Investment Platform Says Shroud Of The Avatar Dev Didn't Fulfill SEC Filing Obligations

SeedInvest believes Portalarium "has ceased operations and has failed to provide a formal dissolution statement."

Jason Winter
By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted:
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Shroud of the Avatar Desert Dragon

Repeat after me: Kickstarter is a donation, not an investment. Unless it actually is an investment.

That looks to have been the case with Shroud of the Avatar, the Richard Garriott-backed, crowdfunded MMORPG that was spun up by Portalarium back in 2013, went mostly free-to-play in 2018, ditched its offices a year before COVID, and was sold to Catnip Games in 2019. Through it all, patient and not-so-patient backers wondered about the progress of the game, with some goals being pulled back, like a book that was supposed to be delivered and a general feeling that the project was coasting by on the fame of Garriott and not much else.

But, as is always the case with Kickstarted projects, once your money is gone, it's gone. However, if you're equity crowdfunding platform SeedInvest, then things are a little different. As MassivelyOP has learned, "Portalarium had obligations to its SeedInvest backers; specifically, it was required to file annual reports with the SEC to provide transparency to investors." It didn't do that in 2019 or 2020, apparently even going so far as to have "deleted parts of its documentation on the SeedInvest website."

SeedInvest finally spoke up this week about Portalarium's inaction, saying that the developer "failed to provide subsequent investor updates despite repeated attempts to secure them." Indeed, SeedInvest believes that Portalarium "has ceased operations and has failed to provide a formal dissolution statement despite attempts by our team to secure one on your behalf."

There could be legal action taken by SeedInvest, but, as MOP noted, there's a real question as to whether it would be worth the time and money required to recoup anything -- or even if there's any funds to recoup. The game continues to receive regular updates, with #98 going live just last month, but the player count on Steam hasn't broken triple digits since November, and while the game is available through other avenues, it's hard to imagine that it's doing much better anywhere else.

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About the Author

Jason Winter
Jason Winter, News Editor
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

Discussion (1)

Flintstone 1 year ago
LB just has not hit the right buttons over the years this game was not him at all even though it had parts of it it is kind of mess of a game with map loading all bits, never really went anywhere.
its hard to talk about the man who brought rpg to us all laying the first stamp with Ultima.
if Tabula Rasa was in play today it would be a very popular game.
it just a shame LB was before himself, held within his own excitement of frivolous thoughts and imaginations wanting to see all them in play...is not that easy.


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