Collapse of 38 Studios sticks some devs with second mortgage

dont worry curt schilling im sure you can find some way in your mind to blame obama for this.

@buccomatic thats funny because Curt Schilling is a ultra far right Tea Partier givin the loan by Tea Partiers LOLOLOL moron try doing some some research

This whole deal has kickback written all over it. The only people more corrupt and greedy than bankers is Democrat governments.

@Pro-Aktivity EA is not in business just to make money but to make money while pissing everybody off!

@buccomatic Let's use politicians as Rockstar games uses them... for target practice!

@buccomatic I din't say they are angels, only that their not as bad as ppl make them out to be. Their in the business of making money, like every other business out there.

I remember when John Riccitiello took over and promised to focus more on new IP's. Those games did not do well, It's a miracle we even got a sequel for Dead Space. Or how they kept pouring money into Swtor when any other publisher would've forced Bioware to release that game along time ago. Which is more than I can say of alot of other publishers.

Handsup who thinks you can still make a generic RPG using a fantasy setting so similar to everythign produced in the last 15 years that it is almost indistinguishable and.... still make a killing on it at the game store ? Please PM me your answers because I have an investment opportunity for you. Its called Realmsofwowkingsinwitchlandofleftrollgiantswordskingdomthingy.

@buccomatic Really? it is Obama's fault? not the REPUBLICAN governor who gave the loan? Not the REPUBLICAN(Curt) who couldn't manage the company's finances properly? That's why us Independents are so tired, no party takes responsibility for their actions and blames the other side on everything.

So NO I am sorry, but this is something Obama has nothing to do with.

@buccomatic Well the management at 38 studios are in charge of their own financials. I EA doubt they could've predicted what mess this all would become when they got into bed with these guys. Cut EA some slack their not as bad as ppl make them out to be.

@buccomatic To be fair they knew they had to make those payments back for while now. So wth was their management doing all this time? If a company fails to pay back a loan, are you gonna give them another one?

The last 3 paragraphs, along with the video, are a direct copy and paste from another article.

Well done Gamespot.

I knew this game would only be average, but I didn't expect the company to have one of the worst failures in recent times. Guess that's what you get with a brand new IP and a charge of $60 for it along with a load of expensive DLC and pre-order/demo/etc. rewards that give you direct ingame power. Can't believe it's still on sale for $60.

PS: What the hell is this terrible comment system? The old one was way more functional and far less clunky.

I found it strange that the company would spend so much money relocating their employees, but I find it even stranger that they would do so by promising to buy out their old mortgages before the company was even established. It just sounds like some BAD business decisions all around. Perhaps this was driven by the bailout mentality, if things go wrong just turn to nanny government to get a handout (which is exactly what creative director Steve Danuser said: "We just needed a little more help, and we thought the state would have our backs on that."). Sounds like the company

One thing is clear: if you want to invest your money, give it to a competent investor. If you want to throw your money away, give it to the government.

@buccomatic Want to know what is worse then politicians? People who feel the need to bring up politics in everything.

@buccomatic

@buccomatic This has absolutely nothing to do with anything the president has enacted. Contrary to what Tea Party morons believe, no new taxes have been put into place to "spread the wealth" (are you proud you remembered how to recite what FOX News tells you every day?), in spite of many financial analysts insisting that upper-income and capital gains taxes should be used to create revenue. Also contrary to what you can comprehend is the fact that the president's policies undeniably HAVE created jobs and continue to each month.

If you want to blame the RI government for foolishly dishing out a massive loan without knowing how the gaming industry actually works, then that's fair. None of the policies at the executive level encourage a state to take a huge multimillion dollar gamble on a start-up game developer with zero titles under their belt, or any other start-up corporation with no track record that requires a massive investment with slow, scarce, or highly variable returns.

When you spout off right-wing ignorance like the above you reveal yourself as a tool that only understands politics through conservative propaganda force-feeding.

@buccomatic The game failed because it had an extremely generic story-line, lore, and world. Considering that the writer was a NY Times best seller author I expected much, much more.

@buccomatic Don't mess with Payne! That is game with balls!

@buccomatic When EA is involved there always follows scandal and human drama!

If I were the former employees of 38 Studios, I'd sue Schilling and EA! However, they probably had a clause in their contracts preventing that.

This has been a messy, sad story. Let it serve as a lesson: When liberal governments are involved, disaster will follow.

i had to much hope for that todd spawn guy and am still hopeful he will get a better team/partnership to deliver an awesome spawn movie and game

3mil to break even?,thats a tall oder for a new IP, Sony got fan favorate AAA tittles that on their 3rd installment that can hardly pass the 3mil mark

@buccomatic

Quick! Get out the tin foil hats! Heaven forbid news about a game developing company and the developers who develop the games be posted on a gaming news site!

Crikey! We got ourselves a mystery here scoob.

Kingdoms Of Amalur was not a fantastic game, but it wasn't exactly horrible either. I think the developer rushed the production of the product to get the final product released. And besides, what were they thinking when going head-to-head with Skyrim? Bethesda have been making role-playing games for 18 years now and have more than enough experience to rule the crowd.

Keep in mind that one of the creative forces behind Oblivion & Morrowind (Ken Rolston) did develop Amalur, but I doubt he had much creative freedom because of budget constraints and the tons of pressure piled upon the studio.

When your studio is getting loans from the government, it doesn't take a genius to figure out you are in trouble. And on top of those already large problems, a former baseball player was helming the game, a baseball player! What does he know about running a company? It doesn't matter now, 38 studios is gone, and people will learn from this episode.

@buccomatic we're not even halfway through 2012 yet, you know...

Now you know why games are really made by wall street entities. To pay off their LOANS. Not to provide YOU with a good game, or to provide their workers with an equitable and fair job. It's to provide you with whatever bare level that is needed to meet those needs.

Now while the creative people BEHIND this company actually did create a game loved by many, it doesn't mean it will escape the same failings behind the structure of PRETTY MUCH EVERY video game maker.

The sad fact is they are in business to pay off their creditors so they can take out NEWER, BIGGER LOANS, and in that process the few at the top can make their bonuses and reward their stockholders from this overall scam with bigger dividends and a higher stock price.

YOU think they are in the video game business. NOPE...they are in the business of WALL STREET.

Funny thing though, I bet those people getting hounded by 'banks' are being hounded by banks that don't actually own the 'note'. How many millions of people need to be kicked out of THEIR homes by people that don't own them? Funny enough, it happens to almost each one that does get kicked out of their homes. Funnier still, odds are in order to BE kicked out of THEIR home, the bank that CLAIMS to own it, commits FRAUD UPON THE COURT in order to do it, and gets away with it scot-free. For example, signed by 'Linda Green', is really rubber stamped for the good of the TBTF who screwed everything up.

Every mortgage 'securitized' has been lost in the fraud of wall street, yet that won't stop them from foreclosing on you. The man of the people who brought change, even allows them to knowingly do this. Thanks Wall Street Walker Ner-O.

Now we have a situation where someone decided to pull the loan plug (in a ZIRP environment mind you) that destroys a company that utilized a broken business model (industry wide standardized broken business model), and in the process it's employees (and customers in other ways) risk having THEIR homes stolen away from them by some banks that CLAIMS but ACTUALLY DOESN'T have legal claim to their home.

Don't worry if they can't find work for 99 weeks they'll go off the roles and be claimed to 'not trying to work' thus enabling the 'official farce unemployment rate' to decline, even if no one actually was hired. Besides of course the millions of jobs they add because a computer model aka a fake way of adding jobs that don't exist doesn't decrease it either.

Land of the idiot, and the home of the scared. Play fraud.

Glass-Steagall

Thats pretty harsh for the employees to have to put of with, given they have just lost their jobs. It's a shame game studios are so transient these days. How are you meant to provide stability for a family when your job could end after one game is done.

With each day this story gets worse. It's looking more and more like serious mis-management at 38 studios, possibly bordering on illegal activity.

No doubt someone will try to sue them, but what can you sue for when the company is bankrupt to the tune of tens of millions of dollars?

Those insane loan and investment figures just reek of mismanagement. Really feel sorry for the devs...

So?..bye bye Project Copernicus?? or what??

Curt Schilling should have to pay for this not the people!!

This is sickening and getting uglier by the day.. first having not paid since May 1 so they worked for no wages until being let go.

And now news that most likely they'll have to go through bankruptcy marred with bad credit to accompany unemployment

Well...poop.