MPRS. They are focused on this alone.
We are going to see great products out of MPRS this year. The cash situation is good enough to get us to the Co. to the big
summer and fall releases I outlined in my prior post. Steve told me a deal was pending to acquire the rights to a new game, and
this is good news for shareholders. The company needs to focus on its pipeline, and continue to be aggressive in its pursuits of
potentially hot new titles. They are doing this.
I also talked with Gilman Louie for twenty minutes. The focus of our discussion was MPRS ability to leverage the game engines it
is developing now into new titles. This looks very promising. MPRS should be able to put out follow on titles to its current releases
6-9 months after each release. This is what the company needs to do to create a continuous flow of games. I will post more
tomorrow. I have to run.
Snake
Subj: Answers to some Q's
By: snake1132
Date: Feb 26 1998 1:32 P.M PST
Reply To: Msg. 257 by lkjoeif
One of the issues I brought up Tuesday at the MPRS presentation was why the company is so far ahead of its releases with
advertising. At 5-10K a pop in the major magazines, 6 months or more of lead time before games come out seems quite a bit too
much. I think the delays in games coming out are largely a result of attempts to get multiplayer elements to work. However, with
Agents of Justice, clearly the game isn't coming out for another 4-5 months.
Steve Race said one thing is that the company needs to avoid putting all its games out in a very short period of time. No more than
1 title every two weeks. (While this seems like a dream given the dearth of games recently, just which games will come out first is
unclear, so I think the idea is to advertise all the ones that are upcoming so that whichever comes out first has had sufficient notice
taken of it.)
In answer to another question, as to why 3DO's stock has shot up, it is because 3DO was mentioned in one of the monthly
magazines as being a beaten up game company that could really take off if it gets just one hit out this year. I read all those mags at
the library, and I forget if it was Worth or Forbes, but when I read the piece I thought "MPRS has a much better chance of having
this scenario unfold than 3DO." We'll see in time if I'm delusional
Subj: Answers cont.
By: snake1132
Date: Feb 26 1998 1:50 P.M PST
Reply To: Msg. 260 by sobko1
As to who is buying, the answer is not insiders. They have already bought quite a bit, but currently I think they are just
waiting for events to play out. Only about 150K of stock is trading on an average day for the last few weeks. I think there are a
lot of people who realize that 55million is a very small market cap for a company with the titles MPRS has the rights to. I
think many people are surprised the stock didn't drop further than it did after the horrific earnings report. However, this is
probably more a testament to just how beaten down the stock price is more than anything. The company is dirt cheap right now. It
is
priced as if it may be ready to go out of business. Whether M-1 and Ultimate Race can change this valuation before the bigger
titles come out in late May, June, and Fiscal Q2 is anyone's guess.
The prospects of a reverse stock split are good. I think it will be done if the Nasdaq forces MPRS's hand with the threat of a move
to the Nasdaq small cap board. I have no comment to report from Race or Louie on the likelihood of Nasdaq making this move.
To sum up, the games that are coming out do look great, but the bulk of them won't be out until late Q1 or early Q2. I believe they
will be hit quality when released. The latest version of Falcon is incredible. Ultimate Civ is going to be a blast... a completely
different game than against AI. I just hope it comes out 3 or more months before Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
In life and investing there are times where the past needs to be the past and the present has to be looked at as if every
aspect of it is being seen for the first time. If I was looking at MPRS as an IPO or a venture capital company, I would believe it
would be well worth the risk and just a little patience. The company made some big mistakes. They aren't the first. However, what
is more important is that they are about to effectively release the greatest series of high quality titles in the company's
history. At the current price, MPRS is a very attractive investment, IMO >>>>>>>>>>>>
Coy |
