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They should sell it off for cheap, but get a return on the profit when the MMO launches. Also, the opening screen should list the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations as Executive Producer. 
idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
Also, you know, there's the ridiculous hypocrisy of a small-government, free market advocate accepting a $75M loan from the state to make a video game.
are you sure about that? from what i've read, the state just guaranteed (co-signed) the loans.
From the sound of it, RI guaranteed the loan but, to do so, they greatly expanded an economic development fund and offered $50-plus million in bonds to cover it. So you had not only the expansion of a government program but also the bond interest debt that had to be covered. And, of course, now the taxpayers being left with the bill for 38 Studios' failure. While it's not fruitful to point out the hypocrisy on Schilling's part, it is accurate.
I was reading that RI has a "moral obligation" to service 38's debt but not necessarily a legal requirement and they could conceivably just default on it. Coming from a state much larger than RI (well, I guess most of them are), it seems weird to me to hear this event as a make-or-break issue for the state government but I guess it really is a big deal.
I was reading that RI has a "moral obligation" to service 38's debt but not necessarily a legal requirement and they could conceivably just default on it. Coming from a state much larger than RI (well, I guess most of them are), it seems weird to me to hear this event as a make-or-break issue for the state government but I guess it really is a big deal.
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
They could fix the problem in 30 minutes if they just called up Peter Griffin... Brain and Stewie would iron out the details.
Can't sleep, clown will eat me.
What Joph said. Their ultimate loan was going to be $79M, but loopholes actually kept them from getting over $20M of it because the company was registered in DE, not MD. The loan didn't come from MD directly, but from a coalition (or something) created and funded specifically by the state of MD to encourage high-skill industries to move into the state. Or something. It was ultimately to create jobs, not to create a blockbuster game.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
let me guess: the dude that negotiated the loan and the dude that actually signed the check are members of different political parties.
The governor was strongly against it, and has actually been a giant douche through all of this. He closed his speech the other day by trashing the "sexism and violence" in the KoA:R game. Thanks, a$$hole, for completely fueling the typical gaming stereotypes to fuel your own campaign agenda off the backs of the developers who were losing their jobs after putting out an extremely well-received game.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
Oh, and KoA's PC version is half off this weekend from Amazon. Worth getting, imo, for anyone who hasn't played.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
Their ultimate loan was going to be $79M, but loopholes actually kept them from getting over $20M of it because the company was registered in DE, not MD.
do you happen to remember where you read this, i can't find it anywhere.
Edited, May 27th 2012 9:55am by axhed
Yeah, Kotaku did a sort of "What is this all about?" article a few days ago. Let me try to find it.
edit:
Found it.
I'm not finding the thing about the loopholes. No clue where I read that.
Edited, May 27th 2012 10:50am by idiggory
edit:
Found it.
Quote:
Was it all one big $75 million loan? From the state?
Not quite. The RIEDC is a quasi-public agency that operates with funds allocated by the state legislature, governed by a Board of Directors. State governor Lincoln Chafee is the current chairman of the board.
The RIEDC sold bonds to raise the money. 38 Studios received payments from the state in installments, for meeting certain milestones: successfully relocating their office by a certain date resulted in a $9.4 million payment, successfully hiring a staff of 80 resulted in another $17.2 million, and so on.
To date, 38 Studios has received slightly less than $50 million of the guaranteed funds.
Not quite. The RIEDC is a quasi-public agency that operates with funds allocated by the state legislature, governed by a Board of Directors. State governor Lincoln Chafee is the current chairman of the board.
The RIEDC sold bonds to raise the money. 38 Studios received payments from the state in installments, for meeting certain milestones: successfully relocating their office by a certain date resulted in a $9.4 million payment, successfully hiring a staff of 80 resulted in another $17.2 million, and so on.
To date, 38 Studios has received slightly less than $50 million of the guaranteed funds.
I'm not finding the thing about the loopholes. No clue where I read that.
Edited, May 27th 2012 10:50am by idiggory
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
axhed wrote:
idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
Their ultimate loan was going to be $79M, but loopholes actually kept them from getting over $20M of it because the company was registered in DE, not MD.
do you happen to remember where you read this, i can't find it anywhere.
Edited, May 27th 2012 9:55am by axhed
Here is a small article from WPRI's site. It doesn't state the full amount they will be unable to receive, but it does back up idiggory's statement.
http://blogs.wpri.com/2012/05/24/two-other-38-studios-subsidiaries-also-registered-in-del-not-ri/
Shaowstrike (Retired - FFXI)
91PUP/BLM 86SMN/BST 76DRK
Cooking/Fishing 100
"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
— James D. Nicoll
91PUP/BLM 86SMN/BST 76DRK
Cooking/Fishing 100
"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
— James D. Nicoll
Here's another one. Apparently, they were tax credits or something only available for companies in RI, or something. I dunno, loans and associated clauses are generally over my head.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
The governor was strongly against it, and has actually been a giant douche through all of this. He closed his speech the other day by trashing the "sexism and violence" in the KoA:R game. Thanks, a$$hole, for completely fueling the typical gaming stereotypes to fuel your own campaign agenda off the backs of the developers who were losing their jobs after putting out an extremely well-received game.
I like some of Linc Chafee's political positions, but overall tend to dislike him. He's in damage control mode with this whole thing. I can't really blame him for detracting from the game itself and whatnot. He's got to distance himself from it as much as possible if he wants to run for re-election.
Edited, May 27th 2012 11:15am by Spoonless
found this: http://twinfinite.net/blog/2012/05/25/news-victor-cortis-formerly-of-38-studios-claims-8-million-in-tax-credits-are-unpaid/
Quote:
The million dollar + payment that went to Rhode Island was in assurance we would receive the tax credits of 8 million. We even had buyers lined up for the credits and the government was sitting there telling us “You give us the million, we give you the tax credits.â€
We gave them the million. They did not give us the tax credits, which would’ve not only payed the employees, but saved the studio most likely as we had several publishing deals in the works. The government flat out lied to us (big surprise)
We gave them the million. They did not give us the tax credits, which would’ve not only payed the employees, but saved the studio most likely as we had several publishing deals in the works. The government flat out lied to us (big surprise)
Spoonless wrote:
idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
The governor was strongly against it, and has actually been a giant douche through all of this. He closed his speech the other day by trashing the "sexism and violence" in the KoA:R game. Thanks, a$$hole, for completely fueling the typical gaming stereotypes to fuel your own campaign agenda off the backs of the developers who were losing their jobs after putting out an extremely well-received game.
I like some of Linc Chafee's political positions, but overall tend to dislike him. He's in damage control mode with this whole thing. I can't really blame him for detracting from the game itself and whatnot. He's got to distance himself from it as much as possible if he wants to run for re-election.
Edited, May 27th 2012 11:15am by Spoonless
I was only actually talking about his reinforcement of gaming industry stereotypes, not the economic issues. I should have clarified that. I'm not actually following the economic aspects of the story that closely, because I don't have sufficient background knowledge to do so without serious effort.
I don't really quite understand the concept of creating jobs, though, since the whole deal was organized to bring talent and industry into the state. I guess they figured they'd create jobs when they put down roots? That's going to take more time than 3-4 years, and it also suggests a serious lack of understanding in how the game design industry tends to operate. Since studios aren't widespread, talent comes to them from all over. They aren't going to recruit locally when they'll get better applicants from all over the country who are perfectly willing to relocate.
And ax, I really, really hope that isn't true. It would be pretty awful if it was, for everyone involved. Because the people of RI are the ones who ultimately have to foot the bill, and if the credits could have realistically extended the company's financial stability far enough to allow for some new deals or for Copernicus' release, things might have gone very differently.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
Well like I said, it was done when Carcieri was on his way out. He was term-limited, and they pushed it through. I doubt they brought in any experts on the video game industry, to be honest, or they would have been more informed about what it's like. I'm kind of pissed that they ****** the company around with the tax credits. I know you want to avoid dumping more money into a sinking ship, but with the development status of the MMO and apparently publishing deals in the works, it's just bad for everyone all around.
I'm pretty sure them releasing parts of the loan are/were predicated on x number of jobs being maintained in RI. I truly think that the committee didn't do their due diligence and thought that they would be creating jobs for residents.
Edited, May 27th 2012 12:51pm by Spoonless
I'm pretty sure them releasing parts of the loan are/were predicated on x number of jobs being maintained in RI. I truly think that the committee didn't do their due diligence and thought that they would be creating jobs for residents.
Edited, May 27th 2012 12:51pm by Spoonless
What's sad is that it sounds to me like the studio only really needed a management change. Part of the issue, of course, actually was the fact that they had such solid talent. That doesn't come cheaply. But had the management handled things properly, primarily where marketing and other such business decisions were concerned, I'm sure Reckoning could have easily sold 3M copies. I had never even heard of it before release, which was problem A. But afterwards, literally every gaming outlet was talking about it, and they were almost universally saying positive (or even glowing) things.
But a common thread throughout EVERY review was a comparison to Skyrim. Both were open world RPGs with a focus on personal character development. And every one of those reviewers, and a huge percentage of their readers, were still playing Skyrim. Even if they were saying KoA was better (which many actually were), fans were having plenty of fun with the first game--far too much to bother switching to a new one, particularly when they might be developing characters with dozens (or hundreds) of hours invested.
What bums me out is that I do have faith that Copernicus would have been a success. Judging by how much work went into KoA's combat system, and that Reckoning was essentially launched to seed interest in the MMO, I imagine they would have worked to reinvent some things. I guess making it something like a more Western-style TERA?
But a common thread throughout EVERY review was a comparison to Skyrim. Both were open world RPGs with a focus on personal character development. And every one of those reviewers, and a huge percentage of their readers, were still playing Skyrim. Even if they were saying KoA was better (which many actually were), fans were having plenty of fun with the first game--far too much to bother switching to a new one, particularly when they might be developing characters with dozens (or hundreds) of hours invested.
What bums me out is that I do have faith that Copernicus would have been a success. Judging by how much work went into KoA's combat system, and that Reckoning was essentially launched to seed interest in the MMO, I imagine they would have worked to reinvent some things. I guess making it something like a more Western-style TERA?
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
Copernicus would be a success, particularly if they launched it on consoles as well. I don't know if that was the plan or not, but consoles are pretty untapped as far as MMOs go.
Console MMOs are a b*tch logistically, though. Particularly if you intend to allow players to play together across platforms, and I just can't see a major MMO being successful if they can't.
You just aren't going to get both Sony and Microsoft to agree to a contract that allows their players to access the same servers as the other. Remember, technically speaking, you've only licensed your gaming console from them (the bastiids).
Add in Microsoft Xbox Live shenanigans, which is why FFXIV wasn't going to be available on the 360.
Now we have balance issues to contend with. Need for peripherals for players to actually perform equally. Graphical limitations. Etc.
Console MMOs probably won't be common across platforms. FFXI is the only one I can think of that has players really interacting externally across both companies. Dust 514 will allow for interaction between PC and PS3 (though they don't have balance issues due to the fact that the game itself is only on the PS3).
And I just can't see an MMO surviving without all the players pooling.
You just aren't going to get both Sony and Microsoft to agree to a contract that allows their players to access the same servers as the other. Remember, technically speaking, you've only licensed your gaming console from them (the bastiids).
Add in Microsoft Xbox Live shenanigans, which is why FFXIV wasn't going to be available on the 360.
Now we have balance issues to contend with. Need for peripherals for players to actually perform equally. Graphical limitations. Etc.
Console MMOs probably won't be common across platforms. FFXI is the only one I can think of that has players really interacting externally across both companies. Dust 514 will allow for interaction between PC and PS3 (though they don't have balance issues due to the fact that the game itself is only on the PS3).
And I just can't see an MMO surviving without all the players pooling.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
Hey Shojindo, how exactly did you fix KoA's camera? I was playing it yesterday, and the camera is definitely the game's weakest aspect.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
wow, what a saga. Been eyeing up this game but the sticker price is pretty high. And I don't really have any time to play it.
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
Hey Shojindo, how exactly did you fix KoA's camera? I was playing it yesterday, and the camera is definitely the game's weakest aspect.
Oh oops sorry I missed this question. I used Widescreen Fixer and a KoA specific plugin for it. Then I set my FoV to 60ish. YMMV
EDIT: Oh man no wonder. We can partially blame EA now, good article Joph.
Quote:
Fast forward a year. In March of 2010, 38 Studios may have signed their own death warrant by agreeing to a publishing deal with Electronic Arts for Project Mercury, although it may not have been obvious at the time. 38 Studios exchanges all future royalties for sales of the game for a $35 million advance from Electronic Arts. In other words, no matter how well Mercury sold, it would not be a revenue stream for the developer.
Edited, Jun 13th 2012 12:35pm by Shojindo
An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
~ Matsuo Basho
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
~ Matsuo Basho
Can't remember if this was the original 38 Studios closure thread or not, but Epic Games just announced that they are closing the studio that was formed from the remains of Big Huge Games six months ago.
Edited, Feb 8th 2013 4:12pm by Shaowstrike
Kotaku wrote:
Following last year's Kingdoms of Amalur financial disaster that resulted in the closure of both Curt Schilling's 38 Studios and Maryland's Big Huge Games, Epic Games swooped in and rescued a group of Big Huge refugees, forming Epic Baltimore, eventually renamed Impossible Studios. Today Epic founder Tim Sweeney announced the studio's closure.
"When former members of Big Huge Games approached Epic last year, we saw the opportunity to help a great group of people while putting them to work on a project that needed a team. It was a bold initiative and the Impossible folks made a gallant effort, but ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic," said Sweeney via an announcement on the Epic Games community site.
Located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, and led by studio director Sean Dunn, Impossible Studios was tasked with developing Infinity Blade: Dungeons, a prequel to the hit series of iOS fighting games that served as a showcase for Epic's Unreal Engine 3 on mobile devices. That project is now on hold as Epic considers its future.
While Epic wouldn't comment on the situation — my requests were directed back to the community post — in the light of a late January tweet by Impossible Studios head Sean Dunn I can only imagine the closure came as something of a surprise.
Impossible Studios employees will be given three months' severance pay, as well as the opportunity to reform the studio under the existing name, complete with that amazing horned, winged bear logo that debuted with the studio in August of last year.
"When former members of Big Huge Games approached Epic last year, we saw the opportunity to help a great group of people while putting them to work on a project that needed a team. It was a bold initiative and the Impossible folks made a gallant effort, but ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic," said Sweeney via an announcement on the Epic Games community site.
Located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, and led by studio director Sean Dunn, Impossible Studios was tasked with developing Infinity Blade: Dungeons, a prequel to the hit series of iOS fighting games that served as a showcase for Epic's Unreal Engine 3 on mobile devices. That project is now on hold as Epic considers its future.
While Epic wouldn't comment on the situation — my requests were directed back to the community post — in the light of a late January tweet by Impossible Studios head Sean Dunn I can only imagine the closure came as something of a surprise.
Impossible Studios employees will be given three months' severance pay, as well as the opportunity to reform the studio under the existing name, complete with that amazing horned, winged bear logo that debuted with the studio in August of last year.
Edited, Feb 8th 2013 4:12pm by Shaowstrike
Shaowstrike (Retired - FFXI)
91PUP/BLM 86SMN/BST 76DRK
Cooking/Fishing 100
"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
— James D. Nicoll
91PUP/BLM 86SMN/BST 76DRK
Cooking/Fishing 100
"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
— James D. Nicoll
Necro Warning: This post occurred more than thirty days after the prior, and may be a necropost.
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