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

[Fabricated]

Yeah, that actually does look neat.

[Numtini]

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.

See, Curt was a genious for moving the company out of Mass. He'd have to pay a fine here for not offering health insurance here!

[Chimpy]

You mean the taxpayers would have to pay a fine for Curt not paying insurance as he would have stayed in MA if they had given him a similar deal as RI did. And he would have fleeced them the same way.

[kildorn]

Yeah, KoA selling well and them still being broke months later just says "Hi, we suck at running this shit". All the numbers just make me wonder what 300 people were doing at 38. VA work? Because there's really no way you have that many people working on one title. That's dev team + customer support staff numbers.

Moreover, they should have seen this coming months ago just from looking at the budget sheets and done something before "oops, checks are bouncing and nobody gets paid!" time. You don't watch your budget bleed millions while heading for zero without going "hey, what is our plan here, besides looking for new jobs?"

[schild]

Yeah, that actually does look neat.

It looks like World of Derpcraft.

[Lantyssa]

But with higher resolution and more polys!

[Mrbloodworth]

That look is Fantastic. Really good dose of Character in every shot. Very clean, crisp, and balanced color wise. I almost get a claymation feel from that, like a Tim Burton film. The non-horse mount reminds me of something though.

[murdoc]

I actually really enjoyed KoA and was looking forward to what they would do next.

OH WELL.

[HaemishM]

It does look like a prettier, high-poly version of WoW.

Letting health insurance run out while you can't pay your employees? Starting to get really shitty up in there. I know how they feel. Unless Curt has been personally wiped out by this (and since he got $4 million paid back from the loan money already I'd say he's not), he needs to step in and loan the company enough money for some goddamn severance pay for all the employees he's going to be letting go in the next month.

[Mrbloodworth]

More like a cross be Titian A.E and Disney Hercules with this Claymation like...thing going on. The architecture influences are nothing like Wow, that last shot is some mix of European, Spanish and middle eastern. Its just whimsical enough, and just realistic enough with a dash of Si-fi. I find it fantastic.

Who ever is responsible for this needs to be employed so they can keep working.

[Draegan]

Looks nothing like WOW except its "cartoony".  I love the textures, and I wish I could see it in motion.

I've seen people say it's something like TF2 and I can see the comparison.  That non-horse mount reminds me of something too that I can't put my finger on.

[Hawkbit]

If you like the art, you're in luck.  In about 2-3 years it will be used for some terrible Asian grinder MMO after the assets get sold off to recoup losses. 

I wonder if Mcfarlane and Salvatore have any contract exclusions regarding the sale of their assets. 

[WayAbvPar]

Ugh. That art looks like dog shit. I hated (and hate) WoW's cartoony crap, and that is just another version of it.

[Merusk]

Do not let the shiny distract you. Anything without a UI is a pre-rendered or posed marketing shot and therefore suspect.

Is it pretty, yes.  Is it a reality-based creation of the game engine? Doubtful.

Particularly given the "ohmgwtf we're screwed" nature of the last few weeks. By this time they should have some videos, not stills.  

[MisterNoisy]

That non-horse mount reminds me of something too that I can't put my finger on.

It reminds me of Denis Leary's character from Ice Age:

[Jobu]

What I find more interesting is that you wouldn't think Todd McFarlane had a hand at all in any of those assets. Maybe I'm just not familiar with his more recent work, but I don't see any trace of his influence.

[Rokal]

Reminds me more of Fable's art style than WoW's to be honest.

[Mrbloodworth]

Reminds me more of Fable's art style than WoW's to be honest.

YES.

[kildorn]

Do not let the shiny distract you. Anything without a UI is a pre-rendered or posed marketing shot and therefore suspect.

Is it pretty, yes.  Is it a reality-based creation of the game engine? Doubtful.

Particularly given the "ohmgwtf we're screwed" nature of the last few weeks. By this time they should have some videos, not stills.  

It's resume padding. All the shots/the art video came out after we knew the company was going to tank quickly. All the art folks want SOMETHING shown for the damned game so people can say "damn, I wish we could pick up their artists at least"

I'm surprised there aren't any engine test demos being published as well.

[Draegan]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're done.

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/24/3041662/38-studios-lays-off-entire-staff

Curt Schilling's 38 Studios laid off all of their employees today, a source familiar with the company tells Polygon.

edit:
Looks like BHG is closing instead?

http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/gaming/gaming-news/rumor-38-studios-to-shut-down-big-huge-games/

[Yoru]

I'm loathe to put faith in Crecente's reporting, but it guess 38 Studios is now a big fat zero.

[Draegan]

I'm loathe to put faith in Crecente's reporting, but it guess 38 Studios is now a big fat zero.

I felt like I should of put a caveat in that quote, but I'm thinking it's more likely to be true than anything else.

Edit:

I'm also seeing in some places that it was the Big Huge Games staff that got the boot and not the Copernicus people.  Duno.

[WayAbvPar]

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/724100/38-studios-closes-ceo-and-vice-president-jump-ship/

G4's version (cribbed from TheVerge).

I hate to see people losing their jobs, and the taxpayers in RI getting shafted, but there is some grim amusement to be had here as well.

[kildorn]

They're ditching the only people who actually made them money now?

[Draegan]

Actually it's everyone.  Both teams.

[Stormwaltz]

Confirmed by Gamasutra.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/171015/38_Studios_Big_Huge_Games_lay_off_their_entire_staff.php

[Kail]

Aww, that's depressing the hell out of me.  The screenshots looked cool, KoA looked cool (and people say it's not bad to play either, I'm looking forward to playing it once it enters my price range).  Taxpayers get screwed, the games industry gets a black eye, talented people get laid off.  It's a bad outcome all around.  

[HaemishM]

A fucking letter? Schilling didn't even bother to gather them in the parking lot and tell them to their face?

Way to man up there, motherfucker.

[Rokal]

What a shame. It must suck to work on a game for 6 years and have barely gotten the chance to show anyone it.

[ShenMolo]

Bummer

[Maledict]

Aww, that's depressing the hell out of me.  The screenshots looked cool, KoA looked cool (and people say it's not bad to play either, I'm looking forward to playing it once it enters my price range).  Taxpayers get screwed, the games industry gets a black eye, talented people get laid off.  It's a bad outcome all around.  

You need to get it on the PC then and download a mod to play with the difficulty.

It desperately needs patching because the difficulty and levelling curve means the last third of the game is spent fighting grey mobs who can't hurt you because you over level them just playing the game. A patch was repeatedly promised to fix this but never materialised, instead they released 2 DLC packages.

Am still slightly grumpy shilling kept lying about the patch on forums, but heart goes out to all the workers at both studios. They had talent and hopefully can find jobs elsewhere soon.

[Chimpy]

Schild should do a front page story like the Sigil one IMO.

[Maledict]

Fucking hell. Employees found out their health insurance was ending tonight through one employees pregnant wife being told by her doctor on Tuesday afternoon.

That's really shit. So much for one big family!

[satael]

Confirmed by Gamasutra.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/171015/38_Studios_Big_Huge_Games_lay_off_their_entire_staff.php

They really crashed full speed into the wall if that is true though it might have been the (desperate?) RI loan that required them to hire so many people. Still it seems strange no layoffs until now and then byebye to everyone. I wonder how much they needed Amalur to sell if the 1.3m (or 1.2m) sales now reported lead to this in just 2 months after release...

[Fordel]

Fucking hell. Employees found out their health insurance was ending tonight through one employees pregnant wife being told by her doctor on Tuesday afternoon.

That's really shit. So much for one big family!

When has anyone referring to a group as "one big family" ever been anything but bullshit?