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38 Studios Skips Payroll in Favor of Paying Back State [UPDATED]

Workers go unpaid as the studio works to make its owed $1.125 million payment to the state of Rhode Island.

38 Studios head Curt Schilling being accosted by reporters following yesterday's meeting with the Rhode Island EDC.
38 Studios head Curt Schilling being accosted by reporters following yesterday's meeting with the Rhode Island EDC.

Coming on the heels of yesterday's circus-like meeting and press conference regarding the developing situation at 38 Studios, WPRI is reporting that the company is in the process of paying its overdue $1.125 million payment to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, but is doing so at the expense of its own employees.

Current reports state that 38 skipped payroll this week, leaving the more than 300 full-time employees at the company without a paycheck. In addition, a source has told Joystiq that all temp and contract employees had been let go as of this week.

In the wake of the situation at 38, Keith Stokes, the executive director of the RIEDC since 2010 and architect behind the $75 million loan that brought the studio to the state from Massachusetts, has resigned.

38 Studios still has yet to comment publicly on the situation.

UPDATE: Just when you thought this whole thing couldn't get any worse, WPRI now reports that the check 38 Studios reps hand-delivered to the RIEDC has been returned due to insufficient funds.

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alex

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Edited By alex
38 Studios head Curt Schilling being accosted by reporters following yesterday's meeting with the Rhode Island EDC.
38 Studios head Curt Schilling being accosted by reporters following yesterday's meeting with the Rhode Island EDC.

Coming on the heels of yesterday's circus-like meeting and press conference regarding the developing situation at 38 Studios, WPRI is reporting that the company is in the process of paying its overdue $1.125 million payment to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, but is doing so at the expense of its own employees.

Current reports state that 38 skipped payroll this week, leaving the more than 300 full-time employees at the company without a paycheck. In addition, a source has told Joystiq that all temp and contract employees had been let go as of this week.

In the wake of the situation at 38, Keith Stokes, the executive director of the RIEDC since 2010 and architect behind the $75 million loan that brought the studio to the state from Massachusetts, has resigned.

38 Studios still has yet to comment publicly on the situation.

UPDATE: Just when you thought this whole thing couldn't get any worse, WPRI now reports that the check 38 Studios reps hand-delivered to the RIEDC has been returned due to insufficient funds.

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AmishTechSupport

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Edited By AmishTechSupport

Oh no!

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Darkecho117

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Edited By Darkecho117

What a bummer for all those guys and gals not getting paid. Hopefully this works out for them.

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obinice

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Edited By obinice

Damn.

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Acoustic

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Edited By Acoustic

Harsh.

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Jellybones

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Edited By Jellybones

It's kind of amazing to me that this is legal.

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forkboy

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Edited By forkboy

Wow, that is real rough for the staff there. I hope they are all able to fall into new jobs real quick.

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zachariahus

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Edited By zachariahus

oh wow.

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Dallas_Raines

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Edited By Dallas_Raines

Oh boy

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BonOrbitz

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Edited By BonOrbitz

one word reply

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MovieFlask

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Edited By MovieFlask

Curt could use a few more shillings.

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Cloudenvy

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Edited By Cloudenvy

Yeah, this is looking pretty bad.

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chilibean_3

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Edited By chilibean_3

Oh man. This is going to be over real quick for 38, isn't it? Good luck to everyone over there.

Also, Curt is looking terrible these days.

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FateOfNever

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Edited By FateOfNever

Sad news. I wish all the employees at, or formerly at, 38 studios the best.

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NegativeCero

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Edited By NegativeCero

This is unfortunate. I hope they get it together, but I doubt they'll survive when this is over.

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Lyfeforce

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Edited By Lyfeforce

Wow. I know it's not unheard of for a CEO or president or other senior level people to forego payment when things like this happen, but everyone in the company? What the hell !?

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musubi

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Edited By musubi

Man, that sucks. Didn't much like KoA but people losing their jobs and not getting paid sucks no matter what.

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mordukai

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Edited By mordukai

Lesson learned from this???

Don't take loans from politicians. 75 million, fuck sake, that's a ton of money. No matter what happens the tax payers of Rhode Island are left with the bill.

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mrfluke

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Edited By mrfluke

holy shit, rich should get out of there then

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StressedOutCat

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Edited By StressedOutCat

I still hope that the 38studios will turn things around, yet this doesn't look good.

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Winternet

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Edited By Winternet

Nooooo. Rich needs to get to E3 and show on the bombcast . . . and get paid, of course.

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deactivated-63c9a5152a56a

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Skipping payroll means you're boned. No ways around it. This is it for them. Looks like Rhode Island is going to own the rights to Kingdom of whatever the heck it's called.

This is what happens when you borrow a fuckton of money and barely release anything. A revenue stream is kind of a vital part of any business.

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AiurFlux

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Edited By AiurFlux

Now I feel sorry for them.

The suits get rich, the people with actual talent don't get a fucking paycheck. If I was them I'd start finding different options and getting the hell out of Dodge because that studio is going to sink like the Titanic. Can't say I'm shocked or sorry for Schilling and the rest of the higher ups, but I feel bad for the people that moved to Rhode Island with dreams that are now being crushed by fucking morons.

Economic stimulus at it's finest here folks.

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Eribuster

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Edited By Eribuster

Sad to see it has come to this. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning didn't seem bad enough to warrant this.

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harrymcback

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Edited By harrymcback

Interesting that they choose to break what is a typical labor law in most states about having to pay employees for time worked so they could pay their obligation to the state.

I think Bob Salvatore needs to post some new eBooks to the 38 studios website next week to raise enough to make payroll.

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iamjohn

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Edited By iamjohn

I'd like to say that hopefully someone will step in and save Big Huge Games, but something tells me that it would be Bethesda to do so.

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TadThuggish

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Edited By TadThuggish

Yeah, that's gonna work out.

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Dallas_Raines

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Edited By Dallas_Raines

@depecheload said:

Skipping payroll means you're boned. No ways around it. This is it for them. Looks like Rhode Island is going to own the rights to Kingdom of whatever the heck it's called.

This is what happens when you borrow a fuckton of money and barely release anything. A revenue stream is kind of a vital part of any business.

The State of Rhode Island Presents: Kingdom of Amalur: Rekoning - Copernicus Online

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DrDarkStryfe

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Edited By DrDarkStryfe

And now this has become a political scandal.

A shame to hear this, I really enjoyed my time with Amalur, and the studio looked to have the chops to put out some quality work. I feel even worse for the workers, they are the ones getting the raw end of this.

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freakin9

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Edited By freakin9

Reckoning indeed. Reckoning... indeed.

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dead_eye_sam

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Edited By dead_eye_sam

Whoa.... I wonder if 38 is going to survive this... I hope they do.

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laserbolts

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Edited By laserbolts

Even though Amalur was shit I do feel bad for the people at 38. Hopefully they can bounce back.

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MrMazz

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Edited By MrMazz

Daaaamn I had no idea this was actually kind of big until one of my friends mentioned it and isn't a gamer in anyway.

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ArbitraryWater

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Edited By ArbitraryWater

Well, they're pretty much screwed.

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Shaanyboi

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Edited By Shaanyboi

Shit... :(

I wish all those let go the best.

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Foggen

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Edited By Foggen

SAVE GALLUP

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mpgeist

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Edited By mpgeist

Bloody sock can't save you now Schilling!

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Kidavenger

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Edited By Kidavenger

@DrDarkStryfe said:

I feel even worse for the workers, they are the ones getting the raw end of this.

How so? They can just go and get another job if they are good and completely wash their hands of this, the owners of 38 studios are going to lose all the startup capital they put in to get the company going and will likely be hounded by the state and other creditors for years, and the tax payers of Rhode Island are out however much is still outstanding on the loan. Employees did a shitty job and the game is behind schedule and they get off scott free.

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CharAznable

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Edited By CharAznable

Man, sorry to hear this. Best of luck to the employees.

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Legend

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Edited By Legend

Can we use the tip jar to tip Rich? Maybe as a thank you for the time trotters episode. :)

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leejunfan83

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Edited By leejunfan83

Honestly who didn't see this coming years ago

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supercubedude

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Edited By supercubedude

Toast.

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oldschool2112

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Edited By oldschool2112

"In the wake of the situation at 38, Keith Stokes, the executive director of the RIEDC since 2010 and architect behind the $75 million loan that brought the studio to the state from Massachusetts, has resigned."

The real criminal in this situation gets to walk away clean after hosing the people of R.I.

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blacklab

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Edited By blacklab

Damn, Schill got phat fast

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SlightConfuse

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Edited By SlightConfuse

wow that sucks and is that even legal to skip payroll, unless they are getting it back next cycle

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DrRandle

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Edited By DrRandle

I'm curious what EA's input on this one since they were publishing. Were they just contracted to move the game around, or is there anything they can do to help get this set straight? Not that they likely wood, I'm just more curious than anything.

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alternate

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Edited By alternate

Delaying payroll could be a valid, if desperate, tactic if they were close to shipping the game but with no sign of income in the near future it is just postponing matters at the expense of working stiffs.. Also 300 full time employees is just rediculously over ambitious for a first time project.

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christilton

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Edited By christilton

This was unfortunately inevitable. I can't think of any startups that were funded by millionaires who have no idea how to make games that lasted more than a couple years, and that's simply because it takes that long to burn through all the money.

Have there been any startups in the last 5 or 10 years that started with millions that ended up being successful and are still around? I guess there must be at least one?

I hope Rich updates his resume.

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Zaxex

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Edited By Zaxex

Video game development shouldn't be this risky. It's common to hear people getting fired or studios closed because a game didn't sell as well as they would've liked.

The medium seems to be growing, I just hope that it becomes more sustainable.

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Legend

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Edited By Legend

@laserbolts said:

Even though Amalur was shit I do feel bad for the people at 38. Hopefully they can bounce back.

I still haven't played it myself, but if the reviews are any indication, Amalur actually seems to be a pretty good game.