BREAKING NEWS: FPC & SEE Virtual Worlds Join Forces

There has been much speculation in the community as to who purchased the rights to Planet Calypso. Well, as it turns out, through the perseverance of members of the E-Team at EntropiaPlanets, we are able to reveal to the community that we now have solid evidence that supports who the actual buyer really is. Following is a progression of events that uncovers this information.

It all started with MindArk's Semi-Annual Report January - June 2010 when they announced the following:

"Sales of Subsidiary
The process, for MindArk's subsidiary First Planet Company, to sell all rights to the planet Calypso continues according to plan. The deal is intended to be completed during the last quarter of 2010 and will lead to a capital gain for the MindArk Group of approximately 6 million USD. The Group will receive the payment in five parts until June 2011."

This report was published in September 2010, and that's when MindStar9 began her investigation inspired by a few posts which in turn produced some interesting information from a very reliable source. MS9 released some of the information over the past week, but not all since it was key that specific documentation was needed to solidly support the rest of the information.

Thanks to RAZER and digging deeper, the following was discovered. As it turns out, Sweden, like most countries. has a list of corporations and businesses, and that's where the evidence of the sale was found. The site in question is called Ratsit.

Now, if one looks for First Planet Company (English version by Google Translate), it lists Marco Behrmann as the director. And Marco's name is linked. Clicking his name, one can see that Mr. Behrmann is a busy bee indeed, and is actually involved in several other businesses. One of which is SEE Digital Studios AB (English version by Google Translate), where he is a member of the board. Another member of the board is one Martin Joachim Biallas. Those of you who have been watching this forum a bit longer, might recognize the name of Martin Biallas from when EntropiaPlanets did an exclusive interview with SEE Virtual Worlds, which is headed by CEO Martin Biallas. Also note how both companies share the same address:

For those wondering about the AB abbreviation in the name, that is short for AktieBolag, the Swedish form of a Limited Liability Company (LLC).

Further details are not yet available, nor do we know exactly what it means for Calypso and future planets developed by SEE Digital Studios AB, but this information should certainly inspire a new direction in our discussions.

We will of course be contacting both Martin Biallas and Marco Behrmann and ask them to comment on our findings.

to: RAZER for the supporting evidence, and to MindStar9 who started this investigation in September.


UPDATE: For those still thinking this is not conclusive evidence, the EP Detective team (this time consisting of RAZER and Tass) uncovered the following for you:

http://www.corporationwiki.com/California/Los-Angeles/see-virtual-world-calypso-llc/45494701.aspx

Breaking news: BREAKING NEWS - FPC & SEE Virtual Worlds join forces

My guess is SEE Digital Studios is the new company that will be developing the upcoming SEE planets. Also it may be that FPC will be dissolved and all staff moved to SEE digital and hence it will also be developing and maintaining Calypso. That's just pure speculation though...


Note: don't forget to look at the banner pic carefully (Thanks to Tass for a funny one):
Loot pool
sweat trader
next gen vehicle
and the guy on the bike guess who Tass thinks that is :)

all are labelled in the pic ...

I know that I shared bits and pieces of what I could, and while information I had back on Oct 25th clinched it for me, I just couldn't post more without solid evidence to support it, so I want to say a HUGE thanks to RAZER for digging deeper, and coming up with what we needed. I know that Peter has established a connection with SEE, so hopefully going forward we will get more information. I know he's going to contact both Martin and Marco for comments, but I hope that the fact that we broke the news through our investigative efforts won't deter them from interacting with us as anticipated.

In light of the news, it certainly raises some interesting questions:

• is SEE Digital Studios AB just a new entity where FPC and SEE are joining forces, or is FPC being dissolved?
• will current FPC staff become SEE DS staff?
• it shows the new entity address as being the same as FPC's, so ...
• I'm assuming that this is now a division of SEE Virtual Worlds located in Sweden since they are in the US?
• if so ... then I would also assume that it is business as usual with the former FPC developers/coders?
• especially since SEE doesn't have developers/coders of their own?
• will SEE be that involved now with the development of Calypso? ... or
• does that still remain Marco's vision and design?
• does this mean then that the FPC developers who have been building Calypso will be building all of the SEE planets that have been mentioned? ... one would assume, yes? :)

Lots of things to think about, and I'm sure this news will inspire some interesting discussion, but ... the big question is:

Do you think this is something that causes controversy? ... such as my source said it would?

No I always thought a partnership between SEE and FPC would be good for the game. Maybe a bit shady the way they are going about it i.e. no announcements etc.

I can only see positive outcomes from this. SEE planets have an experienced set of people working on their planets. It would also be good for calypso not just the financial injection from SEE but I can imagine they'll help Calypso marketing efforts as well.


Why keep quiet on good news like this? That's what doesn't make sense to me but maybe I'm missing something...

SEE...

- owning/developing Planet Calypso
- owning/developing Planet Michael
- owning/developing Universal Monsters Planet

- and having "over twenty major Hollywood titles in the pipeline for Production" (-> SEE VW Illustrated Planetary Guide, p. 10)

- and having close ties to MA via FPC

for sure have some influence on the whole universe.

Maybe that could lead to features requested by SEE like in-game streaming of hollywood movie trailers having a higher priority than features requested by other PPs like instanced dungeons for team missions.

Which leads to the next question. What does the SEE acronym mean?

how about Support Entropia Eternally

I hope it is not Selfish Electronic Enterprises

Special Entertainment Events

They've been caught in bed together :D

So we're thinking they're married what you suggest is even worse an illegitimate affair !