I feel bad for the people of RI. Sure devs are out of jobs, but twitter is already a flood of job offers for other companies. I read that RI is a poor state with one of the worst schools systems in the nation. Where are they going to find over 100 million dollars? Where are they going to cut from?

I guess that patch for KOA reckoning is out of the question. sigh....

I think it was just a bad release window for Amalur and to demand such high sells for a new IP that's under heavy competition among other very strong rpgs Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, Final Fantasy 13-2 and now Witcher 2 . I can see why it had trouble making it to 3 mil in sells. I think its a great game but they should have tried harder to have it come out before skyrim.

It also does not help that they borrowed 75 million to make an rpg and mmo both being new IPs in a time when everyone is releasing rpgs and mmos.

If this continues the trend of going from bad to worse, tomorrow a nuclear missile is going to take out the entire 38 studio's staff.

Shit.

@Alex Extra sad is the facebook group made up of a lot of the developers, artists, and their families: We Support 38 Studios, which was created earlier this month which was weirdly ..."huggy"? Almost defeatist in tone. Didn't realize it at the time, but that's when they first probably saw the writing on the wall with the missing paychecks.

I signed up in support because a friend of mine was working on the MMO. I'd say if you're able to, people should sign up to show some support for some very talented people that didn't get a chance to show off the lion's share of some really incredible work. It might even be more appropriate to do now to let these folks know they had some fans.

A lot of stuff is getting leaked too from there:

Really, really tragic. So much more impressive-looking and full of soul than Reckoning.

@LibrorumProhibitorum said:

It's amazing that selling one million copies of a $60 game is considered "poor" today.

Of that $60, a developer only sees about 17%, or around $10. I can't speculate on how much KoA - Reckoning cost to make, but I have to imagine that they were hoping to make enough profit to cover costs for that game and to use the rest to fund further development of Copernicus, or maybe even pay back some of the loans. Actually, some of that may have been required to offset the costs of buying Big Huge Games.

@DrDarkStryfe said:

Three million copies just to break even? That puts Amalur into the $60-80 million budget range, and that title was nowhere advertised enough for a AAA budget.

Actually, if that money was solely needed to recoup expenses for KoA - Reckoning, and not to offset the price of buying Big Huge Games or to help fund the Copernicus MMO, it means that Reckoning had a development cost of around $30 million. That's in the high-end range of video game development, but not unheard of. $60-80m is unheard of for anything outside of an MMO.

@Tupacalypse said:

@SmokePants: Just because he's a baseball player doesn't mean he would have bad ideas and concepts for a game, playing sports doesn't mean you're not creative.

He shelled out I don't know how much money to have Todd McFarlane and some fantasy novelist make his IP for him.

Curt Schilling played a bunch of Everquest while on the road pitching and thought he could do it his way. He had time and resources, yet failed spectacularly. Not surprising, because he was a baseball player.

I feel bad for the taxpayers of Rhode Island.

I feel bad for all those guys but the thing I care about the most is what Rich Gallup will be doing?

This seems like a way for the big investors to pull their cash out first or somehow "twist this around" as a write-off for themselves. Then again as I said in previous post on the subject this hurts the video game industry on the East Coast, so it would have been nice if someone reputable had taken over.

It seems that the court documents show a company structure that seemed tailor-made to grab low cost loans from the state and then if it all turned sour dump the IP on the state...who would in turn need to sell it off. It will be VERY INTERESTING who end up with the studio or the IP. And I don't mean the corporation because (call me paranoid), but my guess is someone who KNEW this was all a house of cards will buy it.

I hope Patrick follows this story longer…even if it seems boring…I bet at the end this turned out to be dirty. Again this mostly sucks for the development community in the North East which is trying to hold on with very few companies, they don’t need this sort of scummy scandal making them look bad.

Holy shit. This is EPIC.

@Jace said:

@ThePickle said:

@Jace said:

CBS, please go grab Rich. GB needs a decent east coast correspondent. Most of the GB community already loves the guy, he would be a great fit.

Rich isn't a journalist. I forget what his official title at GameSpot was, but he never wrote reviews and never did news stories. He hosted stuff. Unless he'd be willing to move out to SF, and even then all host duties now belong to Ryan.

I love Rich a whole bunch but fitting him in at GB might be a stretch.

Well don't you see that as sort of a problem? Don't get me wrong, Ryan is an A+ host, and I think he does his job well. But shouldn't GB have another host to spread out some of the duties? Right now Jeff takes over when Ryan isn't there, and that works fine. But I don't see how having Rich on the team could possibly hurt anything.

I never said having Rich on the team would hurt, it's just not practical. Being a back up host isn't a job I think Rich would find fulfilling, and I doubt CBS would be thrilled about giving money to a guy who probably wouldn't be doing a whole lot.

@DoctorWelch said:

Is there anyone that didn't see this coming, especially after Kingdoms of Amalur came out? I kinda feel bad for the people that got laid off, but @Jace said:

@ThePickle said:

@Jace said:

CBS, please go grab Rich. GB needs a decent east coast correspondent. Most of the GB community already loves the guy, he would be a great fit.

Rich isn't a journalist. I forget what his official title at GameSpot was, but he never wrote reviews and never did news stories. He hosted stuff. Unless he'd be willing to move out to SF, and even then all host duties now belong to Ryan.

I love Rich a whole bunch but fitting him in at GB might be a stretch.

Well don't you see that as sort of a problem? Don't get me wrong, Ryan is an A+ host, and I think he does his job well. But shouldn't GB have another host to spread out some of the duties? Right now Jeff takes over when Ryan isn't there, and that works fine. But I don't see how having Rich on the team could possibly hurt anything.

They need to hire more people to do shit they just don't have time to do instead of doubling down on jobs they already have locked down. Unless Rich starts doing production and shooting video like Vinny and Drew, or unless he starts writing shit like the rest of the guys, I just don't see him as a great fit currently, but who knows what these guys will do.

Not taking sids on the hire Rich issue (I'm a huge fan and I'd be delighted to have him back, but I rather got the impression he was enjoying doing something else with his life and, at any rate, he has hi life over there to consider so, you know, whatever is his wish is fine with me), but Rich is a highly accomplished filmmaker and he was heavily involved with production (including writing scripts as well as the technical side) when he was Features Producer for GameSpot Live. He brings a lot to the table if working with GB is on the cards. His experience as a developer further increases what he offers.

But, regardless, as I said, my impression is Rich was/is enjoying comparative anonymity. So, you know.

Really sad stuff, wish the best to all the employees in their future endeavors, they all seem to be very talented people if Reckoning was any indication.

.

Huge bummer. I got a bit side tracked before I could finish it, but I really enjoyed reckoning. Was really hoping to see a sequel.

Wow...

"38 Studios founder Curt Schilling announced on Twitter yesterday that Reckoning sold 1.2 million copies. Chafee said the game needed to sell closer to three million."

So this is the market now for video games. Over a million units sold isn't enough to break even. Really makes you think about those games that sold only 30 or 40 thousand copies.

I suspected things were going bad when I read that the top brass at 38 Studios resigned. And, I was wondering if anyone was even working on the MMO considering they hadn't been paid. I guess the state of Rhode Island owns all that now. Considering the market, I doubt any other publisher will pick up those assets, so the taxpayers are out millions of dollars now, but the tragedy of that situation seems all too familiar these days. Everything about this incident ends in sadness.

The decline and fall of 38 Studios is going to make one hell of a story someday. I hope someone writes it.

So you're a retired baseball player flush with cash and you start a video game company in a volatile industry where your name and fame carry little to no weight in what is most important to the survival of this company: sales. Without any substantial business education or experience but rather success in something completely irrelevant this is considered, of course, to be a great idea. You draw substantial talent, but instead of starting small, you inflate the company to hundreds of employees, rent real estate with large offices and apply for large loans backed by a state government economic board that also thought this is a great idea and effectively made them idiots not worth their salt.

With zero game sales under your belt thus far, you buy another company, utilize their assets for quick turnaround sales and when that game fails to meet "expectations" of THREE MILLION UNITS ON A GAME CALLED KINGDOMS OF AMALUR (read: omg save our desperate company that is crushed underneath a mountain of debt with no revenue) a $75M loan quickly turns into you can't flush the fucking toilet. Surprise! Employing hundreds of people for six years with no revenue and hoping for a grace of God windfall project to save the company with a leader that has ZIP in business leadership experience equals f-a-i-l-u-r-e, regardless of industry.

It's sad and typical, albeit in smaller scale, but not even worth an interesting case study in an MBA program because it was never competitive.

@Jason_Bourne said:

@Veektarius said:

Did Kingdoms of Amalur undersell versus expectations?

Rich gallup actually said on his twitter it out performed EA's expectations, sold something like 1.3 million in 90 days.

Exactly, in what universe is a new RPG IP expected to sell 3 million copies! They just way overspent and overhired without getting enough financial backing for such a huge project as their MMO.

yeah Rich was talking about sandwiches on Twitter ... I knew that was bad Omen...

.

@evanomeara said:

@AlexanderSheen said:

@SamDrugbringer said:

@coribald said:

Coming up, the unemployed-cast with Rich Gallup and Adam Sessler!

Sounds about right.

With Matt Rorie.

I think we got the team for E3 mysteries now Matt Rorie needs to find a scooby

Matt Rorie can be Scrappy Doo, so he can constantly yell Puppy Power.

Sucks for all the people who lost their jobs. Hopefully they can find new jobs.

I really don't like the state of video games where selling 1.2 million copies is considered a failure and they couldn't get their money back...

This is heartbreaking, even though I never really cared that much about Reckoning or anything else the studio was doing. (Which, I suppose, is kind of the problem.) I've been casually following the studio since day one, largely because of Schilling (he played for two of my favorite teams, Philly and Boston) and it's sad to see 38 fall because of one so-so game.

(Also, it's really shitty to delight in this because of Schilling's political views. He's not a fucking Nazi, for shit's sake.)

Am I reading it right where it says they were loaned money by the state of Rhode Island?

shit just got real

That really sucks.

Seems crazy that they never went the Downloadable route or PC route with their games. They could churned some cool classic RPG, Zelda style games in the KoA universe in between Reckoning and the MMO. I feel sad for them, but look at teams that make smaller games and are just a group ranging from 3-20 people making games that turn out to be huge. Games like Super Meat Boy, Trials, Limbo, etc.

I hope they find a way to get back on their feet, and its cool seeing the Industry leand out a hand for helping these people find some work.

@UnrealDP said:

@Jace said:

CBS, please go grab Rich. GB needs a decent east coast correspondent. Most of the GB community already loves the guy, he would be a great fit.

Real classy, mate. Way to be a dick...

Sorry but he is right. I mean, this whole story just reeks of someone just reading game forums and other sites to write their own article. Check out patricks journalistic work and interviews to see how its done.

I'm sorry, I haven't been following this story that closely. Can somebody enlighten me as to why they needed the $75 million loan in the first place? Surely they didn't use that entire amount to make Kingdoms of Amalur because Gran Turismo 5 cost $60 million if I remember correctly, and that made headlines way back. So there's no way KoA cost $75 million.

@Jolt92 said:

Alex is the best news man of Giant Bomb. End of story.

I agree and I can't stand most of what he writes.

Jesus Christ, it all happened so fast.

Pour one out for all the 38 Studios guys. Hope they all land on their feet. Especially Rich, we're all pulling for you, buddy!

i thought it sold well... damn i loved the game... hopefully one day there will be a sequel....

@Jace said:

CBS, please go grab Rich. GB needs a decent east coast correspondent. Most of the GB community already loves the guy, he would be a great fit.

What this guy said ^

@SimplyTron said:

@UnrealDP said:

@Jace said:

CBS, please go grab Rich. GB needs a decent east coast correspondent. Most of the GB community already loves the guy, he would be a great fit.

Real classy, mate. Way to be a dick...

Sorry but he is right. I mean, this whole story just reeks of someone just reading game forums and other sites to write their own article. Check out patricks journalistic work and interviews to see how its done.

You're joking, right? There's no way you're being serious right now.

There should be a Game Studio Charity that helps layed-off studio employees get back on their feet.

@Ujio said:

I'm sorry, I haven't been following this story that closely. Can somebody enlighten me as to why they needed the $75 million loan in the first place? Surely they didn't use that entire amount to make Kingdoms of Amalur because Gran Turismo 5 cost $60 million if I remember correctly, and that made headlines way back. So there's no way KoA cost $75 million.

They've been working on an MMO for seven years. KoA was a game 38 bought along with a studio. 38 studios has never actually produced anything.

@august said:

@Ujio said:

I'm sorry, I haven't been following this story that closely. Can somebody enlighten me as to why they needed the $75 million loan in the first place? Surely they didn't use that entire amount to make Kingdoms of Amalur because Gran Turismo 5 cost $60 million if I remember correctly, and that made headlines way back. So there's no way KoA cost $75 million.

They've been working on an MMO for seven years. KoA was a game 38 bought along with a studio. 38 studios has never actually produced anything.

Ahhhh! Thank you for the clarification.

Brand new, not-very-inventive IP needs to sell 3 million copies to be successful? No wonder their company fell apart...

I was always worried about this company. They would never announce or show anything and just said that we needed good faith that they were going to do a cool thing. Sucks for them but that's what happens when a company doesn't perform.

@UnrealDP said:

@Jace said:

CBS, please go grab Rich. GB needs a decent east coast correspondent. Most of the GB community already loves the guy, he would be a great fit.

Real classy, mate. Way to be a dick...

Sorry but he is right. I mean, this whole story just reeks of someone just reading game forums and other sites to write their own article. Check out patricks journalistic work and interviews to see how its done.

I've been enjoying the hell out of KoA: R.   
 
So pretty much this company hired way way to many people, attempted to do another MMO which honestly would've not done any better then the last five fantasy versions that came out.  They then put out a very good RPG that sells 1.3 million copies but that isn't enough to cover the massive MMO sink hole.
 
I would hope that the main team that did KoA: R can retain the rights to it and creates a new company to develop that into a second game.  

Yep. This went as bad as it did as fast as I predicted it would. This situation is tragic, but this is basically the fault of Curt Schilling for starting big and then not showing anything for 6 years. I get the impression that Reckoning was just something they picked up along the way, and the fact that that wasn't profitable speaks volumes about the level of hubris going on. If 1.2 Million for a new IP isn't profitable, you've screwed up. Plain and simple.

That's the most fucking heartless reptilian layoff email. Ever.

Well shit.

@punkxblaze said:

That's the most fucking heartless reptilian layoff email. Ever.

Indeed. I think they would've been better off just saying, "Dear Employees: Fuck off."

aw man. didn't they write like 1 million years worth of lore for this game, or am i thinking of something else?

regardless, it's disappointing to hear this news. it's weird how companies like Grasshopper Manufacture have games that sell like 30,000 copies and they're still afloat-- i mean, they released like two games this year and Lollipop Chainsaw isn't even out yet. on the other hand, 38 sell 1 million copies here and it doesn't work out.

@AjayRaz said:

aw man. didn't they write like 1 million years worth of lore for this game, or am i thinking of something else?

regardless, it's disappointing to hear this news. it's weird how companies like Grasshopper Manufacture have games that sell like 30,000 copies and they're still afloat-- i mean, they released like two games this year and Lollipop Chainsaw isn't even out yet. on the other hand, 38 sell 1 million copies here and it doesn't work out.

Yeah, they had a whole timeline of events scope out.

so rich gallop needs a job anyone thinking what I'm thinking

Time trotters

My heart goes out to those affected as one laid off in an above average paying tech job when things went bad. I hope they all land on their feet for being unemployed sucks.