Rebellion Before Land... Inflows Needed Badly, but Future Still on Matt's Mind
Matt said in yesterday's Town Square that Land release will be postponed until late October. Maybe even further, if I were to guess, to not overlap with the Rebellion presale launch. If we were to draw something positive from this, it will likely be Land 1.5 and 1.6 combined, or at least some features from 1.6, like the grain market.
Top priority is now launching the Rebellion core set.
Given the company's complicated liquidity situation, switching priorities sort of make sense as an emergency measure.
It's far from ideal, obviously, with Rebellion coming out during a time when everyone in crypto hardly has any dry powder left, like the company itself. The difference is, most individuals in crypto don't have payrolls and bills to pay every month to keep a crypto business afloat in the bear market, so they (we) can survive until the bull market comes to save us all from the big bad bear. They can't do that! They have impressive amounts to pay every month.
At some point in yesterday's town square, Matt gave an information which may or may not be extremely accurate regarding their monthly expenses, but he said the 250,000 USD the SPS DAO would pay the company in advance for the Rebellion core set, if the proposal passes, adds another month to their available cash on hand.
This amount, 250k US dollars monthly (more or less accurate, probably), is after two significant layoff rounds and serious cost optimization (for example, with server costs). Imagine what their monthly expanses were in the bull market...
Splinterlands may not be a big company compared to other global giants, but compared to the amounts we see in Hive businesses, it is a colossus.
Matt also said he is drafting a proposal for the DHF, besides looking for more VC investors (ugh!). Given the size of the company and its needs for cash or stablecoins, we'll have to see what kind of funding will be asked for and what the reaction will be. What we know for sure is that Hive wouldn't be the same without Splinterlands... So, when the DHF proposal comes, even those not involved with the game should think very well about it.
But even during this penurious situation for the company, Matt doesn't think only at the immediate goal of getting as much cash on hand as he can, but also to the future well after that.
He was asked why not sell Rebellion like before, through the company and keep 100% of the proceeds, instead of splitting them 50/50% with the DAO. The answer shows that he thinks further that what goes on for the next months. The SPS DAO was always meant to have a big part in developing and growing Splinterlands after it started to amass some important assets.
Screenshot borrowed from @vimukthi's post.
Matt promised there will be more details regarding the Rebellion core set before the proposal expires, but to me it seems like this proposal can only be beneficial for the DAO and increasing its assets. It will also block a good amount of DEC until it will be used one way or another.
Something that to me seems very important is that we should take our job more seriously as SPS DAO governance participants in the future. And we obviously need stablecoins from outside Splinterlands and Hive to pay for things outside our ecosystem without putting selling pressure on our own tokens. In the bull market, it would be a good idea to build up those stashes again.
Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha
I am surprised that 250k would only cover expenses for 1 month, they must be burning through a lot of cash right now then. I hope things will turn around soon.
As far as I know, 50k are the server bills monthly, and they still have around 40-50 employees and contractors, many of whom are very skilled, experienced, and I assume, well-paid, developers.
yeah, im sure a good Dev earns at least 10k a month.
It is very possible. Especially an experienced one who has worked at Splinterlands for a long time. Blockchain devs are well-paid in general.
But I remember during the previous layoff round, Aggroed said even the remaining staff had their salaries cut, so maybe they aren't so high right now.
oh, 250k$ is huge money and it's easy to arrange on a monthly basis.
Yes, it sounds like a lot. It also shows the size Splinterlands has grown to.
In the end, if your inflows are higher than outflows, you are in profit. But it hasn't been so for Splinterlands lately since they haven't sold anything for a while as a company. That's why they are kind of in a rush with Rebellion.
That's a lot of money
I'm surprised that they spend so much money that way
Interesting!
Splinterlands is a big company too. To me, that's normal. What's important is to be in profit or to break even.
Hope things will turn out better. To sustain before progress is important
I agree. Sustainability is a priority, and for that, they need to be able to go through bear markets without major issues.
https://twitter.com/jewellery_all/status/1709326523025768939
Whenever it's done in a way that delays the gameplay of the land, people get very upset and lose interest in the project, so it shouldn't be done this way at all.
Well, they need cash, that's the truth. If they don't survive as a company, there's no land either.
Yeah.
The cash burn is quite high for Splinterlands and I can't imagine how much the costs were before the layoffs either. With how riftwatchers were going, I thought that rebellion would be pushed back. I guess the cash issues with Splinterlands are quite troublesome and I don't know if I like them taking a lot of VC money either.
The problem with Rebellion coming out this early is that probably fewer investors will participate in the presale, or as much as they would like to. Being something like 1 year up to 1 and a half years long core set, it will be enough time to catch some bull market too, so in the medium term, it will probably make better sales. But I wouldn't expect the initial sales to be good, no matter how good the set will be. Unless investors refocus from land to cards and use their hard-saved DEC to buy packs...
Something in me is telling me it will definitely worked out well as expected
I don't know if that's expected, but we certainly want it to work out in the best possible scenario given the circumstances.
Wow, I hope he is just exaggerating, since 250k per month is a really high amount of expense. Since I don't have land, moving it isn't that big of a deal, but I feel bad for those that have been eagerly waiting for it. Rebellion being pushed earlier is a surprise, and it is scary to think if they are being forced to do so because of money issues.
I don't think he is exaggerating. Maybe it's not a precise amount, but that should be around there.
As I had a discussion in one of the other comments, server costs are around 50k per month (reduced from 100k, from what they shared during town halls), and their employees (mostly devs) should collectively be paid much of the rest.
https://twitter.com/lee19389/status/1709577525075263942
#hive #posh
Thanks for the update! Still doesn't look optimistic but hopefully the bull market is around the corner... Hehe!
Yeah, they haven't been well prepared for this bear market.