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BGonline.org Forums
XG Update (Crossposted from BG News FB group)
Posted By: Jason Lee
Date: Thursday, 13 July 2023, at 11:10 a.m.
Chris Bray posted this to the Backgammon News Facebook Group.
XG Update
After nearly four months of radio silence late last week I had a Zoom call with Xavier. This note summarises that discussion.
The bottom line is that he has lost interest in XG and will not spending any more time developing it or correcting existing faults. He is doing some consultancy, but he is more or less retired. Comments on specifics:
1) The current PC version 2.10 is stable and still provides Xavier with a good revenue stream.
2) The Apple XG Mobile App has known faults, specifically, the dice rolls are not shown on forced moves. The basic engine is fine, but the User Interface needs a lot of work to correct the errors and, of course, there will be a new IOS version in September/October which may require additional work. Basically, the UI needs rewriting and that will be quite a big project.
3) Google has deleted XG Mobile App from the Google Play Store because of the errors and the lack of updates. Xavier will not be correcting those faults or putting it back on the Play Store. If you want XG Mobile, then you will need to have an Apple device.
4) Xavier is interested in selling the Intellectual Property Rights to XG. However, his initial evaluation is between $1m and $2m. I have no idea if that way off the charts or sensible as I haven’t dealt in the IPR of software assets for over ten years. It will need a philanthropist or wealthy consortium to buy the IPR and then they will need to invest more money to develop the program, perhaps making it cross-platform and refining the neural nets.
5) He has got as far as talking to attorneys to draft an initial NDA for those interested in buying the IPR.
6) If anybody is interested in the IPR I have offered to act as a conduit to Xavier.
Chris
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