I wouldn't give him much....I'd give him 10 grand for the whole thing assuming no debt liability. Every line of code server and client, all models, art, everything. There is not much left of value.
* They have almost no client base left. I think 20 players is a big night for them. So that means little or no revenue depending on how many suckers they can get to buy the free client off Steam a month. (To be fair I think they give them first month free, so I guess they are just selling a month and the client is really still free.)
* The art is nothing to write home about. It's 2004 quality.
* Apparently they have some core problems with their physics.
* Apparently they have some serious problems with their client security.
* You not buying any talent. They have one part-time (volunteer?) coder that seems to be having problems.
The only asset I see that has any real value is the goodwill and provenance behind the name Warbirds. Scrap the rest. A lot more IL2, WarThunder, DCS guys have heard of Warbirds than Aces High. I don't mean to be rude, but Warbirds is just a better name.
It would probably be worth that to HT, IMHO (perhaps not in HT's
). If it were me, I would rebrand AH to Warbirds; dump the chessboard thing and go A, B, C country, keep all his current code (it's working and stable so you are hitting the ground already able to run day 1 and not having to fix Heater's junk).
Would that make the current product and subscription model more appealing to the modern market? Nope.
What it might do is generate a good bit of press and word of mouth buzz; like Steve Jobs returning to Apple. That's a compelling story for the gaming press. That's a LOT of free advertising.
You might also excite a bunch of old players at the idea of returning to "Warbirds" for one last tango with HT before their final dirt-nap. Might get enough to ignite some critical mass and get it self-sustaining. HT and all the players of old might like to finish the dance under the game title they started with.
$0.02.
