First the Battlefront release from James Brown:
We appreciate Paolo Parente’s contributions on social media. His passion for the world he has created does him credit. And most importantly, he has stated his commitment to producing all of the models for Wave 2 – the one thing we all desperately want to see.
However, at this time we are still seeking meaningful dialogue with Dust Studio’s majority shareholder, William Yau, regarding commitments that Paolo made during the Kickstarter Campaign. The fact is, we have already paid more than $401,000 (between July/Aug 2014) to Dust Studio from the Kickstarter funds. And we provided them with the complete list of confirmed orders we had in early November (the orders for 1258 people), after the pledge manager closed.
What should be clear to all is that the dispute involves only a part of the project – ironically the free items – not the delivery of the entire project. As ever, we remain optimistic that this will all be resolved fairly and in all parties’ best interests.
Battlefront Miniatures
And a reply from Dust Studio:
When in Spring 2013 Dust Studio and FFG decided to split, FFG offered to honor the time clause of our agreement that obliged them to buy what was called Wave 8 and 9 of products: The miniatures around the Campaign Box “Operation Achilles” to be precise, three months of releases plus the wave around the Second Edition of the rules (another 3 months of releases).
Battlefront was eager to start distributing DT immediately and decided to offer FFG to buy wave 8 instead of them. For Dust Studio it looked good because BF was giving higher margins than FFG, for FFG was good because they were set free from their contractual obligations. ln short everybody was happy…
Wave 9 was planned to be released in Autumn 2013, this was about the New Starter Sets, 2nd Edition Rulebook and a few re-edition of older models. Dust Studio had financed this wave under a Factoring Bank that basically anticipated the funds to us based on the Purchase Orders released by BF in January 2014 (attached).
BF had 90 days as payment terms. They had to pay for the goods directly to the Factoring Bank. Unfortunately that payment never happened (breach of the distribution contract) and of course the Bank started chasing us first and subsequently BF.
At this time we assumed that BF were in light financial troubles so we did not decide to stop working with them but tried to find a way to help instead.
Spring 2014. In those very stressful days we decided to run a KS to release new items (there was a lack of new products releases on the market) and at the same time raise funds and allow BF to pay their debts towards the Factoring Bank.
We proposed a typical KS agreement where both parties equally shared the profits. BF refused that agreement and proposed the one attached here. Where BF would simply buy the goods from DS and keep the profits for them mainly to ensure the payment of those overdue invoices to the Factoring Bank.
Dust Studio CEO Mr. William Yau reluctantly signed the agreement and the Babylon KS campaign started.
The agreement obliged BF to immediately pay Dust Studio for the goods upon receiving the funds. This was done on October 7 2014, the attachment named DS 141K. This was the payment for the so called “Babylon Wave 1″. Of Course before that BF paid the Factoring Bank DBS those overdue invoices (breach of our KS agreement).
Data about the sales NOT a Purchase Order was given to DS in November and we all know that BF have been collecting orders and Payments via the Pledge Manager until January 2015 (2 more months). Making the data received in November not accurate at all.
Without ever passing us the data of the totals of miniatures sold, nor a P.O. or a payment. Tired of begging for what is simply due to us Dust Studio have decided to share this information with the public. We just want what is ours, complete production and deliver the goods to the backers.
Who in the end, like us, deserve much better than being fooled around, right?
Discussions rotate around the free items that BF offered during the KS campaign. They refuse to pay DS for them. Now this would be natural if our contract did not see DS as a mere manufacturer. But since BF decided not to share the profits DS CEO refuses to share the losses and insists for BF to honor the contract.
The Backers money has payed for their debts basically giving them months of releases for free, which they keep selling making profits…
Sorry to say it doesn’t look like this is going to get resolved anytime soon. Personally, I’m behind Parente and Dust in this dispute; having met and sat down with Paulo I can’t see his company pulling any shenanigans which would cheat gamers out of hard earned cash or in any way damage the good name of the studio or the product line. I can’t say I have any sort of beef with Battlefront though, so I’m hoping the current dispute can be settled in a way everyone wins. Sorry to say , having seen past debacles involving companies like Wargames Factory and Defiance Games, something does smell awfully fishy on Battlefront’s end.
