Nothing to do with payroll. It's a legal/contractual matter, as pointed out to you by.... I can't remember. Another thread.
Servers had more this last weekend than I've ever seen.
When payment of production is not paid that is payroll for employees. Meaning, despite ED claiming IP issues and payment for use, withholding payment IS in fact withholding payroll. Where do yall think payroll comes from? This means those employees (some who have recently quit) will not be paid for the work they spent a lot of time on for a module(s).
If I send a construction crew out to build a home, and the homeowner doesn't pay ME for the work, then employees won't get their payroll for that work. Not rocket science.
No matter what the issue is between companies, people are not being paid. And ED claims are a bit foggy since they will not let a court decide, they play judge jury and executioner. and tell whatever story they want. In court it would not go that way. In other countries (including this one) we speak of, payment for work is guaranteed. You can't just say "you voided our contract and therefore we decide what happens and what stories will be told. They just pay and the dispute and fines would be a separate cause. This is where ED is screwing themselves silly.
How long would it take another company to get up and running for ED? Now you have time lapse, and during that time lapse bad things WILL start happening, like consumer confidence, no new products to sell YET.
What you have here is a quagmire they both set themselves in. One violates a contract, one denies payment (payroll) for the product they've received. I'm sure in a court you cover the breach as a single topic and the payment as a single topic. ED doesn't have the legal right to decide, and my GUESS, if it did go to court, ED would find themselves in the wrong as much as Rasbam.
The way this was handled by both parties makes it almost impossible to resolve differences. devs have already quit. so even if it's resolved you don't have the skills or manpower you once had. It can only go south.
Despite some's understanding (or lack of) of the core issues, many are advising to not pre-purchase, for good reason. The product simply may not come to be. It doesn't matter what others think,.. many of the community are saying "hold on". The community decides what they will or will not spend on or prepay. This issues just spiked that community.
As far as packed servers, makes all the sense, if you view what the vast of the community is saying, they see a demise coming, as do many others,..so they want to get time in before (as they assume) they can't. A packed server is not sales. It's post sales. You can have 1m playing, if they aren't buying everything because they have what they want,.... just do the math. NO revenue is no revenue. A packed server does not represent revenue in their method of payment.
Some are claiming ED simply does not have the cash to take it to court for Rasbam payment of server usage(breach). As mentioned above, if no one is buying because they already have what they want,..I can see that happening. It's a horrible payment method. Keeping it out of court allows ED to do as they please with no oversight. Rasbam should get that into court asap.
HT OTOH, can look at how many subscribe and he has his revenue number instantly for that month. Therefore he can plan. ED cannot plan without prepays. You're paying for a product that doesn't exist yet and TRUSTING ED doesn't drop the ball. If you do not know how sales will go that month,.. well... things start to implode. Ed just dropped the ball.
Point being, no matter the reason, ED deciding to withhold funds and playing judge,.. means nothing is being made. They should have paid and taken the breach to court and the court would return that money in a suit for breach. ED,.as much as Rasbam screwed up,... hurt themselves. Something this deep, may never get resolved, and some who have quit think the same way. They have families to feed. ED does NOT have the right to decide what they are owed,.. they can make up any number rasbam could never meet, which means rasbam would work for free forever. This is nonsense, and ED is going to find out the hard way they are not god over laws. Rasbam may be in the wrong, but ED went further. BOTH companies are in breach on different issues. ED is NOT a court.
IF ED is in the right 100% why are they not suing rasbam for defamation in their public statements? Both are just idiots. If you look at the body language and language ED uses, they come off to me as someone with financial issues. If that wasn't true they would have paid rasbam and then resolved the IP issue...maybe in court. I get a strong impression ED is making up excuses to hide their lack of funds. And a court would find that out, they don't want it in court cuz then the community would know they are in trouble, and that would seriously hurt biz. They want this out of court for reasons.
I've spent 6-8 yrs in and around the court system,.... this one has tells.