Reckoning dev lays off entire staff - Report

I don't understand why the Governor is involved in any of this?

With most of the world under-going financial turmoil... a £45 ($60) price tag is ludicrous. All it means is less money for the developers at the end of the day.

Most people can't afford to shell out on new games every week and it's causing a ripple effect that we've been watching for a good while.

The reason why COD Sells well is because people know they'll get their monies worth out of the multiplayer and they'll make that their main purchase for the year. I don't like the COD games but don't blame people for going down that route.

There's too much downloadable content, game pricing is getting higher each year and people don't have the money to keep up with the industry. Companies are unwilling to bend on pricing so all we're left with are closures, mergers and buy-outs.

As for the game I thought it was awesome, I loved it but it's time for companies to start taking stock of the issues and broaden their minds. $75 million on an untested IP is madness and it's obvious that the sales projections for it were insane too.

Good luck to the staff. I hope they get the money they are owed as the game was truly a labor of love. I hope they find work again soon.

I thought Kingdoms of Amalur was boring, but this is most unfortunate. They certainly didn't deserve this.

Since this was a RA Salvatore inspired game, I wonder how much $ went into his pocket. Really too bad I like the game itself, definitely pretty decent. I feel for the people that lost their jobs over it though, GL making it out there!

koa.r is hell alot of fun to play. its my number 2 fav game other then skyrim. cant believe this has happened :( i wish them all best of luck and hope they can get back somehow :/ im def gona miss them all.

I wish my cousin the best in finding a new job...sucks.

oppssss...

Sucks for the studio, the game was actually pretty fun, ok sure listening to Fae got annoying after a while but it was still a decent game.

EA will probably buy it, then we can kiss the Steam version goodbye, since for some reason EA doesn't believe that Steam and Origin versions of their games can co-exist.

I thought the game was hit too oh well sorry hear about more ppl losing there jobs:(

My sympathy to the actual workers... but Schilling can suck it.

My best to all the hardworking people out there. I hope you all land on your feet or get back on soon.

@Pyerun I agree.

Damn, another good studio shuts down =/

I still miss Team Bondi.

Brutal.

This is sad, it was such a wonderful world to play in , i hope they can find someway to pull back and get back to work and make more dlc and a new game, I love the story and the characters of this game, i let my brother borrow it and he loves it as well, I know I sound selfish and these ppl lost their jobs, but i hope they can all come back to work for 38 and 38 gets a grant or something or the government bails them out cause this is a great team and a great story dangit :( Dont want KoA to be another titanquest and never see another one like it cause IronLore is no more

Any new IP has a very slim chance of selling 3 million copies so quickly. The game did not fail, greedy management owners failed.

Why don't they look at what other companies have been doing with their first games? How do they expect 3 million copies sold when the game has mediocre graphics and plays like an MMO? Not saying it's bad, but not outstanding enough for them to expect that much... It's simple research. I feel sorry for the employees but those in charge deserve it.

Pretty sad. The game was actually good...but not good enough to recover their 80million investment. Like others have said, that's too much $ to bet on a single, and first, IP. Needed something simple and low cost (maybe 5m tops and 1-2 year dev cycle with 30 people...not almost 400). Torchlight 1 is a good example.

Who the hell expects a new IP to sell 3 million copies of a game that really had no mass-marketing campaign behind it (aside from Shilling talking about it on Conan)? The only way that might happen is if it was released at a lower price point. I feel bad for the employees. They worked their butts off only to get royally screwed by the big-wigs. This is a prime example of why so many developers are hesitant to create new games, and it's a damn shame.

Something is very strange here.

You can't expect your first game, that is a new IP, to sell 3 million copies. You can hope, but you can't expect.

And you can't spend so much money on the project that you have to sell 3 million just to break even.

I feel sorry for the staff, but the morons running this charade...

My thought's go out to those people who put all that time and effort into this great game only to lose their jobs, was so looking forward to another KoA game. Reckoning has the most enjoyable and addictive combat I've ever experienced in over 25 years of gaming, with its massive available loot, beautiful environment and other goodies it's far superior to the majority of overhyped garbage released this year.

However a grassroots effort has formed on Twitter in an attempt to help former employees of 38 Studios find new work at a variety of game companies with open positions

https://twitter.com/#!/search/%2338jobs

Sad...plain sad... Hope employees either are hired back by whoever buy KoA IP or find new opportunities somewhere else.

Here go my thoughts on what the problem with 38 Studios was:

- they've created a good game in many ways but not outstanding to seel the 3 million copies needed to break even.

- add to this math the fact that they needed to pay McFarlane & Salvatore royaties that I can very securely say were higher than the "normal" game artists and writers would ever see

- at the same time Curt Schilling was also expecting his return of investment (ROI) and taking money whenever possible (that's not bad....that's just how new business works)

- to finish it up KoA was their first title, so no previous games to provide any income to cover the development cycle costs, which is around two years of payments and investments with no return to speak of.

There you go....a huge structure to be kept working for 2 years (give or take) and you can easily see how 75 million were spent.

But back to the first thing I've said...sad, sad news for the gaming industry.

It costs so much to make games these days. Such a shame to see so many lose their jobs.

The problems nowadays is that it's sink or swim. Something doesn't seem right though... We may hear more on this at a later date. It would suck to work you @$$ off on a game, have it turn out decent and then have your company dismiss you like cannon fodder... This is too why I have given up on try'n to get into the gameing industry. Skyrim lead to there downfall or did it?

Kingdoms of Amalur is my favorite this year RPG.

Aaaannnd that's why I gave up on the idea of working in the game industry.

Sad...

never had a problem with this game, was far more enjoyable than the bland vanilla skyrim, kept me entertained till diablo3.

Strange world when a game that sells 1.2 million copies is a bankrupting failure...

I've been waiting for ages for this patch, I just don't understand how they can get in such a mess.

I hate it when this happens. Stories like this make other Dev's scared to take risks on new IP's. Don't know what's going to happen to gaming in the future. Seems like the risk of creating a new major title is getting to be too high.

Also ya can't say that we didn't see this coming.

THQ would've been the next one to bite the dust if it was for Saints Row.

Amalur was WAAAY too huge and publicized, especialy when the game played like a single player MMO. Not to say its a bad game, but it was definitely mediocre.

so the game will be free now.... right. since its a "failure" or still carry its near 60USD price tag...

OMG, why does a game need to sell 3 millions just to break even? Let's hope that next gen, Sony and Microsoft don't make their console high power specs, otherwise, many developers will be out of business.

wow! this game is on #1 on my want list. and this just referms what I have been say for a decade now. I would HATE to work in this industry. I graduated with a degree in Mass Comm and was headed for a career in the TV and movie biz... but shortly before I graduated I realized what a terrible industry it is to work in. the video game bisienss is even worse.

- Less DLC right after launch.

- More attention to quality control and quality assurance.

- Better attention to community feedback.

- The highest priority on patching bugs and imbalances.

- A more realistic price tag. The days of $60 single-player games are virtually over.

All of these things would have increased sales on KOA:R by leaps and bounds. Virtually everyone I talked to who did not purchase the game fell under one or more of these categories.

Increasing sales due to a different strategy would have made KOA:R a profitable venture, and saved the company in the long run. The fact that strategy ended up the way it did is solely due to upper management, as they control logistics for the entire IP.

It is a shame, but 38 Studios has no one to blame but those who ran the company. Let it be a lesson to others that you can't cut corners and treat your community like dolts with open wallets. A "Reckoning" is absolutely what will occur when you do.

I feel sorry for the employees. They obviously put a lot of time and effort into Amalur, creating a nice, large gameworld with a deep backstory and plenty of gameplay.

KoA was a good game and did well,what happen here is very poor management and poor handling of a budget

"The Company is experiencing an economic downturn." The polite way of saying "we're fu@£ed!" I'd say 38 is obliged to sell the Amalur IP and give the money to the state.

Sad to see so many developers out of work when they delivered a game that so many enjoyed. I personally wasn't a fan of KoA, but I remember Curt Schilling from back in the EQ1 days. He truly enjoys games, which is more than can be said about some heads of gaming companies these days. It's a shame the industry lost that passion.

Two or three simple patches would have saved the game.

Most people didn't go out and buy this day one because it's a new game world and a new franchise.

However, the ones that waited for a few reviews just saw all the hate being spewed on the forums and by word of mouth.

I played the game for 1.5 week, then I realized that the game was aimed towards toddlers with it's no existent challenge.

A game which focuses on action and loot hunting MUST have challenge, The whole point of hunting for loot is to outperform the hard parts and eventually being able to survive against the bigest and badest monsters.

Amalur/Reckoning would have worked if they would just have patched the game instead of trying to milk it for more money by releasing DLC.

One patch to fix the bugs

And one to fix the difficulty

Then everyone would have been happy with the game, the game world was Cool, graphics where really nice, the action was good and the feeling in the game was good as well.

I don't understand companies that don't patch their games.