38 Studios is Working on a Game, Apparently, Afterall (Kingdoms of Amular)

[Numtini]

If 38 Studios goes down (when?) none of those people are going to stay in RI and help the economy, so that money spent will have been totally wasted. AFAIK there are no other video game companies in Rhode Island.

Even if it doesn't go down, the best trajectory I ever saw is the game is a moderate success, EA buys the company and the whole thing moves somewhere else anyway.

From the press when a few baseball fans important business leaders and state officials were trying to get Mass to match or better RI's offer was wherever it located was going to become the new Vancouver and bring more companies and an entire industry to the state, which was absurdly unlikely for Mass and laughing out loud for RI.

I wonder how many of the people at 38 even live in RI and how many just telecommute/commute.

[Kageru]

I can't help but find it amusing that it's money being blown on an industry that certainly would have ended up somewhere in the US. State versus federal political infighting is so dumb (here too).

Anyway, I read elsewhere EA co-funded KoA to the tune of 50 mill and it didn't come close to breaking even, thus their lack of interest in KoA2 or future work with BHG. I would not be surprised if 38S was banking on getting that cash plus much bigger profits from KoA sales.

[Draegan]

Maybe MMORPG.com can invite him to yet another panel so Curt can discuss how great Everquest was and how much he played it on the road during baseball season.

[HaemishM]

Anyway, I read elsewhere EA co-funded KoA to the tune of 50 mill and it didn't come close to breaking even

If that's even REMOTELY close to being true, everyone involved in this fiasco should never be allowed to touch video game development again. That is a STUPID amount of money to pay for a non-licensed single-player game that was already in development when 38 bought them. I wonder how much of that went to Salvatore and McFarlane.

[Abagadro]

I think Schilling got all his business acumen talking to Lenny Dykstra.

EDIT: Just now up as the main story on Talking Points Memo.

[Draegan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U

They finally put out in game footage! ... aerial shots of the world zones.  I actually love the art style.

[WayAbvPar]

MMO release date leaked?

So a year before the real fall on your face failure.

[Abagadro]

Sounds like they used some of the reserve to pay the payment. That's always good practice. 

[Trippy]

MMO release date leaked?

So a year before the real fall on your face failure.

If that's true they are going to need a shit ton more money to finish the game with 300 people working on it.

[schild]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Pack your bags employees. Get the fuckkkkkk outta there.

[Venkman]

I'll just put this here. 

The fly bys look nice. It's unique enough anyway. Wonder if we'll ever see it in a game.

[schild]

Yes, when I'm leaving one sketchy as all hell company I want to go to another only moderately sketchy company. Job security does not exist in gaming.

[Rokal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U

They finally put out in game footage! ... aerial shots of the world zones.  I actually love the art style.

Environments look nice. I'm more curious about the gameplay. And, you know, whether it'll actually ever see the light of day.

[Tannhauser]

Wow, that looks really nice.  I'd say someone will swoop in and pick that from the carcass of 38 Studios.

[Kageru]

The EDC put the taxpayer's money up for collateral, but didn't actually use it for the loan principal. This means the taxpayer carried all the risk in the transaction, with literally no upside at all. The upside went to private investors who enjoyed a 7% coupon rate on an essentially risk-free bond.

.... good work if you can get it (from this SomethingAwful thread).

[patience]

Things be getting weird, looks like the studio tried to make their loan payment by pulling money from payroll.

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/politics/local_politics/38-studios-pays-edc-not-employees

Sounds like Curt's company doesn't have a 'schilling' to it's name *puts on sunglasses*

credit

[Tannhauser]

Somewhere the 'writers' of ME3's ending are breathing a sigh of relief.

[Jobu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U

They finally put out in game footage! ... aerial shots of the world zones.  I actually love the art style.

That looks really good, and more importantly very different. At least we know their art team has been doing something really well.

Edit: That sounded a little snarky when I read it again. It's nice that come what may, there's some people who can obviously be proud of their work.

[UnSub]

I'm really looking forward to someone spilling what has happened at 38 Studios. It would seem to be the same old story of:

1) Following the dream of those who don't really know how to lead a gaming studio
2) Overhiring (300 employees and 1 title launched? Huh) and lack of cost control
3) Management letting feature creep and internal issues cause delays

I also wonder how much was paid for Big Huge Games.

It's APB all over again.

[koro]

So apparently they managed to pry up enough couch cushions to scrape together the money to make the loan payment, and now apparently 38 Studios is good til November or so.

Of course, if what I've heard about their expenses is true ($4 million a month in payroll alone) then they probably won't survive til then.

[Trippy]

It's 4 million a month to operate the company, not just payroll, which is high even by the old Bay Area estimate of $10k a month per person at a VC funded tech startup, assuming the 300 person head count is correct.

[Outlawedprod]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/18/turbine-hosting-recruiting-event-next-week-looking-to-fill-50-j/

Also

[schild]

The gut sells it.

[Venkman]

So apparently they managed to pry up enough couch cushions to scrape together the money to make the loan payment, and now apparently 38 Studios is good til November or so.

Of course, if what I've heard about their expenses is true ($4 million a month in payroll alone) then they probably won't survive til then.

Yea that's the thing. Short of buying an almost-dead company with a 99% complete game and shipping it for pure profit within the next 6 months (and assuming it's got brand awareness to keep advertising costs to nil), there's no way they can avoid the same problem in November.

Either he's paying out of his own pocket or there's some funny business going on behind the scenes. Or both.

[Lantyssa]

Well we're hearing, what, 600k copies of KoA sold?  That strikes me as a bit low for a game that got as much press as this one did.

It got press?  Here was the only place I heard any mention of it.

[Hawkbit]

Curt was on Fallon and Conan to shill the game, but each of those interviews were spent 3/4 talking about his career and only a cursory glance over "hey, I've got a game out".  It was actually a marketing failure, if that was an angle they were going for. 

I still contend that the combat in KoA is some of the most fun I've played in an open-world game.  Someone needs to rip that off and put it in a game that matters. 

For the record, I said months ago that I found KoA more fun overall than Skyrim, but I was totally wrong.  After coming back to Skyrim and playing, it is a vastly superior game.  I just wish it had KoA's combat.

[Rokal]

Curt was on Fallon and Conan to shill the game, but each of those interviews were spent 3/4 talking about his career and only a cursory glance over "hey, I've got a game out".  It was actually a marketing failure, if that was an angle they were going for. 

This is every movie/book promotion on any talk show ever.

[MuffinMan]

At least in the case of movies, when I hear the actor's name I usually already know what movie they are there to promote or at least they are there to promote a movie. You're going to have to try a lot harder to promote a video game with a retired baseball player.

[Numtini]

Short tenure. John Blakely joined 38 studios in March and departed this week. Jen MacLean, the CEO, is also out, her departure retconned to March (presumably when she left for maternity leave).

Is there bad blood between 38 and Turbine? In addition to the job fair they held in Providence, Turbine connected people seem to be the source of a lot of negative speculation in the local press or maybe that it's that they're local and there is no good way to spin 38's future.

[HaemishM]

Mumble mumble rats mumble mumble ship.

[Venkman]

Well we're hearing, what, 600k copies of KoA sold?  That strikes me as a bit low for a game that got as much press as this one did.

It got press?  Here was the only place I heard any mention of it.

Curt just posted this on Facebook:

I wanted to clear up some misinformation around 38 Studios first product, Reckoning. Sales of Reckoning OUTPERFORMED EA’s expectations and sold more than 1.2 million units in the game’s first 90 days in the market.

[Chimpy]

So $1.2million missed loan payment = $1 per box?

[Venkman]

RI governor is loving the attention. He lobbied against this deal before he took office and is sitting high on the media hyped "how did this happen"/"I told you so" narrative. The local press is largely siding with the governor in their coverage it seems. Questions like "why aren't other investors showing up", "why doesn't Curt put up some of his own stake", "they're not telling us anything" and the usual attempts at man-on-the-street reporting. Lots of people with boxes leaving the building today with the press trying to intercept.

Protip: if I just got let go from a company I probably relocated to work at*, the last thing I'm going to do is jeorpadize whatever possible severance there is by crying to the press.

Not to get politics mixed in here, just thought it interesting :)

Also, apparently 300 people showed up to Turbine's job fair in Providence, for 50 open positions. The 300 makes sense. The 50 open positions though? They staffing up for a brand new game?

*a fair number of people did relo for it. Not like Providence is a thriving hub of video game development. Those folks I feel bad for, especially the ones with families. Could they have read the tea leaves better? Maybe. But still, major suckage all around.

[UnSub]

Curt just posted this on Facebook:

I wanted to clear up some misinformation around 38 Studios first product, Reckoning. Sales of Reckoning OUTPERFORMED EA’s expectations and sold more than 1.2 million units in the game’s first 90 days in the market.

Dear Curt,

That just makes 38 Studios current position look worse and its management team look even more inept. Congrats. You exceeded sales expectations but your cheques still bounce.

Come back soon - we miss you on these boards! Now we're really interested in what you're up to.

Regards,

 - UnSub

---

I believe a huge driver of 38 Studios current problems was trying to employ 450 people to meet the loan requirements, without actually considering how much it costs to hire 450 people on no income stream. The loan - of which US$50m has been paid - has probably been eaten up predominantly by payroll and rent.

Some of the original news articles about the deal indicated that Project Copernicus was due out in September 2012; that they now need another 9 months on that indicates pretty much tripling their studio size (from 94 employees in 2010 to 288 in RI now) hasn't had the net effect of speeding up development.

... not that it should, but y'know, PLANNING.

[Rokal]

Yeah, that Reckoning's sales were actually pretty decent doesn't make 38 studios look any better. You could see the MMO running into trouble if they planned on money for Reckoning that never came through due to low sales. That it exceeded sales expectations and 38 studios still ran out of money with a year+ left to go on the MMO just makes management look worse.

A shame they haven't paid their employees in a month and health insurance coverage will end tomorrow. Prospects for this game actually coming out seem grim.

Some screenshots/videos of the game are finally coming out and it actually looks pretty cool