A rumour arose this weekend, suggesting that Cloud Imperium was facing some financial issues. It appears however that this rumour was false, as Cloud Imperium has issued an official statement about this whole thing.
According to the statement, Cloud Imperium has partnered with a highly regarded, very selective, and specialized UK bank, Coutts, in order to obtain a regular advance against its monthly tax rebates that are payable by the UK Government in the fall of the next following year when Cloud Imperium files its tax returns. As the team noted, this will allow it to avoid converting unnecessarily other currencies into GBP.
Keep in mind that Brexit is right around the corner. Cloud Imperium is based in UK and since no one knows what will happen with the currencies once UK leaves EU, Cloud Imperium appears to be trying to save some money.
In other words, Cloud Imperium will take a loan to obtain money from a UK tax rebate for game companies early. Cloud Imperium will take the loan money now and when the tax rebate comes in, it will go to the bank. The catch here is that Cloud Imperium will pay in GBP. As such, and given the fact that its collections are mostly in USD and EUR, if GBP drops below current currency levels, Cloud Imperium will pay less. And to be honest, that’s a really smart business move.
Here is the full statement:
“Our UK companies are entitled to a Government Game tax credit rebate which we earn every month on the Squadron 42 development. These rebates are payable by the UK Government in the fall of the next following year when we file our tax returns. Foundry 42 and its parent company Cloud Imperium Games UK Ltd. have elected to partner with Coutts, a highly regarded, very selective, and specialized UK banking institution, to obtain a regular advance against this rebate, which will allow us to avoid converting unnecessarily other currencies into GBP. We obviously incur a significant part of our expenditures in GBP while our collections are mostly in USD and EUR. Given today’s low interest rates versus the ongoing and uncertain currency fluctuations, this is simply a smart money management move, which we implemented upon recommendation of our financial advisors.”
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
Rumor was that they put up all their assets as collateral for the loan. Hopefully this isn’t the case. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34dce26821313a44e5c95edc75a15f34a7d21a2c2e03fac27c374275d475e14f.jpg
I don’t get it; where in the f*ck is all the money they’re generating month-over-month from backers going?
I mean, seriously, why do they “need” this?
Into the game. As the money increases, so does the scope of the game (No, this is not the same as feature creep since they have already redacted any future stretch goals.) Asking if we “need” this can always be answered with “No”. They’re making a video-game, nobody ever “needs” video-games. BUT, if they wanna make the best game they can possibly make, they’ll push the boundaries of what’s possible even if unnecessary. Which is exactly what they’re doing.
Well, yeah, sure, but I mean, the stretch goals stopped at $65 million, they’re currently at $154 million (& that’s not including private investors that they already had lined up, unless they bought them out), which means they’ve received more than double what they say they need, so even with feature creep…..
Plus that’s not even factoring in how much they’re still generating per-month, which, yeah, isn’t enough to pay everyone but it should still be putting a sizeable dent into it, no?
They couldn’t really have wasted that much money just getting started, could they?
Hello mi lord.
No, He’s a God-Emperor.
At least get your facts straight if you want to be a sycophantic cultist.
I shall refrain from using thy name in the near future mi god emperorski
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bafb5601bdc17ea589e322ae5a42067b36d43e590f2eefea422cbccff3291fdc.jpg
Why do you say “waste”? They had to build several entire studio buildings from the ground up and those were completed about 2-3 years ago.
They’ve already accomplished a great deal and Squadron 42 is almost complete so i wouldn’t say that they are “just getting started”.
What you have to understand is that this studio was nonexistent. Everything that CI Games has created has been from scratch so it took a lot of money to set up the infrastructure. But that phase ended, like I said, a while ago. They’ve been in full-scale development for a long time.
If your worried that they are progressing too slowly or have doubts about the game, I recommend you check out their monthly updates that they publish on their site. They go into very explicit detail about what they have accomplished each month.
The Kotaku expose from a few months back detailed how early on they were outsourcing a lot of work, which resulted in a lot of mistakes which they then had to spend more time & effort fixing (sometimes even outright remaking everything), so even if they didn’t end up paying the 3rd party studios in full, that’s still time & money wasted.
Then of course there’s the question of why they bothered to license CryEngine (last quoted going for over $1 million in flat fees) if they were just going to spend vast amounts of time rewriting so many systems, since, of course, there was no way for them to predict that they’d eventually switch from CryEngine to Lumberyard.
I mean, yeah, sure, in the end the CryEngine decision did pay off since they used it to piggyback themselves onto Lumberyard, but it doesn’t change the fact that a lot of time & money was also wasted rewriting core portions of CryEngine for seemingly little to no reason what-so-ever.
I know they’re progressing just fine in the grand scheme of all of this (it was always going to take years to complete, that was obvious to anyone who could see the magnitude of what they were attempting from the very start), but I don’t understand where all the money disappeared to, regardless of how much they had to spend on setup costs.
“Then of course there’s the question of why they bothered to license CryEngine (last quoted going for over $1 million in flat fees) if they were just going to spend vast amounts of time rewriting so many systems, since, of course, there was no way for them to predict that they’d eventually switch from CryEngine to Lumberyard.
I mean, yeah, sure, in the end the CryEngine decision did pay off since they used it to piggyback themselves onto Lumberyard, but it doesn’t change the fact that a lot of time & money was also wasted rewriting core portions of CryEngine for seemingly little to no reason what-so-ever ”
1. What other engine should they have picked ? The only other option would be to make an engine from scratch, and CIG was simply not in a position to do that. No other engine would suit their needs. Whatever they picked, they would have to rewrite and add tons of custom stuff. Not only that, but picking Cryengine proved a great thing because many of the people who wrote it are now working with them, and are responsible for a lot of the fancy tech they have now.
2. Also, what do you mean by saying that they wasted time rewriting the core ? The modifications they’ve made here are essential to the game they are making. This is not something invalidated by switching to Lumberyard – they’re carried over. Lumberyard does not provide any of that fancy tech for their game. I think the only additional things it provides are AWS servers and better developer support. The rewriting they’ve been doing is not wasted work, it’s essential work which carries and will carry the entire game forward. If you’re implying that they must do all that rewriting again for Lumberyard, then you’d be wrong. Lumberyard is basically Cryengine. I’m sure they have lots of issues getting everything to work, but they don’t have to do all that again.
The original vision for Star Citizen called for them to just license an engine because it was cheaper & easier, sure, but once that vision was surpassed by the mega-vision that replaced it, designing an engine from scratch became the way to go, according to insiders in the Kotaku expose article.
Which honestly makes sense, even if only to a degree, since in the end they ended up re-writing over 50% of CryEngine, regardless. I mean, the original premise behind going with CryEngine was that it was an FPS engine with built-in FPS systems, except they ended up rewriting even something as basic as that, in which case, as the insider said him/herself in the Kotaku article; why did they even bother licensing CryEngine, in the first place?
Yes, they also added in many systems that they needed, but they did also spend a lot of time just rewriting existing CryEngine systems to suit their own needs better – something which they had considerable problems doing before they actually brought on CryEngine-savvy engineers a couple of years ago in the aftermath of Crytek’s financial issues. As such, Lumberyard integration aside, it seems like it might have actually been a better choice (back then) for them to just start from scratch, instead of attempting to change CryEngine to suit their needs.
Yes, in the end that worked out for them since it allowed them to carry over all of their modifications into Lumberyard literally overnight, but it does also serve to raise the question of exactly how much time & money ended up being wasted before that trying to get CryEngine to work in the specific manner they needed it to, regardless of how that decision ended up paying off in the end with Lumberyard, since nobody could have predicted them migrating over to Lumberyard when they first picked up CryEngine for Star Citizen’s original vision.
(Note: Star Citizen original being the $1.5 million kickstarter version, before the stretch goals brought it up to a $65 million project & beyond).
Am I making any sense?
Heh. On the other hand, until they got those Crytek engineers on board two years later, they were facing all sorts of issues & delays……. 😛
But yeah, I see your point, absolutely.
Kotaku is the CNN of game sites…..
Interesting…….
For the uninitiated, how do they compare to Fox News? 😀 Equally as stupid?
Lol’d.
Absolutely, yeah, but my point was, they couldn’t have predicted the Lumberyard thing when they first started working with CryEngine back in 2012 or so, meaning once they went “megavision”, it would have been wiser for them to just start over from scratch – albeit, at the cost of two years of their lives, of course, which they basically wasted, regardless, in the end, however.
Or, well, mostly, at the very least. But anyway, yeah, it worked out in the end for them due to Lumberyard, which is great, indeed. Irresponsible (arguably), of course, but yeah.
And at least Roberts isn’t busy defiling Star Citizen by adding in extra CGI with bad colour palettes.
…… Hopefully.
Nice idea, definitely. A mini-project of sorts to hold us over until the main event, yeah. Hell, if they’d known it would have taken this long, they’d probably have promised one from the very beginning, really.
>.<
Star Citizen is promising round about 3 whole games in one. An open world MMO of unparalleled scale, a pure PVP mode and a pure singleplayer campaign with Hollywood motion capture acting. Making even one of these games would take large studios over two years. I don’t know if the number is out there (how many people are currently working on the different parts of the game) but it must be an astounding number. 150 million are spent rather quickly when you employ that many people for that many years.
I know questioning Star Citizen’s eventual release as a 10/10 is “trolling” around here but those who haven’t “invested” in jpgs tend to question it.
Well, when you put it that way……
It’s OK, they put up jpegs of ships as collateral.
Eurostar Citizen?
this game must be completed,need for revive the pc gaming!
this game is already a scam pc gamers hate microtransactions but the love scamcitizen LoL dota :/
She doesn’t want out, she never did. They appointed her PM on purpose, exactly because of that.
In 2 years, once their little negotiation window thingy expires, we’ll still be talking about “when”, even as the EU just crumbles away by itself, leaving Whitehall with their d*cks in their hands, as usual.
“even as the EU just crumbles away by itself, l”
Doubtfull. All anti EU parties are defeated. As if EU crumbling is a good thing, there will be war in the balkans Puting will start taking over states, the south countries will go bankrupt because they are too socialist and you can blame EU for taking refugees but the truth is without a coordinated EU coastguard it will be impossible to stop them from migrating.
Le Pen scored 35% of the vote this time around, the AfD is going to get at least 20%, despite being called “f*cking N*zi’s” by everyone & Italy’s Populists are also on the rise, that’s 3. I’m curious to see how the Greek Hard Right does & of course there’s the standing questions of Poland & Hungary, which are feeling very Anti-EUright now. All-in-all, the Anti-EU parties aren’t going anywhere, regardless of how they did in this round of elections.
Especially so if Poland keeps moving away from symbiosis with Brussels. The Russia fearmongering is ridiculous. Yes, Russia has a Military-Industrial Complex as well, but much like the EU, Putin is smart enough to know that the future is by dominating Economic Unions, which is why he’s pushing the Eurasian Union so hard. He’s not going to invade the Baltics unless they keep pushing him, though he’d probably have some issue with a Polish-dominant Intermarium Federation if that actually came to pass & they didn’t soften on their Anti-Russia stance.
War in the Balkans? Who? The Serbians? The Bulgarians? Bosnia, again? The Greeks? Turkey? Turkey maybe, if Erdogan keeps pushing, but in which case it would be The Balkans vs. Turkey. Either way, NATO wouldn’t dare interfere, because Russia -> Turkey.
As for Southern Europe; leaving the Euro is the best thing that could happen to their economies, as it would open them up to implement the economic reforms they have to do, but can’t do because it would negatively impact the other Eurozone countries, like Germany.
The EU as a United States of Europe will never happen &/or endure, as the entire thing would crumble into civil war, which would be even worse than what’s happening now. The EU as it was 10+ years ago can survive, on the other hand, sure. Problem is, Brussels would have to surrender power for that to happen & they’re far too power-hungry to ever do that, so, yeah.
The split is coming & it’s going to be a hard one, since people will be furious, resulting in the very idea of things like open borders & free trade becoming allergy topics on politics for at least a decade afterwards.
As for the refugees: debatable. After all, half of those ships are so overfilled, the only thing that keeps the refugees on them alive are the Coast Guard coming to their rescue. Besides, without the EU’s pesky regulations to keep them in check, National Governments have the road paved to simply impose mass-deportation quota’s at will. Hell, the only reason they’re taking them in now is because of the EU money. Once that dries up, so does interest in taking them & keeping them, or spreading them around, or whatever-the-f*ck else they’re doing with them.
If the EU falls into civil war, NATO interfering would be the end of any EU-US relationship, IMO. Yeah, sure, the leaders would definitely push to have you lot involved, but the people would be enraged beyond belief & it would probably end up costing them a lot of support. NATO is already controversial enough as it is, without actually letting the troops off the bases to rampage & kill throughout our lands, after all.
Though of course in the end it would depend on who won & what kind of post-war government we’d end up with, of course, but yeah. Plus your interference would probably stretch the whole thing out like Vietnam, so there’s that, too, yeah.
Le Pen’s been pulling her father’s party away from N*zi levels of right-wingness for years now, it’s nothing new. Comparing that to Ivanka Trump successfully getting her father to shut the f*ck up midway through the election process is beyond preposterous (though they’re both undoubtedly herculean tasks, absolutely).
I mean, if you look into the FN’s history, under her father the party was basically tandem to a group of anti-Semite pseudo-fascists, whereas ever since she ousted him & took over the leadership, there have been real purges of the more extremist factions, coupled with a general shift towards centre-right policies, compared to their previous near-ultra-extremist ideology. Yes, the party as a whole still has issues even after years under her leadership, absolutely, but overall it’s also taken massive strides forward, for that matter.
As for the rest of it; point of view, really. After all, the SJW’s will call anyone who’s not extremely left wing, pro-EU, pro-immigration, pro-everything they allegedly stand for “out of touch.” Yes, she’s conservative, she’s anti-EU & she’s probably aiming a little too far with her “take France out of the Euro” goals (as the currency actually works seemingly well for them, unlike most everyone else), but that aside, France does have serious issues that the government has repeatedly failed to address, as most recently exemplified by how the two classic Left Wing & Right Wing parties were utterly wiped out in the latest election in favour of “Mr. Unknown” (his party literally having been founded just months before the election) & “Mrs. Pseudo-Fascist.” Immigration, the EU, the “free money” welfare system & the generally ridiculous amount of foreigners riddling the country (largely courtesy of de Gaulle’s policies on Africa, back in the day) are just a few of those problems, really.
I mean, who exactly is “the common man” these days in a society where more & more elections are hilariously cleanly partitioned between the major cities which overwhelmingly vote “left” & the country which overwhelmingly votes “right”? The backwards-as-hell hillbilly that doesn’t even know how to spell his own name? The “I’m Not Racist! :D” Suburbians? Or the homeless bloke under the bridge that’s being ignored by both sides in favour of “the poor migrants” who demand free phones & housing for their 10 kids & offer in return….. oh, nothing? Because, honestly, I really have no f*cking idea, anymore.
“I’ve seen her described as being the “anti-Farage”, that the party would be better off without her?”
If anything, she’d be the one better off without her family name & her party both, as exemplified by how she ran as an independent candidate in the second round in order to reassure voters that she wouldn’t be tied down by Party Politics (not to mention how she started putting her first name, “Marine” on posters, rather than her full name, or her familial name). Seriously, the names “Le Pen” & “National Front” probably cost her more votes than any part of her background, her views &/or public appearances, at any point in time, ever. I’d even go so far as to say if it wasn’t for those two elements, she’d have actually had a real chance at winning the second round, considering how many Left-Wingers ended up abstaining rather than voting for the A$$clown just to spite her, as they hate him almost as much as they hate her.
As for her party; sh*t, without her they wouldn’t have taken 5% in this election, regardless of what. She &/or her own children are literally the only force in the party that’ll ever get them the Presidency, hands down. Or, well, right now, at least.
Turkey; What, the 2016 debacle? Ah, but that was orchestrated by Obama, wasn’t it? Or, at least, it really seems like it was. After all, Erdogan seems to be becoming Putin’s b*tch, which is stopping the US from exerting its long-standing influence in the area to its usual levels (i.e. Turkey, Cold War, Nukes, etc.), which is holding them back from initiating a full-scale invasion of Syria which would force Russia to step the f*ck off in their favour, much like the Obama-Clinton clique seemingly intended to do once she took the Presidency (it really seems to me as if they’ve been hungering for something ever since they got c*ckblocked on Libya, all those years ago).
Besides that, though, most importantly; Erdogan never requested NATO assistance & he likely never would have, since he no doubt wanted (& still does) those troops to remain on their bases as much as the coup plotters did. After all, even with Afghanistan, the US had to put in a formal request for Article 5 to be initiated, which then had to be considered, etc.
Kosovo was a rather different beast, on the other hand, seeing as they basically had an “opening” in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s downfall to do as they pleased while Russia reassembled herself (not to mention that everyone was hella euphoric in regards to their triumphant “victory” over The Evil Empire ), coupled with the fact that neither Yugoslavia nor any of its constituent states &/or territories were in NATO at the time, which basically gave the West (as far as they were concerned, at least) this “legally grey area” in which to interfere without technically violating any sort of agreement, whereas Turkey is not only a member state, but it also has a legally, internationally recognised democratically elected [non-Communist] government, so, yeah….. And yes, I realise how f*cked up that thinking is.
But yeah, all-in-all I’d say it’s basically a very case-by-case basis thing, as well as being heavily dependent on the President in question; Clinton, for example, seemingly wouldn’t have batted an eye at the thought (unless she’d already triggered a war with Russia, I suppose?), whereas Trump, on the other hand seems to be in a more precarious position, since he seemingly wants [to try] to keep the Military happy, whereas at the same time he doesn’t want to get the country involved in another major military initiative – if at all possible.
Footnote on NATO: Yeah, but it’s because of the leadership, more than the membership, really. The NATO leadership is overwhelmingly dominated by the US & UK which when coupled with how they’re the two members investing the most money into it, the whole “special relationship” you’ve got going & the fact that most of Europe until recent years would blindly obey anything Washington barked at them to do……. yeah. Plus it’s America that’s building & filling military bases across the Continent & constantly pushing to expand NATO’s membership roster after all, so there’s that, too 😛
Not to mention the nukes which we still play host to, even though we still don’t even have a single shred of control over them. Hell, sometimes we don’t even know that they’ve been secretly placed within a certain country’s borders until it’s accidentally revealed years later through an embarrassing leak, ffs (see: Netherlands).
Euro is getting stronger and the pound weaker. Despite all the capital injection to mitigate it. The EU is not going away and that is a problem for UK.
The window for the negotiations are now at 1 year and 8 months. The EU will not allow an extension on the date because it is in its best interest that the UK leaves without a deal. It will deter other members from leaving and the UK will have to pay a lot into the EU and lose all support. It will lead to Scotland and Northern Ireland to vote against UK’s best interests. As the great Lord Buckethead rightly claimed “It will be a s#itshow!”
Scotland tried to get out, their PM had to step down after her push for another referendum was shot down hard. They’re not going anywhere. They’d rather unity with the UK than unity with the EU.
Northern Ireland is another question entirely, sure, but only time will tell for sure how that’ll end up for them. Regardless, unification was inevitable, with the question always being “when” rather than “if.”
As for the Pound: It partly depends on the deal they get, it partly depends on what happens after they’re out. Meanwhile, the Pound is going to inevitably fluctuate as its future remains uncertain, sure. And?
Want to bet that before this ends Scotland will fight to remain in the EU? A Scottish referendum on whether to leave the UK can’t happen without the UK’s approval. Scotland’s parliamentary motion, which passed with a comfortable majority, merely calls for “discussions with the UK government on the details” of a second referendum. For her part, May dismissed Sturgeon’s demand for a second independence referendum, saying “now is not that time.”. Not looking good there.
As for the coin, we’re not talking about “fluctuation”, we’re talking about it losing a lot of value and only holding at this level (which is extremely low, the lowest this generation seen) artificially by injecting capital and cutting in a lot of budget expenses. London was completely different last year than 10 years ago. You have banks like Barclays that will fire most of their workers in London if the Brexit is anything but a soft Brexit (which will still be bad for UK). Many others are threatening to do the same. If they’re doing to get a better treatment from UK or actually wanting to move matters very little, because either option weakens UK’s growth. May has no negotiation leverage because all the members want it to fail to set an example. And as you postulated the right rise to power in Europe to oppose EU, it won’t happen. No other country could go through what UK went this past couple of years with the same level of sustainability. The banking system of UK was very strong. Now everyone is looking towards the Netherlands, which promise extremely low taxation.
And when you ask what will actually be done, you only hear rhetoric. Imagine that, having a god damned election completely around Brexit, and saying nothing concrete about it in their program. You have to admit, that is borderline madness, no?
I’m not arguing that the Tory’s are purposefully sabotaging the negotiations, hell, that fact is all but indisputable – I mean, calling a snap election to make themselves look stronger even as their party is floundering; either they’re idiots, or they’re trying to f*ck this up on purpose. Not to mention appointing an(other) anti-Brexit person as PM after a pro-Brexit vote……
However, how this ends up for the UK is extremely questionable, as they’re most likely going to get out one way or the other, which leaves the Tory’s with ~3 years to figure out how to get the country back on track before they lose their pitiful majority to the Labour Party, at which point the question will inevitably become whether or not the Labour Government can get the UK back on track, or not. That is, assuming they’re not forced out earlier once negotiations go to sh*t & they’re thrown out of the EU, in which case, so long & goodbye, f*ckers.
Either way, it’ll set a very powerful example for Continental Europe, indeed, but decreeing it to be a bad thing – period, is a little close-minded. Nobody really knows how this is going to work out, especially as a large part of this is banking on how negotiations end up. Hell, there’s even the chance they’ll just try to call the whole thing off, which would arguably set off far too much of a sh*tshow, but hey, who knows. After all, if the Tory’s are known for anything, it’s for being f*cking nutters.
But regardless, there’s definitely a chance for the UK to survive the EU exit, even with bad negotiations. Finance is a very multi-faceted game, especially now with the ever-changing times. Only idiots who want to hold on to the established regime scream about how “THE END IS NIGH!” Times change, you either adapt, or you perish.
The Second Scottish Referendum is a negotiating position, it won’t actually come to pass unless Whitehall forces their hand, in which case they’ll do it just to save face, but I don’t expect a positive outcome from it.
Survival is not the issue. The problem here is that all the institutions that were safeguarded by the EU, must be made anew by the UK at great cost. And with far less external trust, which inevitably will lead to weaken outside negotiations. And this is just one more problem to add to those already mentioned, the mountain unmentioned yet and the ones that will catch everyone by surprise.
I have to say, part of the reasons that led to this situation are very valid, like the fact that there is basically a Aristocracy on Brussels that were not voted in. But was all of this worth it? Could it have not been dealt from within? Was the UK thinking of starting over by breaking this version of the EU?
And of course this is not the end of times, but it appears to be some very rough times ahead…. and for what? Is there truly a noble point in it?
“Could it have not been dealt from within?”
No. They’re not willing to negotiate. Hell, they’re terrified of negotiations. Don’t you remember Junker telling National Governments not to hold any more referendums? These people are terrified of change, since they know the future is in the dissolution of such Representative “Democracy” powers in favour of Swiss-style Direct Democracy. More than that, even, they’re terrified of letting us vote on their seats directly, since most of these f*ckers would get kicked out immediately.
If Brexit had failed, it would only have empowered Brussels to push forward harder, faster with its integration, rather than taking a step back & revisiting their policies.
“Was the UK thinking of starting over by breaking this version of the EU?”
No, I think people just wanted out, period. They got tired of hearing about all the bullsh*t that the EU was doing to them, they got tired of giving the EU so much money in exchange for practically nothing, they got tired of quota’s being forced on them which cost them jobs, etc. etc. etc. so they said “f*ck this”, period.
A noble point? F*ck knows. For what? For a better tomorrow? To make a point? F*ck knows. To put up a giant middle finger, maybe? Either way, this EU has no future. It had no future before Brexit, it wasn’t going to have one regardless of Brexit’s outcome & will continue to not have one so long as Brussels remains in power the way they are now. Whether the UK is getting ahead of that by getting out early while also paving the road for subsequent “exit” movements to not make the same mistakes, or if it’s just going to end up going down in an epic firestorm, f*ck knows, but either way, it’ll have both positive & negative effects, in the end.
Agreed on the issues, which is why I’m placing a lot of the expectations for this on the post-negotiations Tory’s &/or the Labour Party, most likely, depending on if the Tory’s get thrown out immediately after the hard exit, or during the 2022 elections. How the first post-Brexit Government handles these issues will either set their party in stone for the next decade+, or it’ll send them into oblivion, along with the UK.
They thought they got nothing from the EU. Just in Agriculture, over 65% of UK’s production was for the EU. Now those farmers are scared. The banking system, which made UK a cornerstone of the EU was replaced in less than a week by the Netherlands.
All of this instability may lead to what our generation hasn’t seen yet, a lot of dead young people in wars created by hate fueled by fear.
EU has problems, plenty of them, but it did do what it set itself to do in its creation. It stopped the wars in Europe. For centuries, Europe was always in wars, only now do we have peace. I do believe that this thing alone makes the EU an acceptable organization. It just needs to be kept in check.
Yeah, but was Agriculture & Banking actually worth the trade-off, in the end? I mean, the Fishery industry alone got gutted because of the EU’s quotas, for example.
“All of this instability may lead to what our generation hasn’t seen yet, a lot of dead young people in wars created by hate fueled by fear.”
Ehm, Iraq? I mean, even if we exclude the international effort that is Afghanistan, the US-UK Iraq Invasion even went so far as to cost The Idiot That Was Blair & his Labour Party their Government, in the end.
As for the wars; the EU is over-credited with that. More than anything what stopped the wars was the overwhelming terror that “if there’s instability, the Bolsheviks will try to take advantage of it in order to incite a Communist Revolution! THE RED BEAR IS COMING! THE RED BEAR IS COMING!” That, & the American NATO troops scattered across the Continent making sure everyone toed the f*cking line (not to mention the transition from Military States to Corporate States in the Post-War era).
Now that Communism is out of the way they’re trying to replace The Red Bear with Russia & Islam both in order to retain the status quo (not to mention in order to make it look like NATO is still relevant for peace & security), but since people are getting tired of hearing about The Evil Russians & they’re inviting Islam to sleep in our beds, that’s not exactly working out for them, anymore, resulting in the current climate of “WHAT THE F*CK?” I mean, Russia got cut off from us because of the Crimea Crisis, yet we’re the ones who ended up suffering from the sanctions, ffs.
Besides, like I said, today you don’t fight with armies anymore, you fight with economies & you dominate through Economic Unions, not through bullet-firing soldiers. This is the new reality – this is the greatest side-effect (both good & bad) of a Capitalist Society. Look at Poland; Germany defiled her without firing a single shot, all thanks to the EU.
Also, it’s things like the EU Government trying to create an EU Army that’ll end up inciting armed revolt against it the likes of which will engulf the entire continent in a war the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Second World War, so, yeah……
Besides, we can have an Economic Union without creating a centralised EU Government that we don’t even vote on. Honestly, I doubt if the overwhelming majority of the anti-EU people are against the EU as a whole, instead of just its current iteration – like I said earlier, even; the EU 10+ years ago is more than acceptable to most people. The EU as it is today, on the other hand, is just not.
After all, free movement of peoples only became an issue now because of the immigrants. Before that, free trade, free movement etc. was regarded as one of the biggest reasons to actually join the EU.
We can only hope, right now.
Na, the current situation is the result of things like the economic crisis, which people like Junker skillfully manipulated into convincing the masses that “people like him” need a more centralised power structure under an EU Constitution in order to “avert.” Before that, we were just a community moving towards “a better tomorrow” (I hate that cliche) through economic partnerships & to a lesser degree other ventures like free passage of people that we could either individually opt-out of (& outright veto, even), or not at will. Today, we’re being mandated into accepting things like CETA, “because they’re important for the future of the block, so DO IT, OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!”
Though even then Germany was rising unchecked, yeah, so there’s always that problem, which will persist even through rollbacks & will thus inevitably need to be addressed somehow, but other than that, the sh*t had problems, but the sh*t worked, too. Sort-of. But only so much of that can be addressed, anyway, as unlike you lot we’re a completely diverse continent with completely different legal, economic & judiciary systems between each other which simply cannot be formed into a centralised federal government, no matter how hard one tries.
Hell, even as it is on the national scale people are fighting for less unitary governments & more federal-style ones, instead. Italy, for example, is liable to end up Federal soon if the M5S ends up in power alongside the Northern League, the French National Government is showcasing its inadequacies over & over which is going to result in ever-greater problems for them, etc. etc. etc.
And that’s not even mentioning how movements to introduce Direct Democracy (i.e. the Switzerland Model) are starting to appear, which will inevitably pick up as time passes.
An update: Remember when I said that Scotland couldn’t have a new referendum without UK’s permission? I was right. What I never thought was going to happen was that Scotland would get the chance so soon. Because May gave them the go ahead last Wednesday, when Holyrood parliament “threatened” to vote against May’s Brexit plans. If you go to Edinburgh, you’ll see that they will chose EU over UK, more so now than when they voted during the Brexit referendum.
This is looking terrible for May, my friend.
Don’t look at the cities, mate. The cities don’t necessarily vote what the country votes, that’s more than obvious at this point.
Regardless; so, May’s calling their bluff. Interesting. Maybe she’s not a complete idiot, after all. Either way, at this point I expect Parliament to want more regional power, rather than all-out independence, so I’m curious to see what happens next with that.
Of course you’re right that cities don’t necessarily determine the outcome, but you can see the shift in it. They were pro EU before their referendum, after and even during the Brexit they voted to remain with more than 62%. And if they were willing to jump out of UK before, what makes you think that now they don’t? You know the EU will bend over to help them leave to weaken UK even more in this.
Yeah, but it’s one thing to have a “border” (read: administrative demarcation line) between EU member states & it’s another thing to have an actual border between Scotland & England, as such a thing would be inevitable if Scotland were to remain in the EU, while England left.
I mean, sure, wanting to remain part of the EU & wanting to remain part of the UK are two positions that only overlap to a degree, yes, but how much those positions overlap will in the end be the defining factor in the referendum’s outcome, however – in my opinion.
Ergo; sure, last time, when the UK notion trumped the Independent Scotland notion, it was before EU affair actually proved that there’s a sizeable divide between Scotland & England in that regard, but in the end I think for most voters it’ll come down to a personal choice thing, rather than a “it’s more responsible to stay in the EU” mindset, & their personal choice will drive them to remain part of the United Kingdom, rather than to leave it.
But hey, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they’re not so closely knit after all, in which case I’ll be quite surprised, but I honestly just don’t see that being the case. Either way, we’ll only know for sure if/once they actually do have a second referendum on this, of course.
Does that make any sense?
It does make sense, but in my opinion, you’re putting to much hope in their desire to remain in the UK. After all, only the Queen moved them to remain the last time. Given the chance, I’m certain they’ll chose the EU over UK.
Perhaps I really am, there’s definitely a possibility of that being the case, absolutely, but yeah, what else can I say.
They’d have to make an actual border between Scotland & England because of customs & immigration, both. If England isn’t in the EU whereas Scotland is, they’d need to setup customs checks across the border to ensure that EU Single Market companies don’t illegally ship their products to Scotland just so they can move them into England through the open border. The same applies to immigrants, they could travel to Scotland & then just walk across the border into England & disappear.
It’ll be the same thing with the Channel Tunnel (Franco-Anglo tunnel system) if the UK ends up leaving; they’ll have to establish a checkpoint system in order to check incoming travellers for ID in order to weed out the illegal immigrants & smugglers, both, since they’ll no longer have open borders with the EU.
Hell, even if they retain access to the EU Single Market, as unlikely as that appears to be right now, they’ll probably end up establishing some sort of checkpoint system, regardless, even if it’s just some guy checking you for ID & asking if you’ve anything to declare.
Lol’d.
Honestly even if they only stopped 1-in-3 illegals, they’d probably be happy, all things considered. Plus, without pesky EU regulations harassing them to be forced to consider all asylum requests etc. they can implement automatic “turn away” policies etc. Probably step up the roving Immigration Squads a little, bla bla bla without facing whiney little b*tches in Brussels moaning about how unfairly they’re treating the illegals who crossed half the world to get to Good Old US of- erm…. oops
;P
Plus, they’re an island, so….. sea mines? 😀 Pretty pink boom-booms? Na, they wouldn’t go that far, really…… Probably. It’s just about “reclaiming control” instead of being forced to abide by the Open Borders Policy, etc. really. Sure, the effect will probably be minimal, but even your INS has at least a partial effect on it all, no?
East Germany absorbing West? O.o….. How do you figure that, then? 😛
Lol’d. Good series, albeit, overtly long (as usual) & too drama-infested at certain points >.<
Though I'm not sure where you're reading all of that, as Ireland is pretty well developed with a strong economy as far as I'm aware. I mean, yeah, it would be a "downgrade" of sorts, sure, but on the other hand, it would keep them in the EU, in this case, so….. trade-off?
Good I have a Gold Ticket account for this game and im really looking forward to playing it when its finished. I have resisted the urge to buy more than the mercenary package ships as I want to earn everything in game, otherwise whats the point playing?
When its done I get two games (SC and S42) for £32, such a scam eh?
All that Backer money and they partner up with a bank? a BANK? sorry but i don’t buy that BS like i won’t buy a virtual Spaceship for 10k.
Try reading?
here we go…. this will be the start of the “it all fell though….sorry” Glad i never backed it. I came close a few times but my gut said dont.
yep microtransaction
Try reading next time?
I’m sorry do you know what a joke is? We all understood your not-so-clever play on words “Scam Citizen”. It was so funny and so totally accurate that I forgot to laugh.
It’s clearly stated CIG UK. Could it be that ONLY the uk part of CIG is under somebody else’s ownership ? I do not know anything about this but yeah…
Yes. It’s all in the third paragraph of the official statement, which DSOG didn’t quote;
“The collateral granted in connection with this discounting loan is absolutely standard and pertains to our UK operation only, which develops Squadron 42. As a careful review of the security will show and contrary to some irresponsible and misleading reports, the collateral specifically excludes “Star Citizen.” The UK Government rebate entitlement, which is audited and certified by our outside auditors on a quarterly basis, is the prime collateral. Per standard procedure in banking, our UK companies of course stand behind the loan and guarantee repayment which, however, given the reliability of the discounted asset (a UK Government payment) is a formality and nothing else. This security does not affect our UK companies’ ownership and control of their assets. Obviously, the UK Government will not default on its rebate obligations which will be used for repayment, and even then the UK companies have ample assets to repay the loan, even in such an eventuality which is of course unthinkable.”
Yup the way this is going Brexit could be a no show.
How in the hell could you reach a “financial issue” when you’ve made all that KS money over the years?. I remember them saying that they made more than enough to make the game a reality, so when they start selling the finished product,t hey would have already made bank due to the ks funds they received.
Try reading? This gives them a government rebate which literally gives them money for free. They would have been perfectly fine if this didn’t happen.
You’ve spoken this to nearly everyone, I have been *reading* and I know what is going on.
Next time you want to *school* people, try a little harder next time and cut back on the cokiness., the responses would be likely more positive next time rather than hostile.
I’ve said this to everyone because they clearly haven’t read the article. This isn’t a ‘financial issue’. It’s just a smart business move to get govt. rebates. As I said before they would have been perfectly fine if they didn’t do this at all. It’s funny how you didn’t reply to the content of my comment at all. You just got butt hurt and ignored everything I said after ‘Try reading’.
Also “Cokiness” LOL. Try spelling properly before instructing others on how to ‘*school*’ someone.
Rule #1 of any Star Citizen post on any website. Don’t. Feed. The. Trolls.
They have no idea what they are talking about, and they don’t care to be educated. Don’t waste time trying to explain the complexity of the systems being created or the scope of the production. They aren’t listening, they are just here for their “this game is never coming out” upvotes.
Where is Derek Smart’s game? Wasn’t he making a game too while Star Citizen was developing? Cause i have seen tons of progress with SC, and I have heard nothing from Drek Smat.
When it was on Steam, Line of Defense, I think it was. I saw ‘packs’ for the game that reached $200 and considering the graphics, the gameplay, you knew which was the ‘scam’.
just release the game already.
The game isn’t ready for prime time release.
that rubbish. just like if you put up your house as collateral if you want a massive loan thats what theyve done there. The bank doesnt own your house just like that bank own nothing from CIG, its just if they miss payments there coming for that first to pay themselves back
Thanks to DSOgaming for not falling into the temptation of doing a clickbaiting bullsh!t article about this. SC backer here since 2 years, and I had to spend debunking this load of crap the weekend that I expected to spend happily playing my Steam Summer sale games.
Anyway, stay tuned for this Gamescom/CitizenCon. We may see the end of one of the roads there yet 🙂
LOL YOU DID IT AGAIN. Why do you keep conveniently ignoring the rest of my comment? Are you actively trying to look stupid?
“LOL YOU DID IT AGAIN”
Just like how you’re “doing it again” yourself….
I like how all your focus is on the comment before last, but sure, whatever helps you sleep at night champ.
“Are you actively trying to look stupid?”
I take it you haven’t looked in the mirror recently?.
What’s next, another line of retorts that are of low wit as well as another comeback on “lolkek, not answering muh comment”?.
Thank you for proving you can’t actually respond. You just come up with non sequiturs. This discussion is going nowhere. Peace!
Cheers for admitting that you were desperate to hold onto whatever it is you can when it comes to any type of discussion.
lol you don’t show peace, you show contempt, don’t try to hide the snide like some petulant child.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m gonna need some pepper to balance all this salt.