As of the date of this Form 10-K, we have not yet achieved profitable operations. We have accumulated losses, a working capital deficiency and we expect to incur further losses in the implementation of our current business plan, all of which, according to our accountants, casts substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. We will require additional funds through the receipt of conventional sources of capital or through future sales of our Shares, until such time as our revenues are sufficient to meet our cost structure, and ultimately achieve profitable operations. These actions will result in dilution of the ownership interests of existing stockholders and may further dilute our book value, and that dilution may be material.
If we are unable to successfully develop and market our games or features, or our games do not perform as expected, our business and financial condition will be adversely affected.
With the release of any new game or any new features to an existing game, we are subject to the risks generally associated with new product or feature introductions and applications, including lack of market acceptance, delays in development and implementation, and failure of new games or features to perform as expected. In order to introduce and market new or enhanced games or features successfully with minimal disruption in customer purchasing patterns and user experiences, we must manage the transition from existing games in the market. There can be no assurance that we will successfully develop and market, on a timely basis, games, game enhancements or features that respond to technological advances by others, that our new games will adequately address the changing needs of the market or that we will successfully manage transitions. Further, failure to generate sufficient cash from operations or financing activities to develop or obtain improved games and technologies could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
We distribute our games primarily on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms. We are subject to each of Apple’s and Google’s standard terms and conditions for application developers, which govern the promotion, distribution and operation of applications on their respective storefronts. Each of Apple and Google has broad discretion to change its standard terms and conditions. In addition, these standard terms and conditions can be vague and subject to changing interpretations by Apple or Google. Any change to these standard terms and conditions, or in Apple’s or Google’s interpretation of these standard terms and conditions, could materially harm our games business, and we may not receive any advance warning of such change. In addition, each of Apple and Google have the right to prohibit a developer from distributing its applications on its storefront if the developer violates its standard terms and conditions. In the event that either Apple or Google ever determines that we are in violation of its standard terms and conditions, including by a new interpretation, and prohibits us from distributing our games on its storefront, it would materially harm our business and could cause our stock price to significantly decline. We also rely on the continued function of the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, as we distribute our games through these two digital storefronts. There have been occasions in the past when these digital storefronts were unavailable for short periods of time. In the event that either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store is unavailable for a prolonged period of time, it could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and operating results.
Over time we will need to hire additional qualified personnel with expertise in such areas as digital production, software development, artists, financial matters and sales and marketing. We compete for qualified individuals with numerous other digital media and software development companies. Competition for such individuals is intense, and we cannot be certain that our search for such personnel will be successful. Attracting and retaining qualified personnel will be critical to our success.
Our success depends on the expertise and continued service of certain other key executives and technical personnel. These individuals are a significant factor in our growth and ability to meet our business objectives in the digital game development and publishing spaces. Additionally, our success is highly dependent upon the efforts of our executive officers and our directors. It may be difficult to find a sufficiently qualified individual to replace key executives in the event of death, disability or resignation, resulting in our being unable to satisfactorily execute our business. The loss of one or more of our executive officers and directors could slow the growth of our business, or it may cease to operate at all, which may result in the total loss of an investor’s investment.
Compensation may be paid to our executive officers, directors and employees regardless of our profitability, which may limit our ability to finance our business and adversely affect our business.
Our executive officers are receiving compensation, and other current and future employees of our company may be entitled to receive compensation, payments and reimbursements regardless of whether we operate at a profit or a loss. Such obligations may negatively affect our cash flow and our ability to finance our digital publishing and advertising initiatives, which could cause our business to fail.
Because of pressures from competitors with more resources, we may fail to implement our business strategy profitably.
The digital games, publishing and advertising business is highly fragmented, extremely competitive, and subject to rapid change. By its nature, the business risks associated therewith are numerous and significant. The market for customers is intensely competitive and such competition is expected to continue to increase. We believe that our ability to compete depends upon many factors within and beyond our control, including the timing and market acceptance of new games, and enhancements to our existing games developed and published by us. We are a new and development stage digital game development and publishing company that distributes digital games for mobile media technology. Larger and more established companies, with significantly greater resources, are active in our market with similar technologies, and may be in better competitive positions than we are.
We may be unable to compete with larger or more established companies.
We face a large and growing number of competitors in the digital publishing and game entertainment industries. Many of these competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and marketing resources, larger customer bases, longer operating histories, greater name recognition, and more established relationships in these industries than we do. As a result, certain of these competitors may be in better positions to compete with us for customers and audiences. We cannot be sure that we will be able to compete successfully with existing or new competitors.
If we do not continue to develop and offer compelling content and games and attract new consumers or maintain the engagement of our existing users, our advertising revenues could be adversely affected.
In order to attract consumers and maintain or increase engagement with our games, we believe we must offer compelling content. Acquiring, developing and offering new content, as well as new functionality, features and enhanced performance of our existing content and games, may require significant investment and time to develop. In addition, consumer tastes are difficult to predict and subject to rapid change. If we are unable to develop sufficient games that are attractive and relevant to our users, we may not be able to maintain or increase our existing users’ engagement on or attract new consumers to our games and as a result our search rankings, traffic and usage metrics, and advertising revenues may be adversely affected.
If our games do not achieve market acceptance, we may not have sufficient financial resources to fund our operations or further development.
While we believe that a viable market exists for our games, there is no assurance that our games will prove to be an attractive alternative to conventional or competitive games in the markets that we have identified. If a viable market for our games cannot be created for our business or our games do not achieve market acceptance, we may need to commit greater resources than are currently available to develop commercially viable and competitive games. There can be no assurance that we would have sufficient financial resources to fund such development or that such development would be successful. In addition, if our games do not generate sufficient revenues, or we are unable to raise additional capital, we may be unable to fund our operations. Our ability to raise additional funds will depend on financial, economic and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. There can be no assurance that, when required, sufficient funds will be available to us on satisfactory terms.
Our business will suffer if the Internet or network systems fail or become unavailable.
A reduction in the performance, reliability and availability of Internet infrastructure would harm our ability to distribute our games to our users, as well as our reputation and ability to attract and retain users and content providers. Systems and operations could be damaged or interrupted by fire, flood, power loss, telecommunications failure, Internet breakdown, earthquake and similar events. Systems could also be subject to viruses, break-ins, sabotage, acts of terrorism, acts of vandalism, hacking, cyber-terrorism and similar misconduct. We might not carry adequate business interruption insurance to compensate us for losses that may occur from a system outage. Any system error or failure that causes interruption in availability of games, or an increase in response time, could result in a loss of potential customers or content providers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we suffer sustained or repeated interruptions, our games could be less attractive to our users and our business would be materially harmed.
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We may be unable to protect our intellectual property rights from third-party claims and litigation, which could be expensive, divert management’s attention, and harm our business.
Our success is dependent in part on obtaining, maintaining and enforcing our proprietary rights and our ability to avoid infringing on the proprietary rights of others. We seek protection for those inventions and technologies for which we believe such protection is suitable and is likely to provide a competitive advantage to us. Because patent applications in the United States are maintained in secrecy until either the patent application is published or a patent is issued, we may not be aware of third-party patents, patent applications and other intellectual property relevant to our games that may block our use of our intellectual property or may be used in third-party games that compete with our games and processes. In the event a competitor or other party successfully challenges our games, processes, patents or licenses, or claims that we have infringed upon their intellectual property, we could incur substantial litigation costs defending against such claims, be required to pay royalties, license fees or other damages or be barred from using the intellectual property at issue, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
We also rely substantially on trade secrets, proprietary technology, nondisclosure and other contractual agreements, and technical measures to protect our technology, application, design, and manufacturing know-how, and work actively to foster continuing technological innovation to maintain and protect our competitive position. We cannot assure you that steps taken by us to protect our intellectual property and other contractual agreements for our business will be adequate, that our competitors will not independently develop or patent substantially equivalent or superior technologies or be able to design around patents that we may receive, or that our intellectual property will not be misappropriated.
In addition, we may use open source software in our games and will continue to use open source software in the future. From time to time, we may be subject to claims brought against companies that incorporate open source software into their games or services, claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the source code, the open source software and/or derivative works that were developed using such software, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could also result in litigation, require us to purchase a costly license, or require us to devote additional research and development resources to changing our games or services, any of which would have a negative effect on our business and results of operations.
Risks related to our common stock
We lack an established trading market for our common stock, and you may be unable to sell your common stock at attractive prices or at all.
There has been a limited public market for our common stock and there can be no assurance that an active trading market for our common stock will develop or, if developed, be maintained. Our common stock is currently quoted on the OTC Pink Sheets. As a result, this could adversely affect our shareholders’ ability to sell our common stock in short time periods, or possibly at all. Our common stock has experienced, and is likely to experience in the future, significant price and volume fluctuations that could adversely affect the market price of our common stock without regard to our operating performance. In addition, we believe that factors such as quarterly fluctuations in our financial results and changes in the overall economy or the condition of the financial markets could cause the price of our common stock to fluctuate substantially. Substantial fluctuations in our stock price could significantly reduce the price of our stock.
Our common stock is subject to price volatility unrelated to our operations.
The market price of our common stock could fluctuate substantially due to a variety of factors, including market perception of our ability to achieve our planned growth, quarterly operating results of other companies in the same industry, trading volume in our common stock, changes in general conditions in the economy and the financial markets or other developments affecting our competitors or ourselves. In addition, the OTCQB is subject to extreme price and volume fluctuations in general. This volatility has had a significant effect on the market price of securities issued by many companies for reasons unrelated to their operating performance and could have the same effect on our common stock.
We are subject to penny stock regulations and restrictions and you may have difficulty selling shares of our common stock.
Our common stock is subject to the provisions of Section 15(g) and Rule 15g-9 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), commonly referred to as the “penny stock rule.” Section 15(g) sets forth certain requirements for transactions in penny stock, and Rule 15g-9(d) incorporates the definition of “penny stock” that is found in Rule 3a51-1 of the Exchange Act. The SEC generally defines a penny stock to be any equity security that has a market price less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain
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exceptions. We are subject to the SEC’s penny stock rules. The Securities Enforcement and Penny Stock Reform Act of 1990 requires additional disclosure in connection with any trades involving a stock defined as a penny stock (generally, according to recent regulations adopted by the SEC, any equity security that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions that we no longer meet). For example, brokers/dealers selling such securities must, prior to effecting the transaction, provide their customers with a document that discloses the risks of investing in such securities. Included in this document are the following:
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the bid and offer price quotes in and for the “penny stock,” and the number of shares to which the quoted prices apply,
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the brokerage firm’s compensation for the trade, and,
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the compensation received by the brokerage firm’s sales person for the trade.
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In addition, the brokerage firm must send the investor:
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a monthly account statement that gives an estimate of the value of each “penny stock” in the investor’s account, and,
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a written statement of the investor’s financial situation and investment goals.
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If the person purchasing the securities is someone other than an accredited investor or an established customer of the broker/dealer, the broker/dealer must also approve the potential customer’s account by obtaining information concerning the customer’s financial situation, investment experience and investment objectives. The broker/dealer must also make a determination whether the transaction is suitable for the customer and whether the customer has sufficient knowledge and experience in financial matters to be reasonably expected to be capable of evaluating the risk of transactions in such securities. Accordingly, the Commission’s rules may limit the number of potential purchasers of the shares of our common stock.
Resale restrictions on transferring “penny stocks” are sometimes imposed by some states, which may make transaction in our stock more difficult and may reduce the value of the investment. Various state securities laws pose restrictions on transferring “penny stocks” and as a result, investors in our common stock may have the ability to sell their shares of our common stock impaired.
There can be no assurance we will have market makers in our stock.
If the number of market makers in our stock should decline, the liquidity of our common stock could be impaired, not only in the number of shares of common stock which could be bought and sold, but also through possible delays in the timing of transactions, and lower prices for the common stock than might otherwise prevail. Furthermore, the lack of market makers could result in persons being unable to buy or sell shares of the common stock on any secondary market.
As a public company, we are subject to complex legal and accounting requirements that will require us to incur significant expenses and will expose us to risk of non-compliance.
As a public company, we are subject to numerous legal and accounting requirements that do not apply to private companies. The cost of compliance with many of these requirements is material, not only in absolute terms but, more importantly, in relation to the overall scope of the operations of a small company. Our relative inexperience with these requirements may increase the cost of compliance and may also increase the risk that we will fail to comply. Failure to comply with these requirements can have numerous adverse consequences including, but not limited to, our inability to file required periodic reports on a timely basis, loss of market confidence and/or governmental or private actions against us. We cannot assure you that we will be able to comply with all of these requirements or that the cost of such compliance will not prove to be a substantial competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis our privately held and larger public competitors.
Compliance with changing regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure will result in additional expenses and pose challenges for our management.
Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and SEC regulations, have created uncertainty for public companies and significantly increased the costs and risks associated with accessing the U.S. public markets. Our management team will need to devote significant time and financial resources to comply with both existing and evolving standards for public companies, which will lead to increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue generating activities to compliance activities.
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We will need to raise substantial additional capital in the future to fund our operations and we may be unable to raise such funds when needed and on acceptable terms.
The extent to which we sell equity or debt securities as a source of funding will depend on a number of factors, including the prevailing market price of our common stock, the volume of trading in our common stock and the extent to which we are able to secure funds from other sources.
When we elect to raise additional funds or additional funds are required, we may raise such funds from time to time through public or private equity offerings, debt financings, corporate collaboration and licensing arrangements or other financing alternatives. Additional equity or debt financing or corporate collaboration and licensing arrangements may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we will be prevented from pursuing acquisition, licensing, development and commercialization efforts and our ability to generate revenues and achieve or sustain profitability will be substantially harmed.
If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, our stockholders will experience dilution. Debt financing, if available, would result in increased fixed payment obligations and may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. Any debt financing or additional equity that we raise may contain terms, such as liquidation and other preferences, which are not favorable to us or our stockholders. If we raise additional funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements with third parties, it may be necessary to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams or product candidates or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. Should the financing we require to sustain our working capital needs be unavailable or prohibitively expensive when we require it, our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects could be materially and adversely affected, and we may be unable to continue our operations.
We may be subject to shareholder litigation, thereby diverting our resources that may have a material effect on our profitability and results of operations.
As discussed in the preceding risk factors, the market for our common shares is characterized by significant price volatility when compared to seasoned issuers, and we expect that our share price will continue to be more volatile than a seasoned issuer for the indefinite future. In the past, plaintiffs have often initiated securities class action litigation against a company following periods of volatility in the market price of its securities. We may become the target of similar litigation. Securities litigation will result in substantial costs and liabilities and will divert management’s attention and resources.
Our future sales of common stock by management and other stockholders may have an adverse effect on the then prevailing market price of our common stock.
In the event a public market for our common stock is sustained in the future, sales of our common stock may be made by holders of our public float or by holders of restricted securities in compliance with the provisions of Rule 144 of the Securities Act of 1933. In general, under Rule 144, a non-affiliated person who has satisfied a six-month holding period in a company registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, may, sell their restricted common stock without volume limitation, so long as the issuer is current with all reports under the Exchange Act in order for there to be adequate common public information. Affiliated persons may also sell their common shares held for at least six months, but affiliated persons will be required to meet certain other requirements, including manner of sale, notice requirements and volume limitations. Non-affiliated persons who hold their common shares for at least one year will be able to sell their common stock without the need for there to be current public information in the hands of the public. Future sales of shares of our public float or by restricted common stock made in compliance with Rule 144 may have an adverse effect on the then prevailing market price, if any, of our common stock.
Lack of Independent Directors.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires us as a public corporation to have an audit committee composed solely of independent directors. Currently, we have no independent directors and lack an Audit Committee of the board of directors. Audit committee communications will have to go directly to board members and addressed with the board of directors. We can provide no assurances that we will be able to attract and maintain independent directors on our board or form an Audit Committee in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.
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We do not intend to pay cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future.
We do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We may not have sufficient funds to legally pay dividends. Even if funds are legally available to pay dividends, we may nevertheless decide in our sole discretion not to pay dividends. The declaration, payment and amount of any future dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, and will depend upon, among other things, the results of our operations, cash flows and financial condition, operating and capital requirements, and other factors our board of directors may consider relevant. There is no assurance that we will pay any dividends in the future, and, if dividends are paid, there is no assurance with respect to the amount of any such dividend.
Although we currently qualify as an “emerging growth company” under the Jumpstart of Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act, when we lose that status the costs and demands placed upon our management will increase.
Because we are a publicly reporting company, we will continue to be deemed an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year during which we had total annual gross revenues of $1 billion (as indexed for inflation); (ii) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the first sale of common stock under this registration statement; (iii) the date on which we have, during the previous 3-year period, issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer, ” as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which would generally occur upon our attaining a public float of at least $700 million. Once we lose emerging growth company status, we expect the costs and demands placed upon our management to increase, as we would have to comply with additional disclosure and accounting requirements, particularly if we would also not qualify as a smaller reporting company.
The JOBS Act permits “emerging growth companies” like us, upon becoming a publicly-reporting company, to rely on some of the reduced disclosure requirements that are already available to smaller reporting companies. As long as we qualify as an emerging growth company or a smaller reporting company, we would be permitted to omit the auditor’s attestation on internal control over financial reporting that would otherwise be required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as described above, and are also exempt from the requirement to submit “say-on-pay”, “say-on-pay frequency” and “say-on-parachute” votes to our stockholders and may avail ourselves of reduced executive compensation disclosure that is already available to smaller reporting companies.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the exemption from complying with new or revised accounting standards provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, as long as we are an emerging growth company. An emerging growth company can therefore delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this until we are no longer an emerging growth company or until we affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of this exemption. Our financial statements may therefore not be comparable to those of companies that comply with such new or revised accounting standards.
We will cease to be an emerging growth company at such time as described in the paragraphs immediately above. Until such time, however, we cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile and could cause our stock price to decline.