What's Going on at EG7?

[SavinDwarf]

Two new press releases from EG7 today:

From Acting CEO Ji Ham: https://www.enadglobal7.com/press/FE055CAF424A06E4/
-- This one is focused on a change in management strategy; my GUESS is that most of the previous management team is gone. HOWEVER, many of them may ream in their position as head of a Division.


Less interesting to us gamers is Guidance on Q3/Q4 results, whatever that means: https://www.enadglobal7.com/press/B200591D54B7C289/


BTW - I can't find a picture of Ji Ham anywhere -- very strange.

[Cordovan]

We just wanted to post here that these corporate adjustments are not expected to have an impact on LOTRO nor its development plans.

[LagunaD2]

BTW - I can't find a picture of Ji Ham anywhere -- very strange.

Based on what their predecessor as CEO of Daybreak Games went through, I'm not surprised they've tried to keep a low profile:

Daybreak Games CEO resigns after a year of online harassment from Lizard Squad

Daybreak Games CEO John Smedley has announced his resignation from the company, following over a year of personal attacks from the hacking collective Lizard Squad.

Even though the most high profile attacks were against Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, Daybreak Games received a fair few. Planetside 2, H1Z1 and other game servers were dropped for hours, the most recent attack happening just last week.

Smedley was also personally attacked, with Finnish 17-year old hacker Julius “zeekill” Kivimaki sending swat teams to his house, personally attacking family members and even forcing a plane to land due to a bomb threat.

“He was the guy that brought down my flight with a bomb threat.” said Smedley in a Reddit post. “I've heard the entire recording where he convinced an airline customer service agent there was a bomb on the plane. He also in conjunction with others has sent me pictures of my father's grave with nasty stuff on it. I've had my entire credit history put out on the internet including my SSN and my families info. We've had multiple social networks and other things hacked and had my family members called.”

[...]

Daybreak will start looking for a replacement CEO to take over the day-to-day.

Sheesh.

You do the math. That was in 2015, and according to the EG7 press release, Ji Ham has been CEO of Daybreak for six years...

[SavinDwarf]

Based on what their predecessor as CEO of Daybreak Games went through, I'm not surprised they've tried to keep a low profile:



Sheesh.

You do the math. That was in 2015, and according to the EG7 press release, Ji Ham has been CEO of Daybreak for six years...

The fun thing is everyone assumes Ji Ham is male in a male dominated industry. But assuming Ji Ham is a western version of the name and Ji is the first name, then ... could Ji Ham be female? I for one would be cheering to have a female CEO in a male dominated industry.

Of course Ji Ham could be the person's last name only -- and then they are probably male *sigh*. This is one of the reasons why I hope we have Ji Ham in tomorrow's video -- and not just a mystery person. But I guess its 99.5% that he is male.

[LagunaD2]

The fun thing is everyone assumes Ji Ham is male in a male dominated industry. But assuming Ji Ham is a western version of the name and Ji is the first name, then ... could Ji Ham be female? I for one would be cheering to have a female CEO in a male dominated industry.

Of course Ji Ham could be the person's last name only -- and then they are probably male *sigh*. This is one of the reasons why I hope we have Ji Ham in tomorrow's video -- and not just a mystery person. But I guess its 99.5% that he is male.

Everyone? I didn't. I intentionally used gender-neutral pronouns since I don't know for sure.

From what I found, Ji could be a male or female name.

[DavidmeetHal]

The fun thing is everyone assumes Ji Ham is male in a male dominated industry. But assuming Ji Ham is a western version of the name and Ji is the first name, then ... could Ji Ham be female? I for one would be cheering to have a female CEO in a male dominated industry.

Of course Ji Ham could be the person's last name only -- and then they are probably male *sigh*. This is one of the reasons why I hope we have Ji Ham in tomorrow's video -- and not just a mystery person. But I guess its 99.5% that he is male.

But what if this Ji Ham got the job on qualifications instead of because of him being a man?

[SavinDwarf]

Everyone? I didn't. I intentionally used gender-neutral pronouns since I don't know for sure.

From what I found, Ji could be a male or female name.

You are of course correct I should have said "nearly everyone" . On the funny side, maybe it will turn out that John Smedley changed his name to Ji Ham just to avoid the abuse he was taking LOL!!

[LagunaD2]

You are of course correct I should have said "nearly everyone".

This EG7 press release refers to Ji Ham as "he":

THU, AUG 26, 2021 17:35 CET
The Board of Enad Global 7 AB (publ) and Robin Flodin have agreed that effective immediately Robin will transition away from his current role as CEO of EG7 and will be replaced by the current CEO of Daybreak Game Company, EG7’s largest subsidiary, Ji Ham. During this transition Robin will stay on for six months to assist Ji as he assumes his new role within the EG7 family of companies. Ji will be appointed acting CEO of EG7 as a search for a permanent CEO has been initiated. Ji has an extensive background in both gaming and finance and has for the last six years been the CEO of Daybreak. During his tenure at Daybreak Ji has overseen extensive growth and profitability of the company.

So that seems to be that.

On the funny side, maybe it will turn out that John Smedley changed his name to Ji Ham just to avoid the abuse he was taking LOL!!

I think the Securities and Exchange Commission frowns on disguising the identity of a company's top management...

[SavinDwarf]

UPDATE

My summary of Video Presentation from 9/9/2021: - overall its good news for LOTRO (or as good as we could have hoped for)

1. Ji Ham is a little dry but appears to be a very professional and experienced senior executive.
2. From a financial/share price perspective Ji Ham explained the primary reasons for the change in management, without actually admitting to any wrong doing on the part of EG7 – very well done.
3. Why was Daybreak excited to become part of EG7? Because it would be a source of additional capital to invest in their powerful suite of games.
4. What does it mean for LOTRO. He in particular said that EG7 would be investing in DC World and LOTRO over the next 18 months to leverage the value of those two brands. He discussed the upcoming Amazon TV show as a driver.

Overall, I think the presentation was a good thing for LOTRO, but you can watch it and form your own opinion. Its just words, but he did not need to keep mentioning DC World and LOTRO, but he did. For the financial minded among you it explains the reason for the change.

From SSG staff’s point of view, I’m sure they are a little bit relieved, and perhaps a little hopeful.

That’s my take.

link to presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9sMvpZWybc

[maartena]

It is a shame we have to hear about things such as renewed investment over the next 12 to 18 months from corporate videos/presentations and not from SSG themselves.... I obviously understand WHY this is, because this is just how the corporate world works, but it is a shame.

If you want confirmation regarding the most important info for LOTRO from the video linked above: Start at around minute 13, and watch the next 2 minutes after.

[istvana]

"He in particular said that EG7 would be investing in DC World and LOTRO over the next 18 months to leverage the value of those two brands. He discussed the upcoming Amazon TV show as a driver."

We have been hearing this since the purchase though some here are skeptical and just take this as meaningless fluff. Others of us do take it seriously and see it as the driver for improved communications, the likely change in monetization policies (probably a major change aligning LOTRO with less "niche" MMOs by e.g. including all old expansions either with a subscription or with purchase of the latest expansions), finally moving full speed on a LI revamp, testing rapid experience gains as an alternative to a level squish, testing a choice of difficulty levels and the like.

More importantly, because it is the sine qua non, extra resources gives hope that something major will be done about lag and server instability. Whether hardware improvements or software improvements or both.

[Moondog548]

When I first heard the news, I panicked, thinking "Oh no! The wheels have fallen off the EG7 wagon! They're collapsing as a company and Daybreak's CEO will squeeze our beloved games for the last drops of profit before abandoning ship!"

But the more I thought about it the more it makes sense to make exactly this change.

EG7 was a buncha buddies from the world of video-game marketing. They made a start-up and the job of that company was to 1) get investors 2) buy studios. And by all appearances, Flodin and his marketing expertise were super duper awesome at that specific job.

NOW, EG7 the company has to actually do stuff with the resources already acquired. That's a completely different job that needs a completely different skill set. The marketeer owner/founder is very much right to get out of that position.

And the worrisome fact of the stock drop is apparently purely the result of Flodin and another partner selling a relatively small portion of their very large stakes because apparently they personally needed some cash.

So I am definitely not excited about having the CEO of Daybreak of the last few years in charge of ANYTHING. (War of the Three Peaks was just the lowest point of a trend of exploitation-instead-of-value as business philosophy) HOWEVER. I would assume that he's just the competent management executive tasked with doing whatever Smedley said to do.

Smedley has been paid off and cashed out, so HOPEFULLY, the board of EG7 is indeed tasking Hamm with actually investing in their new property rather than his old employer's assignment of wringing it dry.

[LeRaginAsian]

Having worked at a company I enjoyed that got acquired and was systematically picked apart and dismantled by new management, just the mention of changes so soon after the acquisition raises my hackles. All of this flowery language to reassure investors sounds eerily familiar and does nothing for me.

If history repeats itself, the next few years in the game will be great as they invest in it. And then when it doesn't explode into the giant profit margins they'd like for their investors, they'll pivot to new acquisitions and LotRO will be back to the status quo.

Which honestly? It's fine. I've gotten over a decade of enjoyment out of this game, which is way more than I ever expected. There are worse fates than maintenance mode.

[Arantha]

It's a commitment that helps and let me hope.
Thank for the summary SavinDwarf, was not able to watch due to work.

[Braer]

Good to hear that all the investment intensions are NOT going effect the game. Must be pay checks then?

[Arantha]

Thank You SavinDwarf
About Your remarks I tried to figure out the statements. EG7 will invest 5.8 Million Dollars in the games, new triple A-Investments/games and the current games. Specially Lotro was named with a big big oportunity due to the amazon investments. Lotro should upgrade and develop to profit from the investments from Amazon, because lotro is the only online-tolkien-world existing.

https://funkenflug.ag/eg7-investiert-5-millionen/

[Arantha]

Good to hear that all the investment intensions are NOT going effect the game. Must be pay checks then?

that s not true, the game should be uplifted due to a lack of investments in the last years, especially in the time of daybreak/WB alliance.

[Braer]

We just wanted to post here that these corporate adjustments are not expected to have an impact on LOTRO nor its development plans.

that s not true, the game should be uplifted due to a lack of investments in the last years, especially in the time of daybreak/WB alliance.

I must be miss-interpreting the above then. There was never a Daybreak/WB alliance, only a sale and pay check source change, to a not so "private" investor.

Must be just a re-announcement of already allocated funding in that case.

[Arantha]

just have a look yourself on minute 13 of the video. https://youtu.be/R9sMvpZWybc
I think Cordovan means that there are no (negaive) impact on Lotro. additional money and personal, hardware-investment would have a positive effect on lotro, I'm sure.
The CEO of EG7, who is also the CEO for 22 Years of Daybreak games, who knows better than us lotro, is really trustable, when he announces something like that for the investors. And he especially names lotro during half an hour three times. EG7 has more than 50 different IPs

[Braer]

Ah, you're inferring something not made clear. "I think"...

For me "I think" it'd be brave of me to be dismissive of what my CEO had been proposing.

My bad for not placing /sarcasm off in my sign off. A loss in translation perhaps?

Cordovan is very adept at constructing posts that guide the reader to infer a different narrative(1), I was just surprised at the loss of touch. I expect more from his "nothing to see here" posts.


(1) Private investor buying out the game from Turbine, players getting hacked to blame for all the gold spam.

[SavinDwarf]

Ah, you're inferring something not made clear. "I think"...

For me "I think" it'd be brave of me to be dismissive of what my CEO had been proposing.

My bad for not placing /sarcasm off in my sign off. A loss in translation perhaps?

Cordovan is very adept at constructing posts that guide the reader to infer a different narrative(1), I was just surprised at the loss of touch. I expect more from his "nothing to see here" posts.


(1) Private investor buying out the game from Turbine, players getting hacked to blame for all the gold spam.

Braer,

In all fairness, the post by Cordovan was made before the presentation on 9/9/2021. Based on my experience, it is exceedingly unlikely that the staff of SSG were told anything about what was going on and certainly none of the details of the presentation. The assumption at SSG would be that management changes at EG7 were unlikely to impact the SSG unit.

Well it may turn out that Cordovan was wrong and it might impact SSG positively in the future. All we can do is wait and see. I suspect that is exactly what the SSG staff are also saying "lets wait and see"

[Braer]

My apologies to one and all then, sorry.

[Arantha]

EG7 writes about the importance of daybreak and prioritize lotro for next year
https://funkenflug.ag/eg7-priorisiert-hdro/

it's in german, I try to translate it in a bit with google translate

[Arantha]

https://funkenflug-ag.translate.goog...&_x_tr_pto=nui

[bohbashum]

https://funkenflug-ag.translate.goog...&_x_tr_pto=nui

Thanks for that. Edge translated your original link better for me, don't know if anyone else having issues? I'll post the quote if anyones having issues like I had.

Lord of the Rings online

EG7 claims to own some of the most iconic game titles like Everquest, H1Z1 or Big Blue Bubble. The Lord of the Rings online is described by EG7 as one of the best games in the world: "... justifiably the most classic fantasy game, prioritized for a revival with the new Amazon series" 2022. LOTRO seems to enjoy high priority and prestige for EG7 and daybreak, because the interim CEO of EG7 is also the CEO of daybreak games.

Combined with the last statements from EG7, it seems logical that LOTRO should be invested heavily so that it can expand its position as the relevant MMO at the start of the Amazon series. The subcontractor Innova is also addressed, which is one of the most important «free to play» platforms in relation to PC games for Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union. Daybreak games will also be able to distribute some titles via these channels in the future, but the exact title is not described.