Jason Williams Leaving IL-2BOX!

[trek]

Admiral, I just realized that I contradicted myself in my reply. What I meant to say is that we agree on who was bought by Tencent. The Polish Studio. That was my error in my original post about Tencent buying 1C. I should have said that. I stand corrected. Anyway the part about Poland and the ban on IC is true. I should have my morning coffee before I post here!

[The_Admiral]

No worries Trek, I hold no grudge, but that's the third time Ive come across this story being spread in relation of Jason leaving, and it was taking the shape of a larger joke in here. Kinda pushes my buttons and I am sorry if I made you think I was branding you as some sort of digital con-artist.  :hide:

I won't comment further on how 1C (and WG, etc...) deal with the Cyprus-based business aspect of things & all, but seeing people blaming automatically Tencent "because they're Chinese" for Jason leaving has just reached a point of common cheap yellow peril that I don't particularly enjoy - especially considering they're nowhere to be found in the picture.

I'd suppose people would be quite familiar by now with the fact that 1C is historically a Russian-based game empire, and that it would sound strange that everybody mentions that acquisition as that of a "Polish studio". When I had my early epiphany eating a borscht with Oleg Maddox next to people working on Lock-On Modern Air Combat back in the early 2000s on a cold Russian Winter, I don't doubt I would have realized back then that I got lost in the subway and emerged in Warsaw if it had been the case    ^-^

[Jarhead0331]

You had a borscht with Oleg? Do tell this story please...

[The_Admiral]

It is now a bit blurry in my mind (it's been more than 20 years now after all).
But.

The Man was very nice and had a mustache.
The Borscht was violet. Super violet.
I watched a Fw190 crash down and marveled at the dynamic damage system.
And Misha my Russian language partner really was a nice guy that indulged in my errand even though he didn't have a computer at home, people were nice with me ^^

[Jarhead0331]

It is now a bit blurry in my mind (it's been more than 20 years now after all).
But.

The Man was very nice and had a mustache.
The Borscht was violet. Super violet.
I watched a Fw190 crash down and marveled at the dynamic damage system.
And Misha my Russian language partner really was a nice guy that indulged in my errand even though he didn't have a computer at home, people were nice with me ^^

What were the circumstances of the meeting? Were you involved in the development, publishing, testing, etc.?

[The_Admiral]

Nah, I was just a fan (and a writer online as part of a website) who had been following this all since before the deal with Blue Byte, who wanted to taste the goods and he kindly opened the doors. It's not like they had many visitors from the West, and I was very tenacious. Still am  ;)

[Jarhead0331]

Nah, I was just a fan (and a writer online as part of a website) who had been following this all since before the deal with Blue Byte, who wanted to taste the goods and he kindly opened the doors. It's not like they had many visitors from the West, and I was very tenacious. Still am  ;)

Interesting, and so noted.

[Father Ted]

While we're (not) spreading rumours, does anyone have reliable info on what Jason has moved onto?  Someone told me he's going to be involved with the Microprose B17 efforts.

[Jarhead0331]

While we're (not) spreading rumours, does anyone have reliable info on what Jason has moved onto?  Someone told me he's going to be involved with the Microprose B17 efforts.

That would really explain The_Admiral's mysterious appearance in this thread and would also be great news!

[Gusington]

[The_Admiral]

But really though, I know nothing. Just popped up because I am interested in any topic about Jason so that I can tout how nice a person he was with us, allowing us to entertain our own topic on the Il-2 forum, and for this alone he has my eternal gratitude and respect. We gave a very small hand to Il-2, wish we could have done more (came into a bad moment of the person involved) to repay said kindness. As for the rest, he's just said below the video that he'll happily get in touch again by email soon, so we'll see - but then if I were to know something, I am afraid will still know nothing  ^-^

[Jarhead0331]

^So you're saying its confirmed then!? Jason is now with Microprose!

Remember guys, you heard it here first directly from The_Admiral!

[Dammit Carl!]

 :D

[Destraex]

https://stormbirds.blog/2022/02/26/il-2s-publisher-acquired-by-tencent/

"An important clarification. 1C Entertainment is not our 1C Game Studios (1C-777 Ltd.). 1C Entertainment was the Warsaw based entity that owned several other smaller enterprises and titles. The IL-2 Sturmovik franchise is owned by 1C-777 Ltd which is Cyrpus based entity. Nothing has changed in that regard, but this development should be good news for us in the long-term as whenever this happens someone makes money (not me unfortunately) which could potentially end up doing good things for our team. That's all I can say. There are no negatives here.

Jason Williams"

Most companies hide their brand names so you do not know they own the competition, in those case I wish law would make sure that the root parent was noted in any signposting. In this case a brand splits or has a similar name and makes things confusing by not changing their name. Cyprus based entity. But where is their actual headquarters?

[The_Admiral]

It's a known tendency for Russian (and Belarussian) companies (at least in the video game sector) to base their activities off Cyprus, like many European ones would pick, like, Ireland or Luxembourg based on their interests (in the case of the latter for fiscal optimization, but for the former there's the added bonus/necessity of having a base outside of Russia). This is the same with Wargaming, which has been formally a Cyprus-based entity for years now. 1C-777 (1C Game Studios) is incorporated in Nicosia. But in such cases I doubt anybody besides the lawyers cabinet offering the services is based in Cyprus.
It's like incorporating in Delaware or the Virgin Is. In that regard they're not being more scummy than anybody else, it's not like they're selling themselves as a "well-known Cyprus-based game studio" or anything. The website is only in English & Russian, there's no specific mention of the move in the history, and the only reference is the formal office location, that they share with several other entities.

https://opencorporates.com/companies/cy/HE315619

At the end of the day there's reshuffling in the wake of the acquisitions sure - some of these "Polish" activities were based off Cyprus too. As an example, 1C Online was bought by Tencent & was one of the entities renamed into Fulqrum. They are based at the exact same spot.

https://opencorporates.com/companies/cy/HE268076

But just beware of the info you find online, or at least the freshness. For instance the open corporates page is very much updated in regard of the corporate ID itself, but seems to be lagging behind USPTO as for who owns the actual trademarks. If you take the example of the "Il-2 Sturmovik" name, you'll see that it is listed as part of Fulqrum's portfolio as former 1C Online Games LTD, but an actual research will show that it got transferred to 1C-777 at some point (acknowledged & updated online in September 2021 according to the USPTO data), which is what Jason himself says in his post (aka The IL-2 Sturmovik franchise is owned by 1C-777 Ltd). As in any sort of transaction, seems obvious to me that they cleared all these things (and transferred rights) months before before publicly announcing the sale in February, the timing does fit the narrative.

Here for a quick look
https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/85282768/IL-2-STURMOVIK

Here for the actual dope
https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85282768&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch

Corporations are fun to research. But again, nothing especially dirty or scummy in there from my understanding, that's just how things are done in 2022