Report: 38 Studios Lays Off Entire Staff [UPDATED]

As a Rhode Island resident; Fuck.

I am now stuck with paying off this loan through tax dollars.

There is no way KoA:R ever had a chance to sell 3 million copies! It's a great game... But the average gamer has never heard of it!

@Jumanji: For the record 38 studios never blamed Reckoning. Curt said it did well and sold well. It was the Rhode Island Governor who claimed it failed. This doesn't have any real impact on what you are saying and doesn't change anything, but this is what it is.

Man, this is so sad. It was a chance to prove game development as a viable investment in general industry, but it just wasn't going to happen. I'm sorry for all those people losing their jobs now...

What a goddamn mess, in more ways than one. Best wishes to the former staff of 38.

@TentPole: The Governor never said Reckoning failed, selling well over a million it clearly didn't. Rather, he said it didn't sell enough to keep 38 going, which given the studio's massive debt meant it would have had to a been a 3+ million selling mega hit. This is why there's not a lot of faith in their MMO either, since it too would have to be exceptionally successful for it to be profitable, and in the current MMO marke that looks unlikely.

@MagicWuff said:

As a Rhode Island resident; Fuck.

I am now stuck with paying off this loan through tax dollars.

At least your the first state to own a video game IP.

@BlackLagoon said:

@TentPole: The Governor never said Reckoning failed

I am going to say you are full of shit:

"The game failed, the game failed," Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee told attendees of a press conference

Man, that sucks.

The lack of co-op had me not buying it. Talented people losing their job sucks but i can't help but think that this would have sold so much more if it wasn't a pure singleplayer experience.

Noooooo Rich Gallup! :(

@TentPole said:

@BlackLagoon said:

@TentPole: The Governor never said Reckoning failed

I am going to say you are full of shit:

"The game failed, the game failed," Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee told attendees of a press conference

Sorry, I guess I deserved that. Should probably have been in bed instead of posting. Still, I think the sentiment of my post is valid. The Governor was talking about how many copies 38 Studios needed Reckoning to sell. Schilling was just saying that they beat EA's sales estimate, which says nothing about how profitable the game was for 38.

Well you should of made a better game.

Wow, tragic on many levels.

Well the world just had to make sure we are never getting a sequel to Rise of Nations.

Satan

So one day they said the game outperformed the estimations by selling 1.2 M, the next day they say the game failed because it had to sell 3 M. Reckoning was a good game, I enjoyed it a lot. Sad to see they putting the blame of a whole management disaster on a single game, that is not bad to begin with.

Does anyone know how this will effect the DLC that is currently available? Will it stay available? If I buy it now, does the money still go to 38 Studios, or will it go to the state of RI? I assume if they declare bankruptcy then the State of RI will get the IP and any future sales of the game and DLC? But since everyone is now laid off I guess all sales are now going straight to pay off the government loan anyway. If that is the case, I don't know if I really want the DLC. I like supporting developers, but I don't really want to support the RI government.

I feel bad for the employees, but it's no surprise the game tanked. it's only redeeming feature was amazing combat, but with no challenging enemies, sub par loot, and absolutely god awful story it was doomed. It should have been an MMO.

@Nutts: regardless if you bought the dlc now or later, the money will end up in the tax payers pocket, and rightfully so. Im all for supporting developers, but this ship has sailed quite some time ago

Absolutely crazy stuff. Hopefully the whole truth comes out eventually.

Damn shame.

Oh man , that must really hurt to get a mail like that . Not even a personal note . Not a thank you for your work and time . Nothing ..... No mention of the fact that you even exist for the management .

And i loved the demo . but then i don't play much rpg and don't know what's the standard in the genre apart from Skyrim . witch i haven't played yet .

after seeing shilling talk on fox news i knew he was an idiot... i assumed amalur was going to be a huge failure but after seeing its sales i thought maybe my dumb a-hole detector was broken. Turns out its just as sharp as ever.

Just another conservative preaching against handouts while raking them in hand over fist, and placing the blame on the state thats bankrolling him for not giving him enough subsidies. I have a feeling the ineptitude of shilling himself probably had a huge hand in all this, hopefully as more information gets out... we will get to see just how horribly mismanaged the company was.

This is very sad, even straight up depressing following this whole thing now after all this time. I hope everyone who lost their job can find one sooner than later, honestly being in the family of someone who works on a game, especially one that is not totally kick ass and sells well must really tough. They were clearly dedicated people working on such an ambitious project, even if I do not care for MMORPGs virtually whatsoever I can appreciate the work that goes into one and especially in the state the genre is now. Good luck

we want rich back here. where he belongs