Strategy First

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Strategy First, Inc.

Type	Wholly-owned subsidiary
Founded	Montreal, Quebec (1990)
Headquarters	Montreal, Quebec London, England
Key people	Stewart Braybrook (CEO) Dave Hill (VP Systems) Emanuel Wall (BDM) Julia Herten-Greaven (WebAdmin) Brock Beaubien (Producer)
Industry	Software & Programming
Products	Solid Ice Man of War series Disciples: Sacred Lands Disciples II: Dark Prophecy Hearts of Iron Galactic Civilizations Jagged Alliance series O.R.B: Off-World Resource Base Space Empires V
Revenue	unknown
Website	http://www.strategyfirst.com/

Strategy First is a software company based in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1990, the company has published numerous well-known games, such as the Disciples series, Jagged Alliance series, Space Empires series, and Galactic Civilizations. They are a distribution partner with Valve, using Valve's Steam utility as one of its means to distribute titles.

1 Conflicts
2 New Ownership
3 Industry Partners
4 Notable titles
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Conflicts

Strategy First has had conflict with Introversion Software. The company was distributing copies of Introversion's title Uplink entitled Uplink: Hacker Elite. However, after filing for bankruptcy, Strategy First suspended paying royalties to Introversion, already owing them tens of thousands of dollars.^[1] Introversion severed its ties with the company.

Former Strategy First developer Legend Studios also reported a conflict culminating in a press release issued February 11, 2005 where they claimed the publisher "breached the Software Publishing and Distribution Agreement", and that "we have not receive a single sales report, payments for royalties and they practically have not fulfilled a single point in our agreement."^[2]

In a postmortem article about the development of Galactic Civilizations II, Stardock founder Brad Wardell stated, regarding the original title, that "Publisher Strategy First filed for bankruptcy without paying a significant portion of the royalties we were owed."^[3] Gaming news sites have also reported conflicts involving Strategy First, such as a news item by gaming industry site Gamasutra that reported developer BattleGoat Studios co-founder George Geczy stating that "We had to give them 50 cents off the dollar just to get our money out of them."^[4]

The strategy developer Pollux Gamelabs also reported a conflict with Strategy First and the release of the 4X strategy game Lost Empire. According to the Lost Empire forums, Pollux Gamelabs cancelled all cooperation with Strategy First due to some disagreements between the two companies, details of which weren't specified. ^[5]

[edit] New Ownership

In 2004, Strategy First Inc filed for bankruptcy protection. On April 21, 2005 Strategy First was acquired by Silverstar Holdings. Terms of the acquisition included "cash consideration to the creditors of Strategy First of $609,000; we issued 377,000 shares of our common stock; warrants to purchase 200,000 shares of our common stock; and assumed approximately $400,000 in existing bank debt, as well as contingent consideration based on the future profitability of Strategy First."^[6] Silverstar Holdings Ltd. is a publicly traded company registered in Bermuda (traded on NASDAQ under symbol SSTR), with their web home page stating that they are "focusing on acquiring controlling positions in high-growth retail-driven and fee-based electronic game businesses that stand to benefit from the economies of scale generated by the Internet and other technology-related platforms." Silverstar completed a purchase of game developer Empire Interactive on December 4th 2006, and claimed in a December 14th 2006 press release that with the addition of Empire Interactive titles to the Valve 'Steam' service, "we are delighted that in this short time the first collaborative effort between Empire and Strategy First has born fruit."^[7]

The Silverstar SEC filing for its quarter ended September 30, 2006, indicates that Strategy First was not providing a significant flow of revenue: "We have recognized a net loss of $941,000 during first quarter fiscal 2007 compared to a net loss of $48,000 during the same period in the prior fiscal year. Significant items that contributed to the increased loss included an increase in operating losses to $583,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2007 as compared to $421,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2006. This increase was primarily caused by decreases in sales recognized by Strategy First."^[8]

[edit] Industry Partners

In December 2005, Strategy First partnered with Valve Corporation's Steam distribution network, becoming the first entertainment software publisher to do so, connecting Strategy First to nearly 6 million gamers worldwide. Most of Strategy First's titles are available through Steam, including franchises such as Disciples, Jagged Alliance, and Space Empires.