There is a lot of news coming, so I'm going to bullet point these and then expand on it. We have been far from idle over the weekend, and this is what I can tell you today:
- Tony was released from the hospital late Sunday, and while still having to confront ongoing serious health issues, he and I are working closely to move things forward. It is making things slower than we would like, but progress is being made.
- Manual developer payments are resuming, and those manual payouts will continue throughout the process of getting automation in place
- There will be a new forum and news page coming as soon as possible
- Desura is not going out of business, we are not in financial crisis. We are moving forward and actively working toward partnerships and opportunities for growth.
I want to address several more things which I have seen repeated frequently that require clarification and to stop the spread of rumors. The rumors that we never paid developers (as in, since buying the site nobody has ever been paid), or that buying from Desura means developers will never see money, are false. Payments had slowed down, and there are past due accounts, but there has not been a time where no payments were going out. These issues are being addressed, but that is a far sight different from having "run off with developer money" or never being willing or able to pay out. The timeline on some of these accounts dates to before we acquired Desura, and this is where the situation became so complicated.
The second rumor, that we are going out of business, is also false. We are in fact exploring some very exciting new avenues in terms of partnerships and growth opportunities. The payout issues are not an indication that we don't have the funds to pay. Bringing in the changes to the payout system, as well as new contracts being lowered to a $250 threshold will both help prevent this from being a recurring problem in the future.
Many took my previous statement as "excuses", or as being the explanation for why payments were late. What I explained last week was the reason Tony was not here next to me answering developer emails and sending out those payments. Lack of automation is the heart of why the delayed payments arose, as is the very complicated accounting situation due to the acquisition. Additionally, contracts have always had a $500 minimum payout threshold, and when an account does not reach that limit, it does not trigger for payment. This has caused some accounts to go significant lengths of time without being paid. When I said Tony's hospitalization and our moving offices compounded things, I meant that in the literal sense, it further threw wrenches into an already existing situation.
I have been contacted by several developers concerned that we were going to focus on automation and that they would not be paid out till that happened. This is not the case. Manual payments will be ongoing through the entire process, and past due accounts will be brought current. We do not plan to let anyone fall through the cracks. So far, the accounts that have been reviewed as never having been paid, have not met the minimum requirement for the payout on the old contract, and thus never triggered as an account to be paid. I want to let developers know, if you are in that situation, where you have not met the threshold and it doesn't seem like sales will get that far, you can request an early payout. This is not us "pocketing your money." This is simply the way the old contracts were set up and agreed to by both parties.
Getting into solutions, those are already being talked about. I have a number of options pinpointed, and will be meeting with Tony on which would be the best fit for us to get our systems automated. His diagnosis was a serious one, so his ongoing illness is making forward motion slow, but we are making progress. Preventing any further backlog from being possible is definitely the focus. Communication is also key and is my personal task. To that end, I am rolling out a new forum and news page to regularly update the community and our developers on what is going on behind the scenes. My presence allows for that on a more consistent basis than was possible previous to this. Our team will be implementing those changes as a starting point, from which we can build further.
We cannot undo what happened previously, but we can correct it, and again, we apologize that this situation ever reached this point. I want to thank the many developers who have reached out, both to help get their accounts settled, and to offer words of support and their thoughts for Tony. Our vision is very clear, and Desura 2.0 is going to be a reality. I have given our dev team the wishlist from developers and players both, and the list of features going into it is both impressive and comprehensive. In short, we have heard all of the feedback on the ways in which improvement is needed, and those pleas are being answered.
Lisa Morrison
Head of Developer Relations, Bad Juju, Inc.
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