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

@DrRandle said:

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.

EA has nothing to do with this. KoA - Reckoning was published through a EA Partners deal. Basically, EA paid for the distribution and advertising of the game, and probably took the standard 30% publisher's fee. Developers usually only get 15-20% of the revenue, but those are being grouped together more and more these days as publishers just buy up developers. This was not one of those cases, so EA has no financial obligation to pay any of 38 Studios' debt.

Not to mention that this $75m was for the MMO that still doesn't have the name. KoA - Reckoning was a separate venture, as I understand it.

@PXAbstraction said:

@Ehker said:

@PXAbstraction said:

As of just moments ago, Curt Schilling has been removed from the 38 Studios web site. Oh boy.

Yup, I noticed and posted that earlier. Management disappearing from the website, along with the CEO and COO are now gone.

Ahh sorry, didn't see your post. So the CEO and COO are gone too? Wow.

Jennifer MacLean, and Bill Thomas. They had a couple lame excuses for the CEO Jennifer going missing from work, first no clear answer followed by a maternity leave excuse.

This is the google cache of the original management page. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:cJf36YkK9vIJ:38studios.com/people/management+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Oh man, this is awful to hear, and that update is almost cringe-worthy. Good luck to everyone over there.

They have my sympathy, but I can't help but see this as further proof of the traditional triple-A budget being unsustainable. Maybe even double-A.

@Ehker said:

@PXAbstraction said:

As of just moments ago, Curt Schilling has been removed from the 38 Studios web site. Oh boy.

Yup, I noticed and posted that earlier. Management disappearing from the website, along with the CEO and COO are now gone.

Ahh sorry, didn't see your post. So the CEO and COO are gone too? Wow.

Maybe it's just been a long time since I've seen him...but man, Curt Schilling looks haggard. Dude looks like he hasn't slept well in a month. I highly doubt he's "laughing all the way to the bank" while screwing the working stiffs, as some here have suggested.

Tmobile is restructuring and therefore thousands of jobs would be affected; HP is also restructuring, up to 30,000 jobs will be cut. And now this...these CEOs should be affected and there salaries be cut to 80% since they are making ridiculous amount of cash. Any CEO that compromises their work team is incompetent in my book.

@PXAbstraction said:

As of just moments ago, Curt Schilling has been removed from the 38 Studios web site. Oh boy.

Yup, I noticed and posted that earlier. Management disappearing from the website, along with the CEO and COO are now gone.

@oturista said:

This bums me out to no end... I thought the game had sold well, it's so good.

It sold pretty well for a new IP, and one without marketing at that. But 38 has 300 hundred people, average studios have around 100. That, plus they've been funding an MMO for years now as well as paying off a 75 million dollar loan. Even if Reckoning was a smash hit, 38 would still end up here because of poor management.

I am Rhode Island born and Rhode Island bred and when I die I'll be Rhode Island dead.

As of just moments ago, Curt Schilling has been removed from the 38 Studios web site. Oh boy.

There was almost no marketing for Reckoning, and regardless of what you think on its quality, it was an RPG that had the perfect slot in between two behemoths in the genre. It should have sold better than it did, but the lack of marketing (and lack of bells and whistles that's commonly expected in a modern RPG, such as an engaging story or memorable characters or a well-realized world) really did a number on things. Sucks that nobody is getting paid because one title sank an entire studio, but that's the reality of the world we live in. Simply wishing to make a great game won't make it so.

This bums me out to no end... I thought the game had sold well, it's so good.

@RadixNegative2 said:

Why do I find this hilarious?

Because you're an asshole?

The only way to describe this is shitty.  Hopefully somehow things turn around.

This why most video game companies aren't run by retired baseball stars.

I feel for the employees. The management however has only itself to blame.

This situation has gone to shit, sad to see it happen...can we get more activision conspiracy to make me feel better?

Quick GB Crew, grab Rich and RUN!!!

Damn this sucks period. In a way they got hosed because they were forced into hiring far more staff than was ever going to be needed but at the same time they need to deliver the payments promised not to mention pay their people. I thought amalaur did pretty well so why did so little of the profit make it back to the people who actually made the game and own the license?

This is tragic. It's sad to see Big Huge Games will be hit so hard by all of this. They at least shipped a game and a good one at that. I guess not shipping that MMO proved fatal. But it seems by the looks of things there were some serious fuck-ups running the show.

That fucking sucks, how are they suppose to make that much money? What if everyone buys three copies of KOA: R, or does that money go to EA?

This is such a bummer of a story.

@RadixNegative2 said:

Why do I find this hilarious?

I don't know... why do you?

Now's the time to start stealing office supplies. Grab what you can and gtfo before it all goes to shit.

Quick, are there any duders that can let Rich Gallup crash on their couch?

This whole situation is so sad. It seems like an honorable decision on part of that entire team, however.

That is not cool :(

Why do I find this hilarious?

Maaannn! Hope Rich and those folks get through this. Bummer.

Hurry, to Kickstarter!

@coribald said:

@Ehker said:

@Alex Hey, new news, guess who got removed from the 38 Studios website?

http://38studios.com/staff/jennifer-maclean

Oh dear.

Apparently not just the "maternity leave" CEO was taken off the website. Curt himself:

http://38studios.com/staff/curt-schilling

Both gone from the staff pages: http://38studios.com/people/visionaries

I see a few people blaming the state for this mess, which seems quite harsh. They were given a loan to go to RI to create jobs and tax revenue. I would assume by the size of the loan, that 38 was making some fairly big promises to the government which ultimately they didn't follow through on. I think the problem here is that 38 reached to high and were to mismanaged to do what they needed too. They've been working on that MMO far too long to have not even shown off a screenshot yet

Sad to hear, its never a good thing to have someone go without a paycheck. Hopefully this ship can be righted.

Rich Gallup is on Giant Bomb last game he played was KoA: Reckoning, 2 weeks ago

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/rich/

Holy shit o.o

@Dallas_Raines said:

@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

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

Yes it is even longer than you thought.

Now the check bounced.

If the MMO is even half as entertaining as this gong show then they've got a GOTY contender.

this situation smells like ass from every angle

I knew someone who moved to Rhode Island with his family to work there... I haven't spoken to him in a while, but this news makes me worried for them. It's never good to miss a paycheck.

@alternate said:

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.

This is what I was thinking as well. Not only that, but making their second project some giant MMO? I don't know. You kind of have to work up to something like that. This is really bad, though.

I hate to say it cuz i like rich and ben and schilling, but that game should have been AMAZING with the stable of talent they had working on it. That game wasn't amazing and that is why it had mediocre sales.

Oh god Klepek needs to explain the on Bombcast.

Man… this sucks.

Wow...this is the worst possible thing to happen. Especially with no light at the end of the tunnel. What are they thinking, that they're going to just not pay people every month?

So the state gets theirs, Schilling gets his, and the rank and file who actually do the work get nothing. Sounds like 21st Century America in a nutshell.

@Legend said:

@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.

It did a lot of things right, but a lot of things mediocre as well. Would definitely not go as far as calling it "shit", but different tastes etc.

@Alex Hey, new news, guess who got removed from the 38 Studios website?

http://38studios.com/staff/jennifer-maclean

@PatchMaster said:

@fini_fly said:

I wonder if Curt Schilling could just pay the employees from his baseball earnings.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schilcu01.shtml

I'm pretty sure he already put his life savings into the studio . Just another thing that sucks about this situation.

I wonder how much he put into it in all honesty.