Whether you love them or hate them, you have to admit that Left Behind Games Inc. (OTCBB: LFBG) has done something for the video game industry that no other company has – brought a controversial and polarizing topic (in this case, Christianity) into the gaming arena.The game in question is Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a real-time strategy game based loosely off the popular series of novels under the same name. The basis of the game is simple – the rapture has occurred, and those left behind (hence the name) have either converted fully to Christianity (the good guys) or to something called the Global Community Peacekeepers (the bad guys), and you have to lead your group of confused, muddled, but well-meaning survivors against the force of the Antichrist himself.
As can be expected with any video game that tackles such a divisive topic – normally, religion in video games is couched with heavy symbolism and metaphors to soften its impact – there are plenty of people who love the game and plenty of people who hate it.
Unfortunately, it seems that more people dislike the game than like it. Share prices for the game have slowly dropped since October 2006, falling from just over $7 a share to the current price of 27 cents. Prices spiked briefly in May 2007 after the company announced its new in-game advertising program with Dell and Jeep, in which ads from the two companies would be placed in-game.
“The ads in our games actually enhance the gaming experience. Billboards in our virtual creation of New York City are brought alive with ads similar to those seen in real life,” Left Behind Games’ CEO, Troy Lyndon, said in a press release. “Foreseeing the growth of in-game advertising, we have engineered hundreds of ad opportunities which can be updated weekly, either dynamically or via our automatic update-game feature.”
Still, after this brief spike, prices went right back down. Despite the numerous articles and media interest in the game, there seems to be little gamer interest in it, which is unfortunate – advertising can only get you so far, and eventually, your game will have to deliver what it promised.
This isn’t to say that Left Behind Games isn’t on the right track; with the video game industry blossoming in this new age of electronic media, there’s certainly a niche for video games that use religion as a central theme. And it goes without saying that it’s a rare company that succeeds financially when such a unique new product is produced. Still, the company has a long way to go, and investors should keep that in mind when looking for cheap penny stock companies within the video game industry.