38 Studios are in serious trouble. The studio, owned by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, has apparently failed to make payroll this month. That means its staff of 379 people are still waiting on a paycheck.
Further to that, the company did manage to hand deliver a cheque to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. That taxpayer-funded body made the loan that enabled 38 Studios to start up and expects annual loan repayments of $1.125 million. 38 Studios apparently defaulted on the payment due on May the first and this cheque was supposed to cover it, essentially paying the state rather than their employees.
The problems got worse, however, when the cheque bounced due to insufficient funds. Rhode Island EDC has returned the rubber cheque to Schilling’s studio.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was a reasonable critical success. It seems to have had solid enough sales and there certainly hasn’t been any large scale uproar about issues with the game’s development so the news that its developers are now in such a sticky financial situation is dire. Their second project, funded by Rhode Island EDC using taxpayer’s money, is tentatively titled Project Copernicus but there are no details of specifics or a release schedule.
Certain voices within Rhode Island’s government are fighting hard for a rescue package to be put in place to safeguard the studio and ensure the best possible chance of seeing a return of the EDC-guaranteed $75 million loan, as well as securing the 288 jobs with the studio that are within that state.
Source: WPRI
Person678
Surprising, lie you say sales of Reckoning seemed to be fairly solid…
Jag
The game was very good I thought, the great combat mechanics kept gameplay fun throughout.
It’s a real shame and hopefully something can be sorted for the employees but it seems there must have been a major problem with the finances for it to get this bad.
Were they too optimistic in their projections perhaps?
KeRaSh
What a shame. I thought KoA:R sold enough copies to cover the development cost. If I remember correctly the game was kind of a small scale single player version of their Copernicus MMO. Maybe they ran into financial troubles while working on the MMO and decided to push out a singleplayer version of part of the game which financially covered itself but not the rest of the grand project in the background…
The Lone Steven
But KOA was successful so they shouldn’t be in this situation. I’m a bit surprised EA hasn’t helped them out yet.
I hope they won’t end up folding as we don’t need another studio to get closed down.
Nickboss1
Off topic but does anyone know how to add an avatar?
Nickboss1
To my TSA account?
KeRaSh
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/forum/welcome-to-the-tsa-forums/help-avatars-signatures-images-and-tsa-twitter-theme/
Nickboss1
Thank you
shields_t
Wow, that is one strange situation, begs the question of why on earth Rhode Island invested in the company in the first place.