38 Studios' Cheque to Rhode Island Clears. Copernicus MMO Due 2013

44
Richard Walker

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning developer 38 Studios has managed to clear its first payment out of the $49 million loan to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation after a cheque for $1.25 million initially bounced due to insufficient funds. The studio is now seeking private funding to continue operating.

38 Studios' next payment to the RIEDC for $2.6 million is due this November, with $12.6 million then due in 2013. Private funding is now the only way the developer will be able to carry on with future projects. "There's not going to be any money from the state. They're not coming here for easy money," commented state Governor Lincoln Chafee.

Governor Chafee then revealed that 38's next endeavour, an MMO codenamed Copernicus is due for release in June 2013. Chaffe admitted the state could have benefitted from 38 Studios' success, before asserting that he wouldn't be so open to striking up a similar deal in the future. "Never. Not on my watch," he said.

[Via Gamasutra]

Comments
44
  • intresting must keep an eye on this.
  • Happy for them that they've managed to pay the first sum of the debt after reading about them owing money.
  • Hopefully we'll see some more Amalur DLC. I absolutely loved that game. While the story may not have been very engrossing, nor the characters, the world and environments were absolutely beautiful. The combat and class system was also excellently done. I'd much rather see a sequel to Amalur than an MMO to be honest. LEt them learn from their mistakes and make the series even better. There aren't very many sandbox RPGs, and I love these types of games. Dragon's Dogma is next!
  • An MMO? You stupid, stupid idiots.
  • Abolutely agree #3.......great game and fab DLC. Hopefully they will release a few more of them as well
  • They're going with an MMO, eh? Well, I can see now how they f_cked up something as simple as making payroll.
  • MMO?! That's them done and dusted then.
  • I'm happy for them, hope they can continue this :D Also seeing most of the readers don't know this let me shed some light on the MMO thing. It's called Kingdoms of Amalur : Copernicus, and it was announced before Reckoning. They went with Reckoning first because it took less risk and got to introduce players to the world of Amalur and the (combat)system they would be using. It's also the reason that Reckoning looks,feels and plays like an mmo (with all the sidequests that can leave you forgetting the main quest for hours etc) I for one am excited for this, and hope it will see the light of day :D
  • No new mmo stand's a chance if they're going to make them subscription based. They will stick with WoW instead of starting over, or Guild Wars 2, when it's actually released.
  • Hope it does well. I'm rooting for 38 Studios.
  • Still bumming the MMO idea. They gonna get shafted then.
  • Unfortunately this is only delaying the inevitable. Another MMO isn't going to do much to tear down the current successes in the market. Even TOR isn't doing well, and that had a nice $200-300 million advertising price-tag to it.
  • I agree with the whole MMO thing being a bad idea. Most MMO gamers stick with one MMO for years. Hell I'm still an FFXI player and that game has been out for 10 years now. Also with ESO and GW2 coming out I don't really see an Amalur MMO being a big hit.
  • well, amalur DID feel MMO like aside from the fact there weren't other players running around. Perhaps instead of an MMO, they could make Amalur 2 and put in some sort of co-op mode that could be seperate from the single player campaign
  • Not into MMOs. Though I can see why they aren't chomping at the bit to make another RPG like KoA since it didn't bank them enough money. What they should do is make small puzzle games or a dungeon crawling looting type game like Torchlight and release them on cellphones and ipads or the PSP. A lot of the money made in gaming as of late is from the games being bought on phones and PSP/PSV gamers tend to play lots of RPGs so the market for success is higher on those platforms.
  • With the exceptions for WoW and The Old republic, MMO's aren't exactly money makers.
  • $40 million for hookers, 8.8 million for kingdoms of amalur, 200000 for copernicus. Taxpayer money well spent.
  • no amalur MMO! I'm sick of MMOs they are stale and overdone. just make a great single player game that friends can drop in and out of like dark souls, or diablo 3.
  • @17 Schilling got into videogames, and specifially RPGs, while on the road during his baseball career, so he WOULDN'T go to strip clubs, and hire hookers like his teammates. Not sure why he would start now...
  • For those that don't know: Schilling frequently goes onto conservative media outlets and rails against government spending and is anti-handout. He then goes and gets an insane $75 million loan from the state during the last governor's term after personally wooing him at a fundraiser because he is a former MLB pitcher. He promised the state that his company would generate 400+ jobs, 38 studios has about half that. Schilling is a hypocrite and a fool, and if 38 Studios defaults on their loan, the taxpayers of Rhode Island will be responsible for the $100 million+ loan and interest. Schilling doesn't even LIVE in Rhode Island!!
  • @19 Because it beats playing his own game(s). @20 You left out the part where Schilling had the audacity to ask for MORE money from the state during the meeting in which they were discussing his company defaulting on their loan. The fact that they had to withhold all pay and let go all temp/contractual employees just to pay this payment... when they'll owe another double that by November just makes it clear that 38 Studios won't see the end of this year, let alone a June 2013 release date for a lackluster MMO There's nothing about this fly-by environment that stands out as being any different from MMOs already out there. And the worst thing is Schilling is just playing with the livelihood of all those men and women working for him just because he thinks it will be a quick buck when all it will do is leave those people out on the street with their families with nothing to show for it.
  • Nah would have been more interesting to see the tax payers of the state become the intellectual property owners of all their games.
  • Why did they borrow so much in the first place, what happened for them to need so much cash?
  • @16 TOR didn't make shit.
  • Can't see an MMO being successful after KOA didn't set the world alight. And as for that amount of money loaned for 38 Studios? Some people have obviously got no sense whatsoever. A lot of people will be out of jobs before 2013.
  • Why the hell did Rhode Island even give these fools money in the first place? I bet those taxpayers are going to not re-elect a lot of idiots come their next election day.
  • As much as baseball players make/made he could have funded this himself. Yet why not pin more debt and taxes on already stressed out hard working tax payers? How your company struggle to pay 1.25 million and he probably spent that much on the dip he used during his career.
  • @8: Look where that 'less risk' took em, though. Also, wtf are you even talking about, this game felt nothing like an mmo. lol, weirdo.
  • More news here: http://j.gs/1810986/38-studios-cheque-clears
  • There's a glimmer of hope yet, though, as Microsoft has stated the would like to put an MMO on the Console. If that were to happen, with a free-to-play & microtransactions, it could very well, be a success.
  • I loved Kingdoms af Amalur and would like to see 38 Studios really do well. This is a pretty interesting situation they have with the state of Rhode Island. @ #31 - True Religion Jeans for $30. Bitch, is you crazy?
  • The only MMO in 2013 I'm looking foward to is Elder Scrolls online!!! CAN NOT WAIT it sounds SOOOOOOOOO AMAZING from all the info I've been reading.
  • I've not played an mmo since I gave up wow a few years back, but I'd be interesting to see some surface online, the tes one would be amazing and bungie are making a mmofps, plus theres that ps3 exclusive free to play mmofps coming Dust
  • Good luck 38 Studios. I have a friend working there and I know how hard it is to find a good job after just about every developer has seen layoffs. While I appreciate the studio, I dislike the genre of games they make and I can't understand why they decided on an MMO. Hasn't anyone learned that it difficult to sell a game competing with the likes of WoW? They desperately need something more original.
  • I've tried LOTRO and WAR multiple times, and I can now conclude that, for whatever reason, MMOs are not for me. So many MMOs have had to go Free-To-Play in recent years to retain players that it hardly seems like a genre worth investing in for a crumbling developer. I think Schilling is simply making the games he wants to make, which is respectable, but also incredibly stupid at the moment.
  • @23 75 mil isn't as big of a number as it sounds. we aren't talking about someone's household budget, we are talking about founding a company that employs over 200 people. i'm not sure how long term they intended that 75mil to last, but think about paying commercial rent for a year, plus utilities, plus 200 people's salary for a year, plus whatever fees they have to pay to microsoft and the publisher they use (in this case, ea)
  • (i meant 50 mil, don't sure where i pulled that 75 number from) just to add to what i was saying though, if there were 200 employees, and each one made 50k a year, that would be 10 million a year before whatever benefits are paid out. now keep in mind we are talking about a development studio, i'm sure there are plenty of programmers on their payroll making more than 50k. that loan just really isn't the massive number it sounds like
  • I know this is vaguely games related but this beautifully illustrates an element of the games news that I personally don't wish to ever know. I appreciate every games developer and pulisher has financial issues to take care of but I wish this kind of thing was a bit more private. It's not really news about games - this kind of thing can easily end up in sad, sad stories about people losing jobs, careers and lives being ruined and I think it's almost a little intrusive to report on it. It never stops me reading but I don't feel it's really relevant - games come out, some games don't. Some of us have a passing interest in some of these games but once you start looking at the behind the scenes of an industry you love and looking at the economics or business practices of the firms whose games we know and love, it sullies it a bit - makes it a bit less magical.
  • A console MMO makes sense & I would be interested if M$ put it out w/out subscription fees or go free-to-play. A PC MMO would die quicker than FF14!! Loving KoA:Reckoning & hate to hear these struggles. Maybe 38 Studios should work on some arcade stuff - smaller teams/budgets combined with Amalur's quality could be nice!
  • Venting Whats the matter? EA no longer steering the boat? EA: You MOST have an online pass. CAUSE WE SAY SO!!! This will help you make money. Blah,blah,blah The game looked good. I just found it a little boring. Would have been nice co-op. Borderlands 2 FTW
  • console mmo's don't really work. simply because most of pay for live. then ontop of that they tell you that you have to pay a montly subscription fee. you kind of sit there like, hang on a sec. xbox live is my monthly subscription fee to go online. why do i have to pay more ontop of this. it makes sense when its a pc mmo. (they can't exactly shake down your internet providers). i agree that a drop-in drop out like Dark souls would ork well for them. it's sad they're having finance troubles already. koa was a really good effort and a better game then a lot of big hitting studios additions this year. they really need a better storyboard writer. everything else was on track.
  • most of us* work* typing on a phone sucks rofl.
  • cool cant wait.
  • And they officially no longer exist. http://ht.ly/1k29Ow
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