Reckoning dev lays off entire staff - Report

@TrueGB RI owns the IP, not EA. They can always try to buy it from RI though.

As mentioned, this is a new IP! If Schilling said the game outperformed EA's expectations, that would imply they were happy with the number of copies sold. I mean it's not like the game won't continue to make money more than 6 months down the line (although admittedly it won't be as much as what it would be when it was first released). To me, it seems as if the investors were over optimistic about the ease of financing a game in an industry such as this, and the expected ROI!

Man I really dont know what the hell happened with 38 Studios with the Rhode Island Loan scheme, Kurt Schilling,etc. KOA was a good game that had huge potential to a RPG franchise. Its really sad to see for a external factors man talented people lost thier jobs. I really hope they recover and land on their feet.

3 strikes you're out shilling

Problem was the piracy.

So which do you think would be interested to buy Project Copernicus and the intellectual rights of Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning?

If you had to sell 3 million copies of an entirely new game IP, just to break even, why would the rhode island government have given a 75 million loan or whatever it was to bring the company over in the first place? And I hope the employees still got paid for all their hours of work prior to when the last payday was scheduled

this is what happens when ppl play 1 game every year (hint hint COD).

What sucks even more is that a lot of them were probably just recently hired to work on Project Copernicus.

i really want the studio to get money they deserve it and the made a really great and fun game to play

Great studio with some of the most creative minds involved in gaming, but at the end of the day it's all about the $$$. Terrible news.

This was actually a good game with two great DLCs.

Either they don't have financial experties in the company (when some people see the money they forget about creditors and buy nice cars etc.), or

EA ran away with their money.

if this game tanked so hard why is it still $60 just about everywhere? I would give this game a try if it dropped to $30-40.

Three million copies?

How does someone get into a position to make a AAA game like KoA without knowing that's an impossible target?

How does this happen? I'd like to know because I want a piece of that action.

I feel sympathy for the people who did good work and saw the company fall out from under them. That said, I'm very happy that this company imploded in a very public and embarrassing way. Hopefully it will teach a lesson to a few politicians - stay away from investment in business. If the people of your state aren't investing their money in a business voluntarily, there's probably a good reason for it.

of course its a failure, just like every slow paced, western so called "RPG" out there... it's more of the same... if not FPS, its the same old style of RPG time & time again... not to mention your overly hyped "record breaking" yearly rehashes haha... good riddance if you wanna sell upwards if 3m, then take a chance & do something different & not the same old boring formula you see on every western "me too" games out there... serves yall right

Something is not stirring the Kool-Aid here.... Where is the money? Why was Curt saying that he had not seen the sales revenue from EA? How was the Rhode Island government really involved.This just seems very fishy for a game that sold above publisher expectations.... Somebody has ran away with some money.

Dont really like hearing about this but it happens. How can the governor of Rhode Island call it a bad game. I didnt but it but I never heard anything bad about it ethier. Maybe a failure in making the money needed to help the company.

this is horrible news

If games were released at a more resonable price then yeah I would of picked up this game at launch. Now I waited to see it at 39$ before buying it, which it did, but other games came out during that time and now I am passing on this game. Maybe i'll get it when it will be 19$.

It's our fault as gamers really, look at the numbers on that awful resident evil game, on the repetitive first person shooters, look at how we tolerate Capcom for what they did on sf x Tekken, look at how we behave when developers try something different.

We really need to change now or our entire memories and that we thought was great about gaming, will die forever.

ps: Buy this game, just to make a point, and because the combat is just awesome

One of these days I hope to see a detailed breakdown of the cost of making a video game. 3 million copies just to break even, at $50-60 a copy? Where did the money go? I think the residents of Rhode Island, whose tax dollars are compromised in this sad story, deserve a detailed explanation of exactly how much of their money has been lost and exactly how it was lost.

The vanilla questing put me off buying the game, otherwise I probably would have purchased it. I'm sure plenty of others felt the same.

LOL this is common practice. Gamespot report when a company keeps all their staff after launch.

This really sucks. KOA was a great game in my opinion. Did reasonably well critically. I beat the main story and am still playing side quests. Hey at least we know we will get another COD or Resident Evil Racoon City(played the game..absolute garbage). 1.2 million isn't bad for a brand new IP.

it´s a great game , just stareted playing it yesterday!! something different besides a whole bunch of boring FPS out there!

I heard great things about the titles. A real shame.

I bought the game. It's okay , guess this means no more expansion packs or sequels.

Sad to think just cause a game did not sell gang busters it is considered a failure and 400 people lose their jobs.

I blame the self serving higher ups. ...These people deserve better, end of story.

I'm sorry I didn't buy your game 38!!!!! I swear me and my friend were both about to buy it but then, I don't know what happened... we just didn't. I didnt think you all where going to loose your jobs because of it! I thought you guys where going to straight up make an mmo.