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Pure's revenues have principally come from the advances received from its publishing partners for games it has been
developing during the period. Pure's policy of realising these advances as and when they occur should result in a reasonably steady sales backbone (assuming that its games development for third party publishers
remains steady). However, since the company is intending to become a publisher itself and thus will be funding some of the development (in the form of advances paid out), the Company's cost base will rise
considerably for the second half of FY00 and beyond. Until the titles are released online and advertising revenue starts to be received, expect a deepening of losses at the next accounts reporting stage.
10/02/00 Pure acquires rights to Grand Theft Auto
Pure has revealed that it has acquired the rights to distribute
the 2m unit selling Grand Theft Auto for free via its freeloader.com web site. The deal, struck with US publisher Take 2 Interactive, will see a number of Take 2 titles distributed via the freeloader site although
GTA is understood to be the only one available at the freeloader.com launch in spring. It is likely that the deal will have seen Pure make a recoupable royalty advance payment to Take 2 (with the royalties based on
advertising and sponsorship revenue). Although a high profile title, GTA has already been on budget for a while (and can be bought for as little as £7 online) and is an 18-rated title. Pure have always stated that
they intend to target non-gamers with their freeloader.com service but it will take a considerable level of traffic and considerable ad selling power to financially justify the business model and we will be watching
the performance of GTA with interest.
17/03/00 Pure signs deal with Electronics Boutique
Pure has signed an e-commerce deal with troubled UK games
retailer, Electronics Boutique to become an affiliate partner to EB's (full-price product) sales web site. The deal, which simply sees Pure promote, on an exclusive basis, EB's e-commerce site and gain a commission
from resulting transactions is likely to be the first of a number of regional e-commerce tie-ups. Typical e-commerce partnerships normally see 5%-15% of the transaction value generated for the referring partner.
21/03/00 Pure signs football games deal
Pure has revealed that it have signed a long term deal with games
development company Talking Birds to develop and maintain three online football games. The deal, already novel because of the maintenance element of the contract, is also unusual in that Pure is satisfying part of
the consideration for developing the titles with 54,172 Pure shares. The titles are being distributed for free on freeloader.com later this year.
31/03/00 Pure acquires freeloader.com rights to Virgin titles
In a similar deal to that made with Take 2
Interactive (10/02/00),), Pure has acquired the rights to offer three of Virgin Interactive Entertainment's back catalogue titles (Viva
Football, Jimmy White's 2 Cueball and Magic & Mayhem) as free downloads on its freeloader.com web site. Pure will have paid VIE an up-front sum as an advance on VIE's share of future advertising revenue. As with Take 2, the titles on offer are back-catalogue, budget-price level products which will be made available later this year.
09/05/00 Pure acquires online rights to Creatures title
Pure continues to buy up the online rights to back
catalogue hits with the acquisition of the rights to Creatures, an artificial life title created by Creature Labs. The deal is understood to be similar to previous license deals. Creatures, now in its third
iteration, is more of an educational experience than a game but has spawned a considerable community of users online with over 250 fan sites.
28/06/00 Pure reveals FY00 prelims
Pure's figures appear to make grim reading with revenue halving and the Company
moving from a marginal profit in FY99 to losses of £1.7m in FY00. However, this is pretty much in line with expectations. The Company has significantly ramped up its games and online technology development
expenditure, has dramatically increased its headcount and has begun a "land-grab" phase of expansion during which short-term losses (whilst the Company has the cash) are an acceptable corollary in the quest for
longer term profitability. This strategy will continue next year but should also feature the first signs of revenue from freeloader.com. The Company has begun to market its UK service and will have launched French,
German and US versions of the site by the end of the year.
The Company revealed that it had £7m cash in the bank although its cash burn rate appeared to be increasing so a further fund-raising within the next 12 months should not be ruled out.
09/11/00 Pure launches French and German sites and first episodic game
Pure continues to push boundaries with the
launch of one of the web's first episodic games, Halcyon Sun. With Halcyon Sun, a space shoot-em up title, Pure is hoping to introduce a more soap opera-esque feel to a game with the game narrative being progressed
via weekly, downloaded updates. The concept is well suited to freeloader.com since the frequency of updates represent more opportunities for advertising and sponsorship. With extraordinarily high click-through rates
(averaging 5% but reaching up to 17%) complementing the high CPM reported earlier in the year, it is no surprise that Halcyon Sun has received sponsored from gadgetshop.com.
Pure continues its expansion further
with the long expected introduction of French and German services, adding to the UK and US services (which have garnered 200,000 subscribers). With its advertising driven business model, it is critical that Pure
drives these numbers higher but more importantly, Pure needs to ensure that subscribers do actually return to the service on a regular basis. The extent to which this is or is not being achieved will be revealed
when the interims are announced next month.
23/11/00 Pure interims announced
Pure revealed its interim results for the period to 30/09/00 with improvements in
traffic and sales to the freeloader.com service but with deepening losses and lower revenues than the corresponding period last year.
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