Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us straight from the vault under the What Could Have Been category, and is indeed one of the first screenshots of Stargate Worlds ever released to the public. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment put this out in 2006. For added pleasure, enjoy a snippet from the last press release in 2009 assuring us that the lights are indeed still on.
Our official response is that the lights here are still on and the development team is working hard every day to get this game built. Team members are in the office seven days a week to deliver Stargate Worlds. Brad Wright is the Stargate expert and a creative consultant on Stargate Worlds who advises us on the story; unfortunately we had not recently updated him on our progress or the impact from the current global economic crisis, and he was not fully aware of the continuing progress on our game.
Some of you may remember the Ponzi scheme that Stargate Worlds and MMOGuls allegedly turned out to be. I do, and I distinctly apologize to my editor for forgetting that I had duct taped and locked you in the basement, but then again that is what happens when you interrupt my Diablo 3 time to ask me to talk about Stargate Worlds and Gary Whiting, I don’t care how many times you say please. It has been 18 months since I’ve had to talk about Stargate Worlds, and boy does the time fly when your blood isn’t boiling.
First of all, let’s set something straight: Stargate Worlds is never coming back. Last we heard back in 2010, MGM pulled the license and has absolutely no intention on letting it loose again. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment’s court appointed receive is in the process of dismantling the long-dead development company and selling it off piece by piece.
But it doesn’t end there, and karma has found its mark. Gary Whiting, noted Ponzi Schemer Multi-Level Marketer is on the receiving end of a growing number of lawsuits by investors in the Stargate MMO. Whiting, who owes more than $6.2 million thanks to two other lawsuits, has another on his hands to the tune of $4 million, from 17 plaintiffs under the accusation that Whiting mislead them into investing in the disastrously failed MMO.
According to the plaintiffs, Whiting lied about Stargate Worlds being near finished, stole millions from the company coffers and never repaid loans.
We’ll see how this turns out in court. I won’t, because this is the last I’ll post about Stargate Worlds.
When Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment was still filing bankruptcy while claiming that they never had the resources to complete Stargate Worlds, we were treated to Stargate Resistance, a lobby based shooter more akin to a four-classed Team Fortress than the MMO we were all anticipating. Stargate Resistance was supposed to be the cash cow to bring in some moolah for SGW. When Cheyenne routed the game over to Fresh Start Studios, I think many of us anticipated that the game would be shielded Cheyenne’s imminent full collapse. It wasn’t.
Earlier today, Stargate Resistance was fully pulled from all digital distribution websites, and is no longer for sale. A note on the Stargate website reads:
On November 16, 2010, the License Agreement between Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, Inc. and MGM Interactive, Inc. expired. As a result, Cheyenne will no longer be able to offer Stargate Resistance for sale to new customers. However, in the best interests of our customers, game play will be provided for a period of 60 days (until January 15, 2011) to customers who purchased Stargate Resistance prior to November 16, 2010. Look for more information as it becomes available.
The January shut down will mark 11 months as Stargate Resistance’s lifespan which, as user Night_Chrono puts it:
We beat APB so thats what matters at the end of the day.
More on the continuing Stargate saga as it appears.
What does baffle me about this is the tolerance or low expectations of MGM, owners of the Stargate license. Either MGM is not paying attention, at all, or they firmly believe that Cheyenne, in all of their continuing downward spiral, is somehow the only choice for a Stargate MMO. Or they don’t care anymore.
Back in March, I announced that Stargate Worlds was officially unofficially defunct, officially because Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment was so far into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and beating up Gary Whiting that the chances of release was somewhere between no chance and not a snowball’s chance in hell. In that article, however, I turned my guns to MGM, asking as simple question: Why have you allowed this to continue?
The legal battle over Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, over which likely none of you remember, is over, and CME has retained full rights to the game assets in a lawsuit between them and the makers of Stargate: Resistance. Essentially, although people like myself assumed that Fresh Start Studios would be the new enterprise for Cheyenne, the company sued Fresh Start to stop the fraudulent transfer of assets.
So Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment gets to keep their assets…but they have no Stargate License. Answering my question from back in March, the license with MGM expired this month, and MGM decided to terminate the license. Getting the license back will no doubt prove difficult for CME, and Gary Whiting (who has been back in charge for a while now, from court order).
Oh and, dear March 2010 me:
More on Stargate Worlds if it ever appears, but it seems as if this saga is finally coming to an end.
If MMO Fallout was alive back in 2008, I would likely reference back to an article detailing the death of Star Trek Online in the hands of Perpetual Entertainment, and what ultimately lead to the falling out of the title, into the hands of Cryptic Entertainment. The most important part of this story is to note that both of Perpetual Entertainment’s titles are in the hands of completely different entities, with Star Trek Online being released this past February by Cryptic Studios and Gods and Heroes to be released by Heatwave Interactive at some unknown point. The point being is that, despite the company going under, there is still the possibility of the game being picked up and released.
I say “unofficially officially” because, if Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment had an employee left, and you were to ask him if Stargate Worlds is canceled, he would probably say no. There’s no one working on it, no funds to work on it, and the company sold off its assets, but we don’t want to paint a dismal look at the future. Will the game be coming out this year? No. Will CME be developing it? No. Is there any hope? Well, you could look at Star Trek Online’s over-hundred-thousand subscribers and make up your own mind.
At this juncture, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is selling off all of their assets, which will include their license to Stargate Worlds, assuming this sale hasn’t already taken place. As was the case with Perpetual Entertainment, Cheyenne will likely last until the duration of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy is finished, and then dissolve into the abyss of nonfunctional developers. Since Cheyenne has already fulfilled my first set of engagements for Stargate Worlds, I have a new set of possibilities:
Stargate Worlds goes the way of Star Trek Online and Gods & Heroes and is picked up by another studio (Cryptic Studios?), who either collect what Cheyenne had or start anew. It is likely that this studio will be Fresh Start Studios, which is a new developer made up of ex-Cheyenne employees. How well the game does is irrelevant at this point, as we are simply dealing with post-closure events.
The title is not picked up by anyone, and sits in limbo forever.
If the part about Fresh Start Studios picking up Stargate Worlds doesn’t happen, expect option #2. At this juncture, I find it difficult to believe that many studios would pick up the Stargate IP for an MMO.
More on Stargate Worlds if it ever appears, but it seems as if this saga is finally coming to an end.
Gary Whiting? Who is Dale Grobois? Why is CME getting evicted? A company with no employees, no game, and massive debt, the Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment saga continues on MMO Fallout.
/Just like two fully loaded buses.
I don’t want to say that Stargate Worlds is a lost cause, but I’ve seen this before, many times. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is not so much on the path to reinvention as much as it is at the fork in the road that can only be crossed under certain conditions. One of the following will happen:
Hitting the pavement without a parachute: Stargate Resistance is either delayed to oblivion or launches to a less than stellar performance. Considering these losses, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment either closes for good, is acquired by another company, or continues the same path it has been on for the past two years: perpetual delay.
Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment posted a letter to their shareholders today, which is likely to cause the same reaction as picking up your phone and seeing “Mercy Hospital” on the Caller-ID, that managed to take a bleak situation, murder it, and replace it with an even more depressing painting. In the ongoing in-company battle between Whiting vs just about everyone else, it appears Gary Whiting has decided to appoint a new president to Cheyenne Mountain, Dale Grobois. CME would like to remind everyone that Mr. Grobois does not speak on behalf of the company, and should not be spoken to over financial matters.
Speaking of finances, Cheyenne has managed to appoint a receiver, a person who keeps watch on the company’s finances to make sure certain people (why do you keep pointing in Mr. Whiting’s direction?) don’t get access to the company coffers. It is also important to note that Gary Whiting is the individual, allegedly, who filed the Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The receiver is currently evaluating whether or not CME should go ahead with bankruptcy procedures.
Meanwhile, everyone loves statistics. Here are a few from the open letter:
creditor debt: $2.0 million with possibly more.
Payroll owed: $1.1 million.
Federal and state taxes owed: $3.0 million.
Total cost of complaints: $10.1 million
Total in bank account to pay off the above: $10 thousand
So what does this mean, other than that I have 3/5ths the cash of Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment (technically I beat them out by 14.2 million, but who seriously counts debt?)?
With regard to actual operations, game development has ceased.
Currently, neither CME nor CMG have any employees.
Hmm…In order to keep Stargate Resistance from shutting down barely a month after launch, CME was forced to enter into a joint venture agreement with Fresh Start Studios (ironically), where the game has been operating since, funded by CME.
Meanwhile, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is set to be evicted from their building come March 31st, due to an inability to pay rent. I think it’s safe to say now that we’ve reached option 3 in my three options of Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, to a point where they are not coming back, ever. What does baffle me about this is the tolerance or low expectations of MGM, owners of the Stargate license. Either MGM is not paying attention, at all, or they firmly believe that Cheyenne, in all of their continuing downward spiral, is somehow the only choice for a Stargate MMO. Or they don’t care anymore.
When we last left Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, the company had gone into bankruptcy, and an attempt to push out Gary Whiting has failed, leading to one question: So who is in charge? Well for now, we’re waiting for the courts to decide that. Until then, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is still in bankruptcy and unable to get funding for Stargate Resistance, let alone Stargate Worlds.
“Unfortunately, with the filing of the bankruptcy, CME was not able to raise any funding and the sales of the game were negatively impacted. Without adequate cash flow, CME is unable to meet its financial obligation or pay its employees. CME is not able to have its employees continue working without pay so many of them were laid off. CME is currently seeking ways to keep the Stargate Resistance game operating and growing including partnering with other companies in a joint venture or outsourcing type arrangement.”
-Tim Jenson, CME
Cheyenne was paying their employees? I have a lawsuit filing that disagrees with that. Rumors have it that 70% of the company has been laid off due to financial issues, and Stargate Resistance may be in trouble of having its servers shut down not even six months after the title’s release.
The more this Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment fiasco continues, the more I get the feeling Gary Whiting is going to come back as a Freddy Kreuger-style character who attacks CME employees in their sleep.
This month, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, developers of the comatose Stargate Worlds, joined the lawsuit against Gary Whiting, former chairman and big time investor at CME. Gary Whiting is being sued by investors of Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment for alleged wrongdoings against the company. According to the complaints, Whiting failed to honor terms of the agreement, and also failed to make payments to investors based upon said agreements. As Whiting had named ties between MMOGULs, an alleged MMO portal ponzi scheme, and Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, it was only a matter of time before Cheyenne became involved in the lawsuit.
When Cheyenne ME joined the lawsuit, Gary Whiting was removed from the board, fired, and all ties with him were severed. Unfortunately for Cheyenne, and any unlucky employee who may have bad mouthed Whiting on his way out, the court has ruled against removing Whiting from the board of directors, from the court papers below:
As to Plaintiffs’ request for a TRO, the Court finds insufficient grounds to remove Mr. Whiting and Mr. Safiulla from the board of directors; the Court similarly finds insufficient grounds to appoint independent directors to the board of directors.
That being said, Cheyenne did manage to secure a “receiver” to protect the company’s assets while they continue their forage into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For the time being, at least, Whiting isn’t going anywhere.
More on Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment as it appears.
Back in December, I referenced to three outcomes of the release of Stargate Resistance, the “replacement” for Stargate Worlds, with the former being released to fund the latter. Those three outcomes were:
This is the “everything went perfectly” outcome: Stargate Resistance launches, does well, and is used to fund Stargate Worlds and pay the employees. Stargate Worlds launches late 2010/Early 2011.
Going further down to earth: Stargate Resistance launches, does well, and Cheyenne takes a heavy look at Stargate Worlds and says “you know, this just isn’t working out.” Aside from a few more shooters, Cheyenne branches the Stargate brand to other forms of games, including real time strategy, console, and other areas of entertainment. Stargate Worlds is put on the back burner and is left there for eternity.
Hitting the pavement without a parachute: Stargate Resistance is either delayed to oblivion or launches to a less than stellar performance. Considering these losses, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment either closes for good, is acquired by another company, or continues the same path it has been on for the past two years: perpetual delay.
Consider Cheyenne to have just pulled the chute only to find an ACME anvil in its place, as the company today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now, Chapter 11, as would be pointed out if I didn’t explain it, does not guarantee that a company is going under, just that they are restructuring in a way that will allow their debt to be paid back in a much more manageable way. This is a pretty standard procedure, and although it doesn’t absolve CME of its debt, it does offer them a chance at a brighter future.
Granted, Chapter 11 bankruptcy is usually akin to rearranging the cement tied to your legs, as you struggle to stay afloat. Although Cheyenne ME will live on for now, there is still no better outlook towards the future.
As for the company itself, I for one am glad to see Cheyenne doing everything it can to distance itself from Gary Whiting. Whiting, a chair-member of Cheyenne, is also the founder of MMOGULS, a controversial and of questionable legality, pyramid scheme that fronts itself as a website to connect MMOs. Currently MMOGULS offers nothing, for a price of $250 up front and $50 a month, with promised commission that hasn’t been paid in several months, according to investors. When investors sued Whiting earlier last year, this is what they were suing over.
Whiting will definitely be a blight on Cheyenne’s sheet, one that appears to be coming to an end, fast.
More on answering the question of “what the hell’s going on at Cheyenne” as it appears. I personally believe Stargate Worlds will have made its way to the defunct category by the end of this year.
We enter January as 2009 comes to a close, we look at the year before us, and the year ahead, and remember that life goes on, no matter what happens in the present. I’ve dubbed 2010 the blue moon year because it has the pleasure of beginning with a blue moon, an event that won’t be occurring on New Year’s Eve for a long time to come.
I’m going slightly out of character with this article, if anything just to be the one time a year I get to be a jerk and pick on the same companies I spend the other 364 days vying for the attention of (Thank you Tork, Hasbro, Aventurine, Cryptic). This is a comprehensive list of some questions I have going into the new year, that I hope to get answered by this time next year.
MMO Fallout 