Fundamentalist Christian Game is 'Stupid Investment of the Week'

SPOnG first brought you the news on the upcoming Christian-themed game Left Behind: Eternal Forces back in May.

We are still somewhat baffled as to what to make of the premise behind the game. It's Christian, yet it seemingly features high-tech guns and much killing of Infidels. What happened to 'turning the other cheek'? Whatever. Maybe we missed a Sunday School meeting where it was decided that we were going to do away with that particular tenet of faith and concentrate instead on an eye for an eye.

SPOnG will try to get a hold of a preview version of this bizarre-sounding title so we can let you know more about it. You never know, perhaps it's not as sinister as it sounds. It might even be a good game! But we'll reserve judgement on that until we've played it.

Though if you are thinking of investing in the games publisher, Left Behind Games, you might want to think again. Well-respected Wall Street Analyst Chuck Jaffe has declared in his MarketWatch column that considering investing in the company is 'Stupid Investment of the Week.'

Jaffe sums it up thus: "Unlike many of the Pink Sheet stocks used in penny-stock pump-and-dumps, Left Behind does have full financials, but with no product to sell yet and with a limited history as a public company, those numbers are ugly. Left Behind has spent more than $12 million in operating expenses since 2002 and has no revenues to show for it. The net loss was more than $2.6 million for the most recent calendar quarter and 60% of the firm's working capital was spent over the last 12 months. Management will meet its capital needs by issuing additional stock, which will dilute the holdings of current buyers, and the company's accounting firm has stated that it has 'substantial doubt about [Left Behind's] ability to continue as a going concern'."

So if the company's own accountants don't see a future for these digital evangelisers, it's safe to say that investing in the company would require a serious act of faith in the game repeating something of the success of the Left Behind series of books, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

Jaffe continues: "In the interim, Left Behind is likely to be like many microcaps whose stocks pop after some good publicity, a hot conference, a new product or even a spam campaign. It's value is likely to fall back until it proves that it has more than just a good story. At this point, that haircut would likely mean losing half of any current investment and then hoping for a turnaround. In that scenario, what will truly be Left Behind would be a lot of investment capital."