So as someone who backed this kickstarter I am stuck in a difficult position if I should pay or not.

For a while now we had been asking Mythic games what was happening with shipping given the issues other companies had. It should be noted that before we get into this debate the game is 2 YEARS LATE. Pointing out if they had delivered on time they would not be in the mess then again not a single Mythic game has managed to deliver on time so nobody is shocked.

Up to this point we had heard nothing in fact the June update was finally Wave 1 (It was all suppose to be delivered in one go) was in completed on the way to warehouse no mention of any shipping issues. This last updated is “we got your stuff in a warehouse ready to go”. You just cannot have it until you pay the extra shipping. What is worse is how unclear it is if you dont pay. They say it “may” ship in wave two, well what is the MAY bit ? Will you not ship it at all ? Do we lose everything ? Will you hold it until we do pay ? Is it BLACKMAIL, well it sure as hell feels like it. Telling us you have the stuff but now your not going to ship until we pay up. If they had done this before it was in the warehouse it least may not have quite felt like it was blackmail.

Lets get into the costs I paid 330 dollars for the largest box because I was fan of the PC Game and the models look great for the game. I already paid and eye watering 65 dollars just for shipping. Not going to lie at the time I thought that was a lot for shipping . They now want an additional 46 dollars so the total shipping is 111 dollars and frankly we dont know if that is to ship wave one and two or just wave one.

But think about it 111 dollars to ship a 330 pound game. This is 33% of the costs for this is just to ship it to me. That is bloody nuts how does it cost 33% of the cost just to ship it ? Well it is not just shipping. Shipping Cost have risen about 25% to 33% of the unit costs. Mythics shipping cost rise is 70% so double that. Even by the shortfall they claim if everyone in my pledge pays the extra it would cover far more then they claim is short. So why are they asking for more ?

Because it is not just shipping, it is the additional costs of production, the fact they are 2 years late, the fact rules on VAT charging has changed because the EU closed the loop hole. Most of this is a  direct cause of the delay and them low balling the costs at the time. It is not just Mythic that have done this most companies are the same, they are late, so costs over run.

The worse part of this is the only thing they have said sorry for is the late shipping of the game. At no point in the update they gave is anything included to say they are sorry for the additional charges they have come begging to us for.

Here is the interesting aspect. The current kickstarter they did Anastyr was a bit of flop it raised 1 million but they had expected another 5-7 million. If they had done that they could have used that to pay off this game and move forward. However now the company is in real trouble. Think about they have a staff of 30, they have 5-6 games still in production they need to make and ship, they have nearly 2 years of costs still to cover. It simply does not add up how the 1 million for Anastyr is going to cover its development costs for the next year. They claimed all they needed was 200,000 for the kickstarter to go ahead. What rubbish is that ? It would not cover the staff costs for a year let alone the production costs.

This is the problem with kickstarters in general. It has made some great games but the business side just makes no sense. Companies are low balling the actual costs involved so they meet the target or look amazing when the fund in 24 hours but it is not based on reality. If you went to a bank with the type of business plan they would not lend them the money.

So why should we ? Kickstarters are based on little more than hope not details plans.

So now what do I do ? If I dont pay the future is uncertain I could risk the 330 I already invested. If I do pay what stops them coming back and asking for more in the wave 2 items. If I dont pay does Mythic actually have enough money to even stay afloat long enought to deliver wave 2 ? That is how serious this is for the company.