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

[Abagadro]

Will be interesting to see the nitty gritty of the financials on this (which will likely become public as a result of the loan).  Schilling was repaid a 4 million dollar note but that may not be the extent of his investment as I imagine there was a fairly large equity position when he started it up that I doubt was ever cashed out. He could very well have taken a huge bath here.

[schild]

If he ever, ever starts another company then it wasn't enough of a bath.

[Fabricated]

I'm more interested in finding out how to get put in such a position in the games industry that VC, Publishers, and States will throw fucking gobs of money at me to do whatever I really feel like while simultaneously having the ability to parachute out at the end richer and still able to get my next gig doing exactly the same thing.

I know that every big business is like that (See: Mel Karmazin and SiriusXM where they gave him gobs of money to run a struggling company into the ground after he literally destroyed every radio station he ever laid his hands on), but HOW DO YOU GET THE ABILITY TO DO THAT?

[Pennilenko]

You have to be gigantically stupid so that you take more risks than anybody would ever take.

[Kitsune]

Given that most paperback authors walk with around 30k per novel, yeah, 1.4mil had better be enough to get him to cough up a novel or three.  Granted a bestseller pulls down way more money than an obscure paperback, but over a million is a big deal for most any author shy of Stephen King-level popular.

[Venkman]

Salvator and McFarlane: They weren't paid for services rendered as much as the rights to use their brands. I personally agree that their brands weren't necessarily big enough for that kind of licensing fee.

I'm more interested in finding out how to get put in such a position in the games industry that VC, Publishers, and States will throw fucking gobs of money at me to do whatever I really feel like while simultaneously having the ability to parachute out at the end richer and still able to get my next gig doing exactly the same thing.

I know that every big business is like that (See: Mel Karmazin and SiriusXM where they gave him gobs of money to run a struggling company into the ground after he literally destroyed every radio station he ever laid his hands on), but HOW DO YOU GET THE ABILITY TO DO THAT?

You go to a private shindig where you meet the unpopular governor who is desperately trying to create an entertainment hub in the state.

This was around the time they were floating/begging TV production and movie companies to the area too. The first major example I can remember is the show Body of Proof, which during season 1, moved right back to LA.

Yes, it could have worked. But it's a multi year plan driven by a governor on a term limit at a time when voters all over the place did protest votes, bringing in an Independent against this from day one. It doesn't happen overnight and it certainly doesn't happen quickly when there's no other even ancillary industries in place at all. The top 10 employers in RI are all government, health care and banks (year old data here). Might as well try and launch a vibrant video game hub in Hartford 

[HaemishM]

I'll give you a clue about how much money that is for an author.

You give me $1.4 million today, I'll fucking quit my job and retire 10 seconds after the bank accepts the motherfucking check. That is stupid rich money for an author, even one who shits out novels like rat turds and is on the NYT Bestseller list. Selling books is worth just about fuckall these days - the real money is in licensing that shit out to movies or tv.

I've sold over 4000 (probably more like 5000 now) books/eBooks at better per unit rates than Salvatore is probably ever going to get on his novels and I haven't made enough money to quit my day job.

[Ingmar]

Dude has sold over 15 million books in just the US, and that's 2 year old data. I'm guessing 1.4 million for this is probably a lot more like his standard rate at this point than people think.

[Lantyssa]

Unless Salvatore had a hand in running the company, I wouldn't blame him for any of this.  If you throw a few million at me to write a story I'll damn well take the offer.

(PS - Anyone want to throw a few million at me?)

[kildorn]

He wasn't a problem, he seems to be defending the shit out of the company though. I don't have a huge feeling that the employees were lazy shiftless dicks, I feel the management team completely and utterly failed at everything they are responsible for doing. Keeping an eye on the financials, keeping the employees aware of things that may impact them, and keeping the project moving forward towards an obtainable goal. This company didn't wake up one morning and find it's finances were stolen. If they were doing their jobs at all, the management team knew this was coming for months.

[schild]

I feel the management team completely and utterly failed at everything they are responsible for doing.

Gaming industry.

[Outlawedprod]

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/25/editorial-38-studios-and-the-dunkin-delusions/

[Outlawedprod]

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1593225&postcount=100

Well now that I'm a little more free to talk about this Jesse. The million dollar + payment that went to Rhode Island was in assurance we would receive the tax credits of 8 million. We even had buyers lined up for the credits and the government was sitting there telling us "You give us the million, we give you the tax credits."

We gave them the million. They did not give us the tax credits, which would've not only payed the employees, but saved the studio most likely as we had several publishing deals in the works. The government flat out lied to us (big surprise).

I don't fault upper-managemenet too much, they've actually been pretty open about what's going on and really thought the studio was going to pull through this. They've even been allowing us access to the building to obtain as many assets as we need to build our portfolios back up. I'm sure the full story will eventually come out.
http://viccortis.com - Portfolio

[schild]

38 Studios is looking more and more like a very elaborate Standford Prison Experiment for the gaming industry.

Get a bunch of Game devs.
Let them pretend they're living the dream.
Purposefully mismanage the entire fucking thing.
Pull the rug out from under them.
Log Results.

[Modern Angel]

The only silver lining, as I said, is that maybe it forces the media and state/local governments to take a close look at the shitty local studios they're propping up. Not that the media does a cracking job of doing their fourth estate duty in this country, but they do love a good scandal and I don't think they've caught on (until now, thanks to Curt's name value) just how much money and incompetence there are in the industry. Like you mention to your mom or dad that the video game industry pulls in more each year than Hollywood and they sort of laugh, not disagreeing but obviously not really getting it, you know? This is still kids stuff to the Boomers. That 75mil and the lurid details might cause a small perception shift.

[Merusk]

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1593225&postcount=100

Well now that I'm a little more free to talk about this Jesse. The million dollar + payment that went to Rhode Island was in assurance we would receive the tax credits of 8 million. We even had buyers lined up for the credits and the government was sitting there telling us "You give us the million, we give you the tax credits."

We gave them the million. They did not give us the tax credits, which would've not only payed the employees, but saved the studio most likely as we had several publishing deals in the works. The government flat out lied to us (big surprise).

I don't fault upper-managemenet too much, they've actually been pretty open about what's going on and really thought the studio was going to pull through this. They've even been allowing us access to the building to obtain as many assets as we need to build our portfolios back up. I'm sure the full story will eventually come out.
http://viccortis.com - Portfolio

There's the finge-rpointing I was waiting for.

[kildorn]

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1593225&postcount=100

Well now that I'm a little more free to talk about this Jesse. The million dollar + payment that went to Rhode Island was in assurance we would receive the tax credits of 8 million. We even had buyers lined up for the credits and the government was sitting there telling us "You give us the million, we give you the tax credits."

We gave them the million. They did not give us the tax credits, which would've not only payed the employees, but saved the studio most likely as we had several publishing deals in the works. The government flat out lied to us (big surprise).

I don't fault upper-managemenet too much, they've actually been pretty open about what's going on and really thought the studio was going to pull through this. They've even been allowing us access to the building to obtain as many assets as we need to build our portfolios back up. I'm sure the full story will eventually come out.
http://viccortis.com - Portfolio

I find that hard to believe. Mostly because even with the tax credits, that would buy them fucking nothing with a 4m/month burn rate. If you had publishing deals about to sign, they'd be signing and saving your ass. Instead if anything they see you're broke and are thinking "fuck, we dodged a charismatic bullet there"

You don't skip payroll and skip loan repayments in order to go "but wait, we're secretly still financially viable!"

[HaemishM]

Unless Salvatore had a hand in running the company, I wouldn't blame him for any of this.  If you throw a few million at me to write a story I'll damn well take the offer.

I don't blame Salvatore for taking it. Fuck it, give me 10% of that, I'll take it and talk all sorts of great shit about you on the Internet. I blame the chucklefuck who thought that would be a good use of money.

[Outlawedprod]

http://www.necn.com/05/25/12/Czar-of-Amalur-puts-blame-on-RI-governor/landing_newengland.html?blockID=714028&feedID=4206
Saw this on Lum's blog. Czar of Amalur blames governor.

I think the only conclusion that sane readers can come to is that the staff of 38 studios was indoctrinated.

[Modern Angel]

Haha, of course it's the governor's fault.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

[Venkman]

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1593225&postcount=100

Funny you should post this (and followup with "indoctrinated"), because I've been wondering the same thing for two days. Every single "in the know" person who the media has managed to intercept, or whose thoughts have been posted online, have all had nothing but praise. Some of that can be attributed to signing an exit statement that tells people to claim up or risk their severance/final paycheck.

But in this age, 48 hours into the complete dissolvement of a company of over 300 people, I would have expected someone to leverage anonymity and do the insiders-knowledge thing. Shit, we've gotten that kind of info well before the end. Especially afte the shitty letter they all got via email telling them to get out. How do you receive that letter and have nobody express anything worse than "ah, what a shame my life here didn't work out"?

This is either some sort of jonestown/ Stockhold/ Hale-Bop level of indoctrination that went on, or there's something else going on behind the scenes.

EDIT: Read that Joystiq link someone posted. That neatly encapsulates what I've been thinking. Freaky.

[Severian]

Pretty sure Skeletor in Reamde was based on RAS  

Not to mention that the aforementioned 2011 book by Neal Stephenson in which the Skeletor/Salvatore hack writer appears is about an MMO created by a startup called "Corporation 9592".

[Outlawedprod]

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/general/view.bg?articleid=1061134310

Corporate lawyer Jonathan Savage, appointed special counsel to Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, said he has been in contact with 38 Studios officials today and company representatives assured him they are ready to be very flexible to bring in new investment to restart the firm and the state has not given up on its hope to resurrect the company.
“They are diligently pursuing additional capital,” said Savage, who is Chafee’s point man on 38 Studios. “I would anticipate any additional capital would be private.”

We need to go deeper.

[Venkman]

See?! Maybe that's why all the employees were fine. Some kinda "call it being fired but only for a few days while we play hardball with Chafee" or whatever kinda bullshit they were fed.

At this point, I wouldn't be at all shocked if they reopen on Tuesday.

Gawd, I've had too much caffeine today. 

[Lucas]

You know, /facepalm is so last year, but I can't even start thinking about a proper enough facepalm meme for this stuff.

[Margalis]

Paying semi-famous people to lend their names to a project doesn't sound like a great way to spend money. (And everyone seems to agree that the story of Amalur was weak.)

That said I don't have a ton of animosity towards any of these guys, including Schilling. 38 Studios went down in flames pretty spectacularly but developers fail all the time. And often times the circumstances around such failing are at least as shitty.

[HaemishM]

http://www.necn.com/05/25/12/Czar-of-Amalur-puts-blame-on-RI-governor/landing_newengland.html?blockID=714028&feedID=4206
Saw this on Lum's blog. Czar of Amalur blames governor.

I think the only conclusion that sane readers can come to is that the staff of 38 studios was indoctrinated.

Fuck him. I don't blame the governor one bit for not pissing away more taxpayer money on a business that couldn't even pay its employees, their health insurance premiums or their loan obligations. You don't go from not being able to make payroll to finishing a game that is a success. You just fucking don't. Especially not when success has to be measured in "able to pay back $75 million in loans plus interest before even talking about profits." You'd need WoW level subscriber numbers and this game is just not going to get that in this market. Fuck, a STAR WARS game (two in fact) couldn't even get those numbers.

[Outlawedprod]

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/25/3043282/38-studios-downfall-leads-to-second-mortgages-for-some-employees

Some of the hundreds of 38 Studios employees laid off yesterday were hit with a second round of bad news this week when they were told by banks that homes they thought the company had sold for them hadn't been and that they may be stuck with a second mortgage, Polygon has learned.

Several sources directly impacted by the mortgage issue confirmed the news today and a 38 Studios official, who asked to not be named, said the company is working to try and get to the bottom of the notifications and find a resolution.

[Ingmar]

 

[schild]

Cirque du Soleil: 38

I want to see that performance piece in Vegas.

[WayAbvPar]

It would just be some asshole waving some sparklers at the top of a tall platform, then pratfalling onto a concrete slab before a horrified audience. A new guest star every performance!

[HaemishM]

This rabbit hole is going really fucking deep.

[bhodi]

In case some of you didn't see the actual email that was sent company-wide instead of manning up, even if it was in the parking lot:

The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary.

These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary.

This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.

He's a class-A douchebag. But everyone here already knew that after he showed up briefly a few years ago.

[sickrubik]

There are a few times when mob justice seems necessary. (Okay, not really.)

[patience]

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/25/3043282/38-studios-downfall-leads-to-second-mortgages-for-some-employees

Some of the hundreds of 38 Studios employees laid off yesterday were hit with a second round of bad news this week when they were told by banks that homes they thought the company had sold for them hadn't been and that they may be stuck with a second mortgage, Polygon has learned.

Several sources directly impacted by the mortgage issue confirmed the news today and a 38 Studios official, who asked to not be named, said the company is working to try and get to the bottom of the notifications and find a resolution.

I was coming here to mention this. I can't believe they even offered to sell off potential employees homes to encourage them to move and work for them but only hired an agent instead of buying the property themselves. I get why they didn't do it but just knowing the reasons why should've made them consider not making the alternative offer in the first place.