Well… this has been fun. NOT
As most people know by now, Arcade1Up was acquired by BasicFun! on December 4th or 5th.
And since that acquisition? Most of us developers working on the Infinity Game Table have had almost zero contact with anyone at BasicFun!.
You’d think there’d be a transition. A point of contact. A liaison. An email. Someone to answer questions.
Nope.
Not a word. Just absolute DEAD SILENCE.
So… here’s the story.
The “we finally got paid”… kind of story
I’ve got no problem putting this out there. Honestly, I hope someone from BasicFun! reads this—because this whole experience has been miserable. So feel free to share this post in hopes that they will see it and someone will send me a takedown notice.. it would at least be another point of contact! lol
Maybe some people at Arcade1Up had advance notice of the acquisition. If they did, it didn’t make its way to us. We found out secondhand… and then got the “it’s been great working with you guys” messages from the A1Up folks we’d been working closely with for several years now.
And I just want to say this clearly:
Dave, James — you guys and your teams were amazing. THANK YOU!
We pushed sometimes (ok… a lot), but that’s what we do. And you and your teams always delivered. Seriously—thank you.
December → February: waiting for… anything
December 5th: acquisition happens.
For most of us devs, the holidays are a peak sales season. Q4 was looking solid. I was personally expecting around a $3,500 check in February.
Not life-changing money—but enough to:
- pay some bills
- invest back into development
- maybe grab some new assets
(…but mostly bills 😅)
Then… nothing
January comes and goes.
No statements. No updates. No payments.
February 4th—we finally hear something: an email asking for banking details.
Awesome. After two months, we finally hear from the new company. There’s hope.
Then…
Nothing.
Emails go unanswered. Days turn into weeks. We follow up—still nothing.
By mid-February, people are getting frustrated. And honestly, how could they not be?
Some of us were expecting a few thousand dollars.
Some devs were expecting $10K+.
That’s not small money.
“Payments soon”… except not really
Eventually, we get an update:
I have received confirmation that the team working on the statements expects to complete them this week and send them to you. Payment will be processed shortly thereafter.
Relief, right?
Nope.
Weeks pass. Still nothing.
Still no real contact—just someone in accounts payable who clearly isn’t meant to be the point person for a bunch of frustrated developers.
Honestly, I felt bad for them. They were getting flooded with emails that shouldn’t have been their responsibility.
Meanwhile, the rest of the company?
Dead silent.
Fine. I’ll get your attention myself.
At this point, I figured… okay.
Let’s try something else.
I pulled together about 20 email addresses from people at BasicFun! via LinkedIn and sent a message out.
Surely that would get a response.
It didn’t.
Still silence.
So I did what any developer would do…
…I wrote a script.
Yep.
An email script that sent the same message every hour, on the hour, asking for updates.
And finally—
We got a response.
Payments were coming. They were “finishing things up.”
60 days late… and still incomplete
Fast forward to about 60 days past when payments should’ve been made…
We finally get paid.
Kind of.
One month’s worth of sales.
That’s it.
We also finally get another contact at the company—again, someone in finance. Not really who we need, but at this point, we’ll take anything.
Personally, I’m still missing about $1,600.
For me, that’s a lot.
For others?
They’re missing $6,000+.
And the response?
Basically:
They’re only handling their portion and not taking responsibility for anything prior tied to Arcade1Up.
Which leaves all of us… yep… right back where we started.
So where does that leave us?
Honestly?
We don’t know.
Financially or development-wise.
We don’t have:
- a liaison
- direction
- clarity
- or even the ability to publish new content
We’re just… sitting here.
Waiting.
Trying to figure out if this whole thing is over—or if something’s eventually going to move forward.
Final thoughts (for now)
This has been, without question, the worst experience I’ve had dealing with a company like this.
The lack of communication.
The delays in payment.
The complete absence of structure or support.
It’s been rough. But i will give them props for one thing. The lack of communication has been impressively consistent!
And as much as I hate to say it, right now—I’m not expecting things to improve anytime soon.
If anything changes, I’ll update this.
Until then…
We’re back to waiting.
And silence.
And more silence..
And expecting that amazing lack of communication!
Again.
