QUOTE
Lake Stevens, Washington June 10th, 2010
Sandstorm and WildFire – Setting the Gaming Industry Ablaze
Isn’t it strange how you can sit down at a business meeting, and as soon as the zombies start crawling out of the fields of wildflowers, the ties come off and people start having fun? Business in the gaming industry should be about having fun. It should be about making awesome games that people love to play. And, of course, it should be about making good business decisions, even when faced with the rise of unmentionable gods and invading hordes of aliens.
That’s why we at Sandstorm are delighted to announce that we’re joining forces with WildFire to bring a great lineup of games to the gaming industry. From their award winning CthulhuTech game world to new, fun (and rather addictive) games—like Poo—currently available or in production, WildFire has an ambitious plan for future releases. With Sandstorm’s capitalization and production management services, it’s a match made in heaven. Or in monster-strewn hell, depending on your taste. From the moment we joined forces, we’ve hit the ground running to bring you the games you’ve been itching for.
Stop by and visit us at Origins and GenCon to see the new lineup of coming CthulhuTech books, play a game of Poo, or just chat a bit about monsters, mayhem, and the future.
WildFire LLC and Sandstorm Productions LLC. The Storm is building.
*****
WildFire LLC is the creative mastermind behind the ENnie Award-winning and Origins Award nominated CthulhuTech roleplaying line, as well as the Origins Award nominated Poo: the Card Game. They will also be releasing the Chthonian Stars roleplaying line for the Traveller roleplaying game later this year, a Lovecraftian sci-fi exploration set in the near future. The creative partners at WildFire have nearly a half century of industry experience behind them designing roleplaying, miniatures, and casual games. Their planned release schedule over the coming years contains several exciting new product lines that are sure to set the market on fire!
Sandstorm Productions LLC is a Kansas based capitalization and production company dedicated to partnering with premium studios to bring the best games to market. In addition to WildFire, their partner studios include Closet Nerd Games and Posthuman Studios. Sandstorm assists with the capitalization and production of a wide range of gaming products, from classic RPGs to family and educational board games.
Sandstorm and WildFire – Setting the Gaming Industry Ablaze
Isn’t it strange how you can sit down at a business meeting, and as soon as the zombies start crawling out of the fields of wildflowers, the ties come off and people start having fun? Business in the gaming industry should be about having fun. It should be about making awesome games that people love to play. And, of course, it should be about making good business decisions, even when faced with the rise of unmentionable gods and invading hordes of aliens.
That’s why we at Sandstorm are delighted to announce that we’re joining forces with WildFire to bring a great lineup of games to the gaming industry. From their award winning CthulhuTech game world to new, fun (and rather addictive) games—like Poo—currently available or in production, WildFire has an ambitious plan for future releases. With Sandstorm’s capitalization and production management services, it’s a match made in heaven. Or in monster-strewn hell, depending on your taste. From the moment we joined forces, we’ve hit the ground running to bring you the games you’ve been itching for.
Stop by and visit us at Origins and GenCon to see the new lineup of coming CthulhuTech books, play a game of Poo, or just chat a bit about monsters, mayhem, and the future.
WildFire LLC and Sandstorm Productions LLC. The Storm is building.
*****
WildFire LLC is the creative mastermind behind the ENnie Award-winning and Origins Award nominated CthulhuTech roleplaying line, as well as the Origins Award nominated Poo: the Card Game. They will also be releasing the Chthonian Stars roleplaying line for the Traveller roleplaying game later this year, a Lovecraftian sci-fi exploration set in the near future. The creative partners at WildFire have nearly a half century of industry experience behind them designing roleplaying, miniatures, and casual games. Their planned release schedule over the coming years contains several exciting new product lines that are sure to set the market on fire!
Sandstorm Productions LLC is a Kansas based capitalization and production company dedicated to partnering with premium studios to bring the best games to market. In addition to WildFire, their partner studios include Closet Nerd Games and Posthuman Studios. Sandstorm assists with the capitalization and production of a wide range of gaming products, from classic RPGs to family and educational board games.
Catalyst Game Labs / IMR Productions LLC:
QUOTE (JM Hardy @ Mar 16 2010, 10:13 PM) 
The following was just posted to CGL's website, and I was asked to disseminate it far and wide:
>>>>>
Catalyst Game Labs recently completed a detailed financial review of the company. We learned that over the past several years the company has achieved dramatic growth in terms of demand, increased total revenues and strong sales with an increasing market share in the gaming industry, despite a lackluster economy. We are thrilled by that news and are eager to move forward with our upcoming original game Leviathans, along with our other new casual games. We also remain committed to plans for our beloved licensed games: Shadowrun, BattleTech, Eclipse Phase, and CthuluTech.
While we wish the review had only uncovered positive news, we also discovered our accounting procedures had not been updated as the company continued to grow. The result was that business funds had been co-mingled with the personal funds of one of the owners. We believe the missing funds were the result of bad habits that began alongside the creation of the company, which was initially a small hobby group. Upon further investigation, in which the owner has willingly participated, the owner in question now owes the company a significant balance and is working to help rectify the situation.
The current group of owners was presented with this information on Monday. Administrative organization for the company is under review, and accounting procedures have been restructured, to correct the situation and provide more stringent oversight. We feel the management team at Catalyst did the responsible thing by seeking this financial review and we will continue to restructure as needed. We are in discussions with our partners and freelancers to remedy any back payments that may also be due as a result of this review.
We are embarrassed that this situation did occur but we hope our eagerness to make these changes, along with our reputation for making great games, will encourage you to stand by us. We understand that for a few employees the news was too stressful and we wish them all the best in their new endeavors. However, the majority of the team remains and will continue to bring great entertainment to you all. We appreciate the support our friends, freelancers, and fans have provided us in the past and look forward to a successful future.
>>>>>>
While I don't imagine this answers all questions people may have, I hope this sheds some light on the situation, particularly Catalyst's determination to continue producing products and to remedy back payments to freelancers. I remain open to questions people may have.
Jason H.
>>>>>
Catalyst Game Labs recently completed a detailed financial review of the company. We learned that over the past several years the company has achieved dramatic growth in terms of demand, increased total revenues and strong sales with an increasing market share in the gaming industry, despite a lackluster economy. We are thrilled by that news and are eager to move forward with our upcoming original game Leviathans, along with our other new casual games. We also remain committed to plans for our beloved licensed games: Shadowrun, BattleTech, Eclipse Phase, and CthuluTech.
While we wish the review had only uncovered positive news, we also discovered our accounting procedures had not been updated as the company continued to grow. The result was that business funds had been co-mingled with the personal funds of one of the owners. We believe the missing funds were the result of bad habits that began alongside the creation of the company, which was initially a small hobby group. Upon further investigation, in which the owner has willingly participated, the owner in question now owes the company a significant balance and is working to help rectify the situation.
The current group of owners was presented with this information on Monday. Administrative organization for the company is under review, and accounting procedures have been restructured, to correct the situation and provide more stringent oversight. We feel the management team at Catalyst did the responsible thing by seeking this financial review and we will continue to restructure as needed. We are in discussions with our partners and freelancers to remedy any back payments that may also be due as a result of this review.
We are embarrassed that this situation did occur but we hope our eagerness to make these changes, along with our reputation for making great games, will encourage you to stand by us. We understand that for a few employees the news was too stressful and we wish them all the best in their new endeavors. However, the majority of the team remains and will continue to bring great entertainment to you all. We appreciate the support our friends, freelancers, and fans have provided us in the past and look forward to a successful future.
>>>>>>
While I don't imagine this answers all questions people may have, I hope this sheds some light on the situation, particularly Catalyst's determination to continue producing products and to remedy back payments to freelancers. I remain open to questions people may have.
Jason H.
QUOTE (JM Hardy @ Apr 6 2010, 01:37 PM)
There is a press release up on the CGL website about the issue. It's short, so here it is in its entirety:
Catalyst Game Labs Negotiating To Part Ways With WildFire And Posthuman Studios
Catalyst Game Labs is currently engaged in negotiations to end its agreements with WildFire and Posthuman Studios. Once the terms are finalized, Catalyst will no longer publish CthulhuTech or Poo: The Card Game for WildFire, nor will they co develop and publish Eclipse Phase for Posthuman Studios.
“It’s been fantastic to be involved with growing CthulhuTech alongside WildFire, while also launching Posthuman Studios’ Eclipse Phase,” said Randall Bills, Managing Developer. “We love both of these universes and want to seem them grow and flourish. However, in our current situation we need to re-focus on our core brands of BattleTech and Shadowrun, while developing our original games. As such, while we are parting ways with both companies, we’ll be doing everything we can to support WildFire and Posthuman Studios as they assume the full mantle for their game lines.”
Future details surrounding CthulhuTech will be found at www.cthulhutech.com, while future Eclipse Phase details will be found at www.eclipsephase.com.
Catalyst Game Labs Negotiating To Part Ways With WildFire And Posthuman Studios
Catalyst Game Labs is currently engaged in negotiations to end its agreements with WildFire and Posthuman Studios. Once the terms are finalized, Catalyst will no longer publish CthulhuTech or Poo: The Card Game for WildFire, nor will they co develop and publish Eclipse Phase for Posthuman Studios.
“It’s been fantastic to be involved with growing CthulhuTech alongside WildFire, while also launching Posthuman Studios’ Eclipse Phase,” said Randall Bills, Managing Developer. “We love both of these universes and want to seem them grow and flourish. However, in our current situation we need to re-focus on our core brands of BattleTech and Shadowrun, while developing our original games. As such, while we are parting ways with both companies, we’ll be doing everything we can to support WildFire and Posthuman Studios as they assume the full mantle for their game lines.”
Future details surrounding CthulhuTech will be found at www.cthulhutech.com, while future Eclipse Phase details will be found at www.eclipsephase.com.
QUOTE (Bull @ Apr 21 2010, 05:04 PM)
To turn this back on topic a bit... This was just posted to CGL's site.
QUOTE
Catalyst Game Labs Update
While Catalyst has been publically quiet, we’ve been working behind the scenes these last few weeks, reviewing our processes across the board and changing and updating as necessary, while still working on future products.
As announced on March 20th, a select list of Shadowrun books was put on hold as we negotiated with several freelancers concerning those products. We’re pleased to say that within the last three weeks we’ve been able to make 65 payments to dozens of freelancers covering a variety of projects and resolved the hold issues. This process included completely paying off four books already in print while simultaneously auditing past due contracts in order to continue payments on completed projects. We also chose to pay off a book in preparation for sending it to print. We believe that this three-fold approach of resolving the disputed contracts, establishing a payment plan for completed work, and ensuring new product continues down the pipeline is the best recipe for success at this time.
Catalyst has been in negotiations with some additional parties for weeks concerning how to pay down debts, including making partial payments, turning over stock and so on, as they’ve requested. We’ve been notified that some of these parties are pursuing additional legal means to secure the monies owed despite the negotiations. Our legal counsel has advised that the lawsuit is baseless. As such, Catalyst will defend against it and expect it to be dismissed in the near future. Regardless, we’re continuing our negotiations and will continue to move, as we’ve been doing, to pay debts down as quickly as possible.
Finally, as some of you may have noticed, we’ve just changed the legal text and logos on all our appropriate sites that reference Shadowrun and BattleTech from WizKids to The Topps Company, Inc., per their direction. We’ve been in contact with Topps for weeks regarding these situations. We are currently in negotiations to re-secure the Shadowrun and BattleTech licenses.
While Catalyst has been publically quiet, we’ve been working behind the scenes these last few weeks, reviewing our processes across the board and changing and updating as necessary, while still working on future products.
As announced on March 20th, a select list of Shadowrun books was put on hold as we negotiated with several freelancers concerning those products. We’re pleased to say that within the last three weeks we’ve been able to make 65 payments to dozens of freelancers covering a variety of projects and resolved the hold issues. This process included completely paying off four books already in print while simultaneously auditing past due contracts in order to continue payments on completed projects. We also chose to pay off a book in preparation for sending it to print. We believe that this three-fold approach of resolving the disputed contracts, establishing a payment plan for completed work, and ensuring new product continues down the pipeline is the best recipe for success at this time.
Catalyst has been in negotiations with some additional parties for weeks concerning how to pay down debts, including making partial payments, turning over stock and so on, as they’ve requested. We’ve been notified that some of these parties are pursuing additional legal means to secure the monies owed despite the negotiations. Our legal counsel has advised that the lawsuit is baseless. As such, Catalyst will defend against it and expect it to be dismissed in the near future. Regardless, we’re continuing our negotiations and will continue to move, as we’ve been doing, to pay debts down as quickly as possible.
Finally, as some of you may have noticed, we’ve just changed the legal text and logos on all our appropriate sites that reference Shadowrun and BattleTech from WizKids to The Topps Company, Inc., per their direction. We’ve been in contact with Topps for weeks regarding these situations. We are currently in negotiations to re-secure the Shadowrun and BattleTech licenses.
Post Human Studios:
QUOTE ('Posthuman Studios Website')
Eclipse Phase Leaving Catalyst
As noted earlier today on the Catalyst site, we are in negotiations to sever the licensing agreement between Catalyst Game Labs and Posthuman Studios. Here's what Catalyst had to say:
What this means is that in the very near future the Eclipse Phase IP will be back fully in the control of Posthuman Studios. We are already talking to several potential publishing partners, and our goal is to get both the Eclipse Phase Core Rulebook reprint and the EP Gamemaster Pack into distribution as soon as possible, followed soon after by Sunward.
Unfortunately we won't have any solid information on release dates until this matter is completely resolved. We'll be sure to post that information here once we know. Thanks to all of our fans for their patience and continued support!
As noted earlier today on the Catalyst site, we are in negotiations to sever the licensing agreement between Catalyst Game Labs and Posthuman Studios. Here's what Catalyst had to say:
QUOTE
Catalyst Game Labs Negotiating To Part Ways With WildFire And Posthuman Studios
Catalyst Game Labs is currently engaged in negotiations to end its agreements with WildFire and Posthuman Studios. Once the terms are finalized, Catalyst will no longer publish CthulhuTech or Poo: The Card Game for WildFire, nor will they co develop and publish Eclipse Phase for Posthuman Studios.
“It’s been fantastic to be involved with growing CthulhuTech alongside WildFire, while also launching Posthuman Studios’ Eclipse Phase,” said Randall Bills, Managing Developer. “We love both of these universes and want to seem them grow and flourish. However, in our current situation we need to re-focus on our core brands of BattleTech and Shadowrun, while developing our original games. As such, while we are parting ways with both companies, we’ll be doing everything we can to support WildFire and Posthuman Studios as they assume the full mantle for their game lines.”
Future details surrounding CthulhuTech will be found at cthulhutech.com, while future Eclipse Phase details will be found at eclipsephase.com.
Catalyst Game Labs is currently engaged in negotiations to end its agreements with WildFire and Posthuman Studios. Once the terms are finalized, Catalyst will no longer publish CthulhuTech or Poo: The Card Game for WildFire, nor will they co develop and publish Eclipse Phase for Posthuman Studios.
“It’s been fantastic to be involved with growing CthulhuTech alongside WildFire, while also launching Posthuman Studios’ Eclipse Phase,” said Randall Bills, Managing Developer. “We love both of these universes and want to seem them grow and flourish. However, in our current situation we need to re-focus on our core brands of BattleTech and Shadowrun, while developing our original games. As such, while we are parting ways with both companies, we’ll be doing everything we can to support WildFire and Posthuman Studios as they assume the full mantle for their game lines.”
Future details surrounding CthulhuTech will be found at cthulhutech.com, while future Eclipse Phase details will be found at eclipsephase.com.
What this means is that in the very near future the Eclipse Phase IP will be back fully in the control of Posthuman Studios. We are already talking to several potential publishing partners, and our goal is to get both the Eclipse Phase Core Rulebook reprint and the EP Gamemaster Pack into distribution as soon as possible, followed soon after by Sunward.
Unfortunately we won't have any solid information on release dates until this matter is completely resolved. We'll be sure to post that information here once we know. Thanks to all of our fans for their patience and continued support!
Wildfire LLC:
QUOTE ('Wildfire LLC website')
The Next Phase of WildFire, Pt. I
April 5, 2010
5-April-10
As of 3:21 pm today, Catalyst Game Labs transferred ownership of all remaining CthulhuTech and Poo inventory to WildFire, the legal copyright holder of both properties.
As of January 3rd, 2010, WildFire terminated any and all business relations with Catalyst Game Labs, due primarily to non-payment of royalties, in addition to other contractual breaches.
Since that time, WildFire has been trying to work with Catalyst for that company to pay WildFire the remaining royalties owed. Things have progressed very slowly. In order to relieve a portion of that debt all at once, the best solution for Catalyst Game Labs was to transfer ownership of WildFire inventory to that company.
More changes are expected within the week, and more information will be released as they happen.
Posted by Matthew Grau at 15:58
April 5, 2010
5-April-10
As of 3:21 pm today, Catalyst Game Labs transferred ownership of all remaining CthulhuTech and Poo inventory to WildFire, the legal copyright holder of both properties.
As of January 3rd, 2010, WildFire terminated any and all business relations with Catalyst Game Labs, due primarily to non-payment of royalties, in addition to other contractual breaches.
Since that time, WildFire has been trying to work with Catalyst for that company to pay WildFire the remaining royalties owed. Things have progressed very slowly. In order to relieve a portion of that debt all at once, the best solution for Catalyst Game Labs was to transfer ownership of WildFire inventory to that company.
More changes are expected within the week, and more information will be released as they happen.
Posted by Matthew Grau at 15:58
Shocked and amazed that someone would sell something they had sold out of! 
