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News:
04/11/97 Rage Brokers Note
30/01/98 Bundling deal with Compaq
Rage have signed a deal with Compaq to have an OEM version (ie
reduced version) of Incoming bundled with every Presario 4600 and 4800 PC sold. Compaq are one of the largest PC manufacturers in the world and sales of the 4600 and 4800 range are expected to be in the high
hundreds of thousands per annum. Royalties in deals with the larger manufacturers tend to be lower than others although this would be compensated for by increased sales volume. Shipments of the Compaq computers with
Incoming began at the end of January.
The Compaq deal is one of many that the Company are seeking and earlier deals with video card manufacturers Orchid, Hercules and Jazz Multimedia have already resulted in OEM
versions of Incoming bundled with three 3D video cards now on the market. Expect more to follow.
06/03/98 CTW article
Considerable interest has been directed towards an article that appeared in this
weeks CTW, the leading industry trade paper in which it is suggested that Rage were planning a day one global ship-out of 400,000 units for the retail version of Incoming. Whilst Rage deny that they stated this, or
any figure for that matter, retail sales of this level are achievable by a PC title and praise continues to be lavished upon Incoming from all corners of the trade - as good an indicator as any of a title's
potential sales. This, in conjunction with the 30/01 news makes the prospects for Incoming and Rage very interesting at this stage.
13/03/98 Rage wins Sony contract
Rage has signed up Sony to publish its Space Debris space shoot-em up
game. Whilst the value of the deal was not stated, the Company will receive an up-front advance for the development of the game and royalties on sales if they should exceed the value of the advance. The title is due
for release during FY99 (towards the end of 1998) and marks a slightly unusual (but, for Rage, very positive) move by Sony who have, to date, tended to rely on its own internal resources for games development.
25/03/98 March
Rage Brokers Note
15/06/98 Rage wins Matrox OEM deal
Rage have secured another big-name OEM win for Incoming with the
agreement to have the title (and promotional - but non-playable- demos of Hostile Waters and Expendable) bundled with Matrox's forthcoming G200 2D/3D graphics card. Although the 2D/3D market is likely to become
highly competitive during the next second half of the year, Matrox have been one of the most successful companies at selling high-performance video solutions in the past and there is little reason to believe their
success will not continue. Rage will receive quarterly royalty payments beginning from late July, when the card is due to be launched.
13/07/98 July Rage announces new bundling deals
See Rage Brokers Note
21/09/98 FY98 year-end results, Dreamcast Incoming announced
As expected, Rage announced its return to
profit for the year ended 30/06/98. The figures were higher than forecast with EPS of 0.35p 17% higher than was expected. The figures reflect a strong publishing debut for the Company with Incoming resulting in
considerable OEM and retail sales. Furthermore, the Company announced that it has signed a multi-product licensing deal with a Japanese distributor at a "favourable" royalty rate and that the Dreamcast version of
Incoming would be available in Japan when the console is launched on November 22nd (it is launched in the West next year). This represents a great deal of potential for Rage as traditionally hardware to software
sales ratios are abnormally high for software launched with hardware and whilst incoming will certainly not match the 1:1 ratio achieved by Nintendo's Super Mario64 when the N64 launched in Japan, Rage will
certainly benefit from being one of only 5 titles expected to be available on November 20th. Sega are forecasting 1m Dreamcasts shipped by the end of calendar 1998.
25/01/99 Rage wins new publishing deals
Rage announced that it is in the final stages of signing over
the PC publishing rights for its Striker games to Microsoft. A likely part of the deal would be a royalty advance and the Company will also benefit from the substantial distribution ability of Microsoft. After a
false start, Microsoft have reinvented themselves in the games market publishing a number of successful titles (Monster Truck Madness, Age of Empires) and signing up promising developers such as Chris Roberts'
Digital Anvil. The sports game market is one in which it has no presence so Striker will prove a suitable fit within the Microsoft portfolio.
On 09/02/99, French publisher Infogrames revealed that it had
signed up the European publishing and distribution rights for Dreamcast and Playstation versions of Striker and Expendable.
Again, this will likely comprise a royalty advance but the question of OEM distribution rights remains unanswered as yet (expect more information soon). Infogrames are a fast growing and acquisitive force within the games industry. They are looking to expand their product portfolio but also have no football game (almost an essential part of most European publisher's portfolios). They attained exclusive use of the UEFA brand last year and will undoubtedly make a substantial marketing push for a UEFA-branded Striker game when it is released in Spring 2000.
The Company, which had originally planned to publish the game themselves, will now move back to the royalty-based business model of old but will do so in the knowledge that it could not have provided the
marketing, distribution and PR clout that Infogrames, the UEFA brand and especially Microsoft can.
01/07/99 Rage to develop for PSX2
Rage have secured a contract with Japanese publisher Imagineer to
develop what it anticipates will be one of the first titles to appear on the successor to Sony's Playstation. The unnamed title is expected to be launched around the same time as the PSX2. Rage's reputation as a
developer of hardware showpiece software and the success of Incoming on Dreamcast (released through Imagineer soon after Dreamcast's Japanese launch, it has sold over 80,000 units) has resulted in the Company
becoming one of the first developers in the west to receive PSX2 development kits. PSX2 is earmarked for a Japanese launch during Q1 next year and a western launch at the end of next year.
05/08/99 Rage signs distribution agreement with Sega for Incoming
Rage have signed up the Dreamcast
version of Incoming to Sega Europe for distribution within European territories. Over 80,000 units of Dreamcast Incoming were sold in Japan and the title will be amongst the first to ship in Europe when the
Dreamcast hardware launches in October.
14/09/99 Rage meets year-end forecasts and announces publishing deal with Interplay
Rage revealed a
263% increase in year-end PBT on a 144% increase in sales as profits climbed to £3.1m and turnover to £8.85m. With EPS rising by 222% to 1.03p the Company has met its forecasts of earlier in the year. The results
reflect OEM sales, sales of back catalogue and newly released titles (Expendable and Incoming Dreamcast) and advances paid by its distribution partners for products in development. With further deals signed with
Sega and Interplay (for a range of Dreamcast and PC titles in North America), the Company should have a solid bedrock of revenue from further guarantees and advances. With 2 racing games (Midnight GT and Buggy) and
the highly anticipated Hostile Waters (as well as Dreamcast versions of Expendable and Incoming) due for release during the current financial year, the Company is on course for another successful year of
growth.
06/10/99 Rage acquires DID in share swap deal with Infogrames
The Company have acquired flight-sim
specialist development company DID from French publishers Infogrames. The consideration, of around £5.5m, was paid in Rage shares and gives Infogrames an approximate 7% stake in the Company. The deal also included a
publishing contract for DID's current title in development, Typhoon. Although flight sims have a limited addressable market (due to the niche appeal of most titles), DID is an undoubted leader having won
considerable critical acclaim for its war simulation products. DID reported a loss before tax of £444,000 for the year to 30th June 1998. However a significant proportion of that was down to management costs, a
proportion of which Rage will be able to reduce through integration within its own management structure. The extent to which DID will be successful depends on how Rage can streamline the operation without
compromising its widely recognised quality.
14/12/99 31m+ Rage shares placed
Over 31m new and existing shares have been placed raising some £16m.
As with SCi and Pure Entertainment, Rage have taken advantage of the strong market for games shares to raise approximately £6.3m net of expenses for themselves. The remaining £10m or so has been sold by existing
shareholders, with Infogrames the principal beneficiary. The French publisher now no longer has an equity interest (and one could therefore rule them out as potential Rage acquirers).
The money raised by Rage
will go towards augmenting organic expansion of the business.
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