38 Studios may not technically be shut down, but the game developer behind this year"s fantasy RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning laid off all of its employees last week as a result of financial issues. Now its founder, and former Boston Red Sox pitcher, Curt Schilling is finally giving his side of what happened to 38 Studios, blaming the state of Rhode Island and its governor Lincoln Chafee for its troubles.
Rhode Island agreed to give 38 Studios a $75 million loan in 2010 in exchange for the company moving their headquarters to the city of Providence and hiring over 400 people. In a story on the Providence Journal website, Schilling claims that the state pulled out of a deal to offer 38 Studios film tax credits, which Schilling says his company was legally entitled to receive.
He also claims that the state pulled out of a deal that would have allowed 38 Studios to hold off making a required $1.12 million payment May 1 on the company"s loan agreement so that 38 Studios could make payroll for his employees. Schilling further claims that comments made by Rhode Island governor Chafee on May 14 on the financial state of 38 Studios caused an unnamed video game publisher to pull out of an agreement to publish a sequel to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
Finally, Schilling says that he has put in a whopping $50 million of his own money in 38 Studios. That money, along with Rhode Island"s loan, was being used primarily to develop Project Copernicus, the studios" long-in-development fantasy MMO game that now looks it will never see the light of day.
Source: The Providence Journal