May 30th, 2008 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | 18 Comments »
We just had a call with Lewis MacDonald in regards to the Telcogames letter we recently posted on the blog. There was a small error in our reporting which we would like to correct. At the same time, there where some additional questions from both sides.
First off, we started our reporting with “We received a letter from Lewis MacDonald”. What we meant to say was that we received a letter which was from Lewis MacDonald. We did not receive it directly as it was sent in to us by a few Telcogames customers. Our apologies for the confusion caused by our original reporting.
During the call, we had a little discussion about the comments on the letter that where left on the blog. As most of you know, we only delete spam and comments that hold no value to the conversation. Lewis regrets that a lot of the comments that where made, where anonymous. Lewis would love to spend some time talking to all those who feel bad about the history of Telcogames and the future of Mobile Entertainment Distribution Ltd (MED). So for those that are interested, please contact the MED office at +44 207 268 3406. If he’s not there, leave a message and Lewis will take the time to call you back.
In regards to the future of MED, Lewis did not say much yet apart from the fact that MED will be all about distributing mobile games and that MED will also have a focus at the off-deck market, which is a very positive route for the industry. Lewis said that he will have a talk with Tim Green from Mobile Entertainment Magazine in a few weeks to explain more about the plans and the future of MED.
On a personal note, I would like to add that I am not a journalist. Lewis reminded me that a lot of people might get that thought since I write a lot about mobile gaming related news, but I never went to any school for journalism. Writing is not even my primary income. Also, at this moment, I don’t work in this industry, so there is no interest for me on the side of operators, publishers, aggregators or developers. I try to stay as neutral as possible. The reason for me why I write is purely out of love for the industry that I spent most of my working career in. With my writing I actually hope to help the industry move forward. My satisfaction is gained from seeing all those people all over the world that read my work and check out new functionality like our new TV stream. If anyone ever disagrees with what I write, let me know. As most of you probably know, I will always admit it when I am wrong and I am never scared of admitting errors openly to everyone. We are all humans and so, we will never be perfect…
You’re doing a great thing with this blog, and that has nothing to do with being a journalist or not.. also I have no idea what the difference between you and a “journalist” would be in this case.. so why would it matter if people think you are a journalist or not.. you report news as good as you can
And let’s face it: surely if there is that much smoke, there must be one hell of a fire going on.
Over the last 4 years I have been hearing from everyone that it was smarter to not go into business with Telcogames, and all these people also told me they didn’t get ANY money from Telcogames..
the fact that the management were capable, and allowed, to buy their own company is reason enough to be suspicious..
Should we all contact Lewis again as they told here one year ago? Last time they told here that they have no problems in paying out the revenues and we should contact him if we have problems with Telcogames. Than Telcogames promised to pay and guess what? Forget to pay.
Now they complain that some developers are angry about the whole situation and the MBO. I hope this phoenix is falling very fast again.
Arjan you are the best! You have partly information to the industry that no other website or magazin are offering. You are one of the best sources for real insides of the industry. Go on with your good work! Companies like ME and Pocketgamer.biz should work with you when they want to be called “independent”.
I can bet already that the interview with Tim Green is payed and that you will find an advertisment some pages away from the interview or in the next version of the ME.
I wish all the cheated developers good luck and hopefully you will see some money again. But I guess this money is already used in the new company or for the interview with Tim Green.
Well, I must say “Independent” comes at a price. Starting this week I have a dayjob again meaning I will blog at US daytime, or evenings as we experience them in Europe 😉
Firstly Arjan you do a great job – please continue.
On the Telco fiasco – the latest is a bunch of “duplicate” invoices going out from Menzies demanding testing fees for O2 – a SCAM that Telco tried to pull when they wanted to raise some capital – (essentially Telco mailed out invoices for ~
A bad joke that they want now 500 GBP when they own xx.xxx-xxx.xxx GBP to partners. The whole Telcogames/MED story sounds like a bad dream but it isnt. Its damn true. We should call Lewis and hear lies. They rip of the developers once and they will do it twice.
I hope that those persons go to jail sooner or later.
Open Question to Lewis McDonald.
Would he care to explain in a public forum why the revenue shares for distributed content were not ringfenced, but used to finance the expansion of Telcogames ?
There is a very clear division between what belonged to Telco and what belonged to the content owners.
You do a great job Arjan, keep up the good week. Surprised Lewis has the time to call you considering how busy his phoneline must be… secretary must be on overtime i expect!
I think “All Effected Creditors” made an extremely valid point – I also would love to hear from Mr. MacDonald, in this public forum if he’s truly interested in a real dialog, about why the rev shares for developers weren’t ring-fenced. Cash-flow is always a problem for small companies and managing account payable is a challenge, understandable; but to use AP to fund the growth (or lack of it!) of TelcoGames was in my opinion unconscionable – especially as they must have known weeks before the company finally went into administration that this was an issue. They should have gracefully gone into administration at that point, rather than steal further from their suppliers.
These guys shouldn’t be allowed to be directors of a company in my opinion, and I honestly hope no one does business with these guys. Unfortunately Companies House in the UK doesn’t limit people like this from simply setting up again. Look at the saga of Time/Tiny Computers for example of how the UK allows directors to run a business into the ground, screw their employees, suppliers and customers, then buy the assets (but not liabilities) of what remains, and start their shenanigans again….
This article seems like a good example of how Telcogames management operates:
Probably one of the key talents for the continued survival of Telcogames for as long as they did was Mr. MacDonald’s phenomenal ability to attack the threats to the company by making phone calls.
He is very talented at conversational tactics, and uses them aggressively to confuse the other party into agreeing, for example, to wait another short period before sending the lawyers after Telcogames.
In this case, their best response to someone finally shedding some light on their operations is an attempt to discredit the author of the article.
It is a good idea to request him to confront the situation on a public forum where the one-on-one tactics don’t work.
This is unlikely to happen, since there are no excuses to the way Telcogames has been driven by a combination of greed, negligence and arrogance.
Their operations are at the very least unethical, and a thorough investigation into their accounting and activities would be much appreciated in order to determine whether or not they are criminals.
Maybe it is some sort of competition against Gizmondo to whom will be the one with most debts and the most hypocrite criminal in the mobile business !
Hi all. It’s Tim Green here from ME mag. Lewis called me to suggest an interview and, given that the subject of Telco and MED is so important to the trade, I would have been a pretty poor journalist to have turned it down. There’s been no mention of any ad being placed. I’ve been reading the blog and, rest assured, I plan to ask Lewis some tough questions.
perhaps the interview is more interesting if you let some developers speak as well..
Hi Tim, welcome to MGB (I believe this is your first official outing here). Just to be aligned, I never suggested you would get paid for the interview. The fact however that Lewis says that he only trusts you as you are a ‘real’ journalist and mentions that in nearly every call, might give leave an impression that that hurts the integrity.
On the other side, if Lewis would turn to me for an interview, he knows that I would demand answers to burning questions from the developers. Telcogames clearly did a lot wrong and as he said, it’s time for reflection. So what did he learn from it? Next to that, if he really thinks that the developers are so important, then why doesn’t he reply openly to the accusations here on the blog? But that is just my vision on the case.
I am keen to see the interview – perhaps you should also interview o2 UK, Orange UK and others they cooperate with cause they knew that Telcogames holded back the revenues but they still cooperate with them.
The whole mobile games business is shocked cause such operators are still not interested in developers. Why do they do such “developer days” or newcomer awards than? They know that they have no chance at all cause they will not see revenues!
Lewis is and will be a cheater but for sure he will explain you everything.
Why did he founded the new company (MED) before the administration started together with others from his team?
Where is the huge amount of revenues and reports for the developers?
Lewis always tells that Operators like Orange still have the revenues so than they arent paying at all and keep 100% of the revenues – what a business model for the operators!?!
Why did he bought and financed companies around the globe from the money he owned the publishers?
Why did Lewis paid the bills from the revenues of the developers?
Why did he always denied that he had huge financial problems?
Why does he believe he will restart and get all the games from the developers again?
Arent he afraid to show up on any event and see the developers into the eyes? And is he afraid of perhaps some reactions from them? I would be afraid!
Does he know that he killed some developer studios? Several developers left the mobile games business cause they get cheated by them!
Fact is interview publishers and operators (namly o2 and orange uk) as well to get a good story! They worked with several bigger and midsize publishers and I dont know a single one that were happy with those cheaters! They name publishers on the website:
EA, Disney, glu, handson, namco, THQw, DC, Handygames, herocraft, kiloo, ojom, rovio, etc.
Lets see what a so called trusted journalist will find out. I doubt you will write anything “bad” about the operators or mr lewis “cheater” mac donald!
Lets put the whole thing to a new dimension and get some operators in that scandal cause they are the main problem in this whole situation. Cause they outsource to guys like telcogames and push everyone to them. If they dont care about content they should get it outsourced to trusted partners from the publishers not to those who make the best parties or pays the private bills as well.
Well Tim, I think you pretty much have the whole interview right there 😉
That should be a cracking interview!
I can already see the tough athmosphere with sweat on both Lewis and Tim’s brows while they wrestle for rhethorical supremacy!
I was only joking of course, it’ll be a nice, clean, no edges piece where Tim will raise a little finger on his paw and tut-tut Lewis for his “alleged” (as that is what it will be called) wrongdoings.
Then it’ll turn to the bit which goes on about how Lewis, the now scolded man, will now try and rebuild his reputation from the ruins of something that was very unfortunate.
The result:
Disgusting and slimy with no spine…
I do hope that I’m wrong, but know that I’m right
Telco have
I think