You know, way back when they announced who the principals were behind this studio, I was pretty sure it was probably a doomed enterprise, but I can't say as I expected quite such a catastrophic end to the story. Jeebus.

I guess it depends. From the article you can't really tell if they were outright led to believe their homes were sold. From what I've read, I can certainly surmise that they believed so but I haven't seen anything indicating that the company misled them. What it sounds like to me most likely is just poor communication from the company where they said they would take care of the sales and then kept up the payments. People assumed their home had been sold.

I'm not a lawyer, just a copper with some good fraud investigations under his belt, but that would depend on the stipulations of the loan. I don't do civil fraud though, just criminal. The company moving HQs would encompass assisting employees with real estate. I don't see how it could be a fraudulent use of funds unless there were exact stipulations or clauses that are being breached. From reading the circumstances surrounding the loan, I can't imagine the loan not being in-part given to assist with the move.

Ox is dead-on of course whether civil or criminal fraud.

In my own opinion though. They invested a lot into the IP so that it could support a wide breadth of titles for years to come. I don't see how they could hope to be profitable off one game and recoup the entire development investment. Let alone making their second title off it an MMO that typically requires massive investment. *scratches head* In hindsight, I guess they probably should have been developing dlc and maybe an expansion to expand brand recognition and sales, completely cutting out the mmo development for the time being. All around it just feels like they bit off more than they could fund at one time. Poor management and strategic planning.

Makes me wonder, what state were they in when they first thought about moving to RI. Also, how the fudge did they go this long without a publisher? I wonder if they planned on doing that themselves.

As I understand it, the responsible investors and possibly publishers allegedly kept telling Schilling that his idea was full of shit. Then he and the idiots in RI got together; he spun a "good" unrealistic tale and they not knowing their ass from a hole in the ground bought it. This is of course speculation of the highest degree and assumes that only idiocy was involved and not outright fraud or bribes or something else nefarious.

Holy CRAP. That's horrible news. "Bob, you're fired. Also, you, now that you lost your source of income, we're giving you back your mortgage."

That sounds just as likely. I wonder if they were about to fold before this RI stuff went down. I'm still shocked. These motherfuckers shut down in like two weeks. Just bad.

Hopefully someone decent gets the IP since so much has been invested in it.

Good god, I would go mental. :eek: You just lost your job, you don't get your last paycheck, any built up vacation you had is gone and your old mortgage handed back to you as a final parting gift?

Happens all the time. And the employees are usually last in line for any compensation when the company's remaining assets are sold off. Happened to me and my coworkers at Acclaim Entertainment when they finally went under. That's two weeks pay I never saw, and I imagine it was even worse for people with more benefits.

Didn't want to start a new thread, so, question:

If I buy a new copy of Amalur, who/where does that money go to?

I imagine EA get's their cut and the rest probably goes to RI.

Everyone in Rhode Island should buy a copy of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning so they can pay off that loan before it gathers too much interest.

EDIT: I just looked up the population of Rhode Island, and it seems that even if they all bought a copy at full price ($60), they wouldn't pay off the loan by the time the publisher got their cut.

awful awful awful. Jesus Christ, awful. :(

Actually seen a couple more of these around the net with folks from 38 talking about the end of days. Namely Chafee being more obstacle than not.

-Creative director Steve Danuser, source Gamespot.

-Gamasutra

More from Schilling at Providence Journal.

If that's true, I foresee a lawsuit against the state of Rhode Island in the future.

Wait I should have kept my score card up to date!

I though this governor was anti loan?

Didn't the independent audit point out 38 was just a few weeks from shuddering?


Hey, guess what I figured out...

It's time for everyone's favorite show: The Blame Game!

Looks like the previously-forthcoming patch for Reckoning is probably dead in the water, as well, along with the sequel.

Not that that's a huge surprise at this point.

I'm not saying Chafee was an angel in all of this, but what was he supposed to do? By all accounts 38 was circling the drain. They couldn't muster $1.125M - which really isn't a lot for a company of 400+ - and pay their employees. The story came out and it was a huge deal in RI. The governor had to comment on it. If you read the Gamespot article the CD says that "We just needed a little more help, and we thought the state would have our backs on that." So after the studio defaulted on the loan the state should have, what, given them another loan? Toss good money after bad?

Maybe they had a deal to publish Copernicus which fell through because of the publicity, but after reading all of this does anyone think it would have helped save the studio? Maybe they would have collapsed in July instead of May, but I don't see how it would have made a substantive difference, other than adding another creditor to the pile.