38 Studios Pays its $1.125 Million Debt, Will Receive No Additional Funds from State

Their spending 4 million dollars a month?

For something that's never seen the light of day...that's pretty damn crazy. I know games cost money to make, but the fact that nothing's ever even been shown of it. That's crazy.

@Alex said:

He believes that the game is due June 2013.

Did he follow that statement with the words "or else..."?

@Portis said:

The Copernicus MMO is never going to come out, I'll eat my hat if it does. Also, 38 Studios won't make it another full year.

God speed employees of 38 Studios and Big Huge Games.

You know what happened the last time somebody on this website mad a bet about eating hats...

@theredace: This might just be their current operating costs with addition staff on a contract basis. After said product ships, they would drop down in size.

Still. I don't see them breaking even anytime soon.

Show your fucking game already

@BBQBram said:

@Meatsim said:

Want a release date for a game? ask your governor.

I'm calling mine right now about GTA V!

You'll need to get in touch with the Scottish Government in that case. Send a crate of Irn Bru while you're at it.

Sad, sad news....

@Portis said:

The Copernicus MMO is never going to come out, I'll eat my hat if it does. Also, 38 Studios won't make it another full year.

God speed employees of 38 Studios and Big Huge Games.

You know what happened the last time somebody on this website mad a bet about eating hats...

Well I have no faith in Copernicus shipping after this arbitrary release date.

I dont get it, why would they want to make an mmo, seems like the worse possible direction to me, there is no way a mmo based on a completely new universe will have any kind of success.

I wish all parties luck on this one. It seams like everyone involved only had the best intentions in mind, but as game development has shown before, nothing is guaranteed, especially when it's an MMO.

Good for them for the ambition, but taking on an MMO as a first project seems absolutely insane. Hope they land on their feet one way or another.

The Copernicus MMO is never going to come out, I'll eat my hat if it does. Also, 38 Studios won't make it another full year.

God speed employees of 38 Studios and Big Huge Games.

What does this say about Scrum?

What about the KoAmular money they have? Do they really not have that much from that game to float them for the next year?

They're burning through $4 million a month? Are they aware of math? If they're keeping 50% of gross sales on every unit sold (which they're not), AND they sell every game at $60 a pop (which they're not), they'd have to continually sell 133,000 units a month....EVERY month of every year....just to break even. If they release a game every 4 years (which they're not) then every game would have to sell 6.4 million copies....just to break even. Which....wait for it....they're not.

I feel bad for the employees, but have to wonder how badly the studio was mismanaged for this to happen already. They've released one product. ONE! And it was a reasonably well-received product at that, not a total bomb.

I think Schilling just entered the game industry with stars in his eyes, brought in these big names like Salvatore and McFarlane, hired way too many people, and then didn't know what the next smart step was. And it appears this learning experience may be on Rhode Island's dime.

How do you burn through that much money, with nothing to show for it? KofA:R wasn't even their game from scratch - it was Big Huge Games' game, retooled to fit into the Amalur universe.

At any rate, I bet 38 Studios probably isn't a fun place to work at this morning. Tons of pressure from all directions expecting them to become self-sufficient, and soon. Not to mention everyone looking over their shoulders, waiting for a pink slip.

Well I guess we know why they refuse to patch reckoning to fix the balance and difficulty issues that keep me from enjoying the game.

@EthanielRain said:

Eh, it isn't like RI could've used the money for something else.

True, but the hope was to bring taxable business into the state in order to help generate funds. I'd say it was poor planning, but ideally it would have brought in more money for things like education.

Pie in the sky and whatnot.

This studio is already turning out the couch cousins looking for change to not shut down and they haven't even released their over-hyped under-performing MMO into the oversaturated market of over-hyped under-performing MMOs.

They're fucked.

This is why government subsidies fail for industries outside of essential resources like energy, food and mining/oil/whatever. I hope 38 studios does close down and that the detail of the audit are made public. this is like solyndra for vidya games.

Governor Lincoln Chafee had this to say:

This cannot end any way other than poorly. Copernicus would have to be the most exciting "Not a generic fantasy MMO" to receive any sort of serious outside funding and I honestly don't see that happening, considering they haven't even bothered to show it yet.

Eh, it isn't like RI could've used the money for something else.

@Phished0ne said:

I wonder what kind of effect this whole thing will have on states helping out game developers in the future.

@freakin9 said:

It does take skill to hire 450 people and have most of them play solitaire and minesweeper all day. You get the feeling Schilling read the part about hiring 450 people, thought it was a little much, but didn't want to say anything because he was going to get gobs of money.

I donno, Schilling seems genuinely interested in game development. But i think he over stepped by going straight into developing an MMO.

It will mean that states will need to have someone familiar with the business if they want to subsidize game development.

This whole thing makes me sad. I absolutely loved Reckoning and was looking forward to more games in the series. Hopefully this all works out. I could care less about the MMO though.

@MrRedwine said:

So, not that anyone will really care about this, but people seem to think that the MMO is taking place in the same world as Reckoning. Actually, it takes place thousands of years later, so I'm guessing the world will have changed substantially. I doubt it will just be a fantasy setting, probably more like a fantasy/ sci-fi mashup or something.

I seeeeeriously doubt that, they have concept art on the games wiki, it's classic fantasy.

38 Studios needs to start the biggest KickStarter to date!

@Meatsim said:

Want a release date for a game? ask your governor.

I'm calling mine right now about GTA V!

So, not that anyone will really care about this, but people seem to think that the MMO is taking place in the same world as Reckoning. Actually, it takes place thousands of years later, so I'm guessing the world will have changed substantially. I doubt it will just be a fantasy setting, probably more like a fantasy/ sci-fi mashup or something.

r.i.p. rhode island 1636-2012

Seriously, best of luck to 38 Studios and Big Huge Games. This breaks my heart, I wanted them to be a big success.

Did the press release mention how the state is going about keeping them afloat without actually giving them anymore money?

I wonder what kind of effect this whole thing will have on states helping out game developers in the future.

@freakin9 said:

It does take skill to hire 450 people and have most of them play solitaire and minesweeper all day. You get the feeling Schilling read the part about hiring 450 people, thought it was a little much, but didn't want to say anything because he was going to get gobs of money.

I donno, Schilling seems genuinely interested in game development. But i think he over stepped by going straight into developing an MMO.

It does take skill to hire 450 people and have most of them play solitaire and minesweeper all day. You get the feeling Schilling read the part about hiring 450 people, thought it was a little much, but didn't want to say anything because he was going to get gobs of money.

You know, if your number one priority is to keep 38 Studios afloat, then you should be handing them piles of money interest free. I think what you mean is "I'd really like it if we didn't wind up eating this loan guarantee on a default, but there's no way we're throwing more good money after bad."

So look for a 38 Studios Kickstarter coming soon?

How long until we hear about people leaving?

Hard to make a game when you don't have the liquidity to pay your employees. I wonder what the RI Dept of Labor plans to do, if someone complained (I view not paying employees for their work as theft).

jesus since 2006 they have been making that damm mmo and we've heard next to NOTHING?

god that mmo is the new duke nukem forever

$4m a month is not unreasonable for a 300 strong workforce.

300 workers is unreasonable for the debut project of a new studio though.

Should have started smaller and worked up to an MMO.

@jmood88: MMOs are the riskiest games in the industry these days.

They should be making more Amalur DLC or a sequel instead.

HUBRIS!

People working there seem cool, but seriously folks...

I'm still flabbergasted that a company that has only released one game to date has hired enough people to run up $4 million in monthly expenses. That could pay for a whole Double Fine game every month! It seems crazy, though I suppose if you think you're going to compete with WoW, then you have to commit to it.

While the smart idea seems to be for them to get private investments, I wonder if they would actually look at giving them more money; would handing off another $20 million be worse than watching them die a slow death and then having the state be on the hook for the money anyway?

So many years... no new on copernicus whatsoever... did will end bad.

$4 million/month for a new studio? That seems...a little crazy considering they haven't even proved themselves yet. I understand that they brought in a bunch of people with experience so they had to pay them a bunch of money, but it still seems a little extravagant considering the games that small indie teams are putting out with little or no budget.

I am ready and holding on to my butt.

That is the kind of hard hitting journalism my governor does.

I don't know why anyone thinks that making an MMO is a good idea, especially one in a fantasy universe that barely anyone knows about. Bioware had one of the biggest properties in the world and their game isn't doing that great, what makes the people at 38 think that they'll do any different? The genre can lead to a lot of money but is a lot more likely to kill a studio.

Jesus fuck, how do you spend four million dollars a month and produce next to nothing? Are they just rolling in big piles of cocaine over there or something?