Reply With QuoteGod, that sucks. Knew a guy who worked there, and while he was sort of a tool, I hate seeing him lose a job like that. And I honestly thought that Reckoning was doing okay for itself, but I guess you just never know :(
38 Studios lays off entire staff.
http://mobile.theverge.com/gaming/20...f-entire-staff
As was said in the Reckoning thread, there were a lot of reasons to think Curt Schilling was an ass, but he was also a true believer in his game and concepts and plunged a ton of his own money into the hopper to try to make that work.
Feel very bad for the folks out of work.
No idea how this affects the single-player RPG, or Big Huge. I would imagine there would be an attempt to sell them to EA.
God, that sucks. Knew a guy who worked there, and while he was sort of a tool, I hate seeing him lose a job like that. And I honestly thought that Reckoning was doing okay for itself, but I guess you just never know :(
How terrible. If they were funded by anyone other than the government, they could have made it work, but there's just no flexibility there.
It sounds like the loss/ineligibility for the tax breaks was the final hole in the leaky lifeboat.
Depending on how things work out, RI could seize all the assets and then sell them at auction, where Curt could rebuy them, thus evading the debt and able to start again.
If Schilling's tweets about Reckoning selling 1.2m copies is accurate (and I don't know whether that's cross platform, world wide, or what) and that it out sold EA internal predictions/expectations, I still wonder if there isn't something of value there to be sold to someone to keep some jobs and keep Big Huge going.
Perhaps not.
Yuck. Good luck to all those out of work. Friggin' rough-ass business. You guys that are in and keep at it, my hat's off to you.Schilling's 38 Studios employed 379 people full-time as of March 15
Wait, what was the point of releasing the Copernicus trailer then?
I am surprised there is no indignation here that a strongly outspoken conservative like Schilling would depend on the government to finance and attempt to keep alive his business. I have seen it elsewhere today.
It sad to lose a video game company though and to see jobs disappear.
This is a pity, especially for all of those affected by the layoffs. However, it's probably also what everybody expected to happen, to a certain extent. While Schilling is a hardcore gamer and reportedly dedicated to the project, it was hugely ambitious for a new team to build an MMO, and it had some big (read: expensive) names attached, and was already in development for a long time.
To show to prospective employers?Originally Posted by Nephrinn
Uh you should see the other thread. I think we've got that covered.
I don't understand the point of releasing the Copernicus assets either (and they just released more art). Unless Schilling really was hoping beyond hope up until the last minute. Yeah the only other thing would be for a portfolio, but that's a weak one at that since they need to be more focused.
--- Alan
Well, at least they got Kingdoms out first, and it wasn't half-bad.
There's plenty of that.
As stated even in this thread, though...putting that aside, Schilling pumped a bunch of his own money into the company to make his dream game, and I can't help but have some amount of grudging respect for that.
Analyst valuations for the IP is only $20 million apparently.
They shut down Big Huge as well? FUCK THAT SHIT.
What a fucking tragedy for everyone involved. I hope they find new jobs soon...except for the folks who brokered that crazy deal. :/
It isn't 100% clear yet just what's been shut down here, what's on "hiatus", etc.
But if Big Huge is still alive as a possible sell-able asset, it's alive only by life support.
Isn't that pretty good for such a low-impact IP?
The numbers quoted for the layoffs is basically the entire company, according to documents filed with RI.
--- Alan
How the hell is this possible? I always thought this was somewhat of a vanity project by Curt Schilling, who is supposed to be some kind of famous baseball player/milionaire, so he hired all star team to make huge RPG...RPG that was even quite sucessful (1.2 million sold or so, similar to Witcher 2 in same time period, although Witcher 2 was PC exclusive back then)...
and then it comes out that this whole thing was actually funded by government (WTF1!) and goes bankrupt right after releasing first game ? (WTF2!)
I mean, WTF3!
Big Huge's employees were apparently laid off, so anyone who did want to pick them up would have to act very quickly.
Given all the insane valuations of tech companies out there, I'm surprised this turned into a shutdown situation. It seems like RI could have gotten at least a chunk of its money back if 38 could have been kept afloat somehow, via a sale or an outside investor or something. (I know, the debt probably makes that unattractive, but since when has tech investment been rational? See: The setup of the original loan.)
Fuck, I love Big Huge, they're one of the reasons I purchased KoA. Ughhhh.
I feel sorry for everyone involved.
The good thing is that released a good game with some unique properties (I think the game was huge, the lore interesting, the combat satisfying). It looks like the mmo in the making was tryiing some sweet sweet graphics. Too bad it failed. Probably is a good thing the adventure end now, and not down the road in a deeper hole.
Since very little of what you just typed is actually what happened, I understand your confusion.
Meh. Not that I wouldn't like to see them stick around (And I'm sure Brian Reynolds will end up on his feet), but I thought their high water mark was Rise of Nations.
Last edited by Sepiche; 05-24-2012 at 02:49 PM.
It seems more like RI was more than willing to eat the cost and go ahead and saddle the taxpayers with the leftovers, to be honest. I'm sure Schilling's waffling stance on tax breaks and the unwillingness of the government already taking a lot of heat over the entire matter to loan the company any additional funds probably didn't help any.
Schilling does appear to do these things as pet project businesses that are somewhat vanity ventures without solid business goals. He founded MMP to support ASL and then bought out the license of that and a number of other games from Avalon Hill, but before he left the company (to do 38 Studios, or GMG back then) it was established that it never really made money but was just a worthwhile venture and supporter of wargaming in general. 38 took on a much bigger role but it kinda still seems the same.
Moving from MA to RI in some ways makes sense but in many others makes no sense at all, and it really makes me wonder why sometimes (this included forced relocation for quite a few employees).
--- Alan
I hope we get some interesting post-mortems from folks associated with both Reckoning and Copernicus sometime when the dust has settled and those involved are back on their feet.
Economic downturn...how classy. Anyway, good luck to all those let go. May you find employment soon.
Sorry to hear it - I really enjoyed the combat system in Reckoning, if not the game balance. Good luck to those laid off in both MA and MD.
Apparently this was the only real communication employees have been receiving since awhile. This was posted on Kotaku (actual sourcing unknown):
--- Alan38 Studios just laid off its entire staff, both Providence and BHG studios are being shuttered.
We have not received a paycheck since April 30th.
On May 15th, we found out we were not getting paid when our checks did not hit our accounts.
Our medical insurance runs out tonight at midnight.
We found this out when an employee’s pregnant wife was told by her doctor, this was on Tuesday 22nd May this week.
The company has not communicated anything concrete to the team throughout this process, leaving team members to figure out insurance stop-gaps (where people could afford it), etc. on their own.
Posting Permissions