[FS~Phat]

The following is from my research and is my opinion based on this research.
I just want to show you guys some facts about 1C since most of you probably arent aware of it and just how BIG the 1C group is now...

Why is this important you might ask??

Well things are always changing in big companies.
Big companies can generally ride out the storm of recession and changes in market direction as they have sufficient revenues to go into new areas and fund R&D for new markets and areas of interest. It can also work the other way too sometimes I guess where companies change direction and decide to sell off or shutdown business units or projects.. "IL2" the brand, I believe is not in this later camp and for good reason.

With the merger of 1C with Maddox a few years ago and recently with Softclub, this shows a keen interest in the growth from the games market.
1C-Softclub is now the second largest gaming software company in Russia.

Why would they be shutting down a key project for what is clearly a long term investment in a massive growth area globally for one of their biggest selling brands "IL2"????

It is reported that 1C revenues topped $814.6 million last year, up 34 percent from 2010, and they have plans to go public by 2015. Most of that revenue is from their enterprise software arm but an increasing slice is from the games division with $US300M from 1C-Softclub last year.

The Russian game market is predicted to nearly double over the next three years – from $850 million to over $1.5 billion, according to projections from Electronic Arts and $1.7B according to PWC. Im sure thats a good reason to stay in the market and keep the "IL2" brand going for years to come, how many markets double in 3 years? Not many!

So I guess you could say they have reasonably deep pockets and an interest in the global and domestic growth of the games market as most of their enterprise products are focused on the domestic Russian market. (where they are the market leader for accounting software)

1C was listed as #59 for European software companies in 2010 and #2 for Russia behind Kaspersky. (based on revenues)

At home in Russia 1C became well known for its Russian accounting software but abroad it is better known as a games developer. 1C grew up meeting the needs of the domestic market and then branched out overseas and the gaming market is the biggest thrust of this global growth now.

And finally...

To quote the 1C founder and CEO Boris Nuraliev and his way of thinking...

"Plan A is not enough, there have to be plans B and C as well. Pessimistic provisions help to develop business steadily."

"Time spent on personnel is never wasted. All software companies have the same circumstances in the beginning. But the results depend on the people. Where the developers are more talented, better organized and motivated, the product is better."

"Ideas are nothing, implementation is everything. In Russia, there are always plenty of ideas. I have a list of 1600 ideas myself. It’s important to choose and then be persistent."