38 Studios, Total Layoffs

Its a shame. Amalur was pretty fun.

http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/24/curt-schilling-studios-lays-off-entire-staff/CDRWdTYSEljF0CukMUIatL/story.html

Curt Schilling’s troubled 38 Studios laid off its entire staff in Rhode Island and Maryland on Thursday in a stunning turn of events for the former Red Sox pitcher’s ambitious gambit to build a video game franchise off the back of a winning baseball career.

The decision comes less than two weeks after 38 Studios’ financial woes surfaced and deep cracks began appearing in the six-year-old company. It was lured from Maynard to Rhode Island on the promise of a $75 million loan guarantee from a state hoping Schilling’s vision could bring high-paying jobs.

“I’m stunned, and I’m heartbroken,’’ said R.A. Salvatore, a Leominster fantasy author who was a consultant to 38 Studios and whose son worked at the company. “This is one of the best teams I’ve ever seen assembled. They were doing amazing work.’’

It really is a shame, but you could see this coming from a mile away.

Today, I considered sending my portfolio to them.

Ha.

Send it to Ken Rolston. He might be out of a job now, but it won't be for long.

edit: Then again, he might be too far past his prime at this point. So I dunno.

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/25/3043282/38-studios-downfall-leads-to-second-mortgages-for-some-employees

I wonder what this means for the MMO they were developing. I wonder who decided to push out a teaser trailer for it a week ago, too.

38 needed 3 million copies of Amalur sold just for them to be able to pay their debts. It sucks (like, really really sucks) that they didn't even come close to selling that many, but it's not all that surprising either. Somebody made some really shitty business decisions over at 38 Studios.

Ouch.  I've been following this for a bit.  This is a fairly harsh turn of events.  I'm positive that the rights to the MMO will be purchased as well as the rights to KoA if they weren't already sold.  From what I understand, with the studio defaulting on their obligations the games become state property.  The state would more than likely sell the two to pay off the huge loan they gave out.

This goes to show that our government shouldn't be involved in our businesses to this extent.  It is too risky and it falls on the backs of the tax payers...As much as I love KoA, those folks would have been better off starting up a factory or something.  They need to get to selling those properties fast.

The MMO video went out in the hopes that another studio would pick it up. Also, there is an amazing side to this, in that all sorts of developers and other industry employers have extended job offers to the employees that were let go. That is so cool to see.

Yeah.  Other companies saw how great KoA was and were wishing them well before the layoffs.  I'm positive most of those employees will find jobs pretty fast and might even get some assistance with their finances.  I would hope so at least.

http://www.psu.com/a015490/38-Studios-may-lose-rights-to-Kingdom-of-Amalur

That's really the least of worries for the people that matter in this.

That's really the least of worries for the people that matter in this.

I'm more curious as to what the state of Rhode Island would do with the IP. Nam told me they went unpaid for 2 weeks prior, which is very worrisome.

I'm really glad to hear that they're being offered jobs by other companies though.

Rhode Island will be renamed Amalur, and the slogan will be changed to "The Well of Souls State".

Rhode Island will be renamed Amalur, and the slogan will be changed to "The Well of Souls State".

Not sure if want.

I would move there in a heartbeat.  I would then be disappointed.

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/project-mercury/1224863p1.html

I can't imagine anybody will be eager to continue development of the MMO.

Why do people still play MMOs?

They don't, really.

I think you'll find the part of the world we don't represent very much loves MMO's

nope i dont like it so nobody likes it

Uh, no. Most MMOs are going free to play because nobody wants to buy/subscribe to them anymore. Even SWTOR's numbers dwindled big time after the three month starter period. The reaction to the TES MMO reveal was pretty fucking bad.

People have grown tired of MMOs, at least the way they are now. I imagine development for the Amalur MMO was a bit of a mess when they realised mid-development that MMOs have changed big time. I bet it's the same deal for the dudes making the TES MMO, since that has been in development for a while now too.

Quit being a baby, Arlen.

Uh, no. Most MMOs are going free to play because nobody wants to buy/subscribe to them anymore.

I was heavily under the impression that the idea of a free-to-play game just attracts an enormously larger playerbase so that FTP games in general with cash shops simply generated more revenue due to the massive amount of players they have. Also, any game with a subscription model is competing with WoW.

Yeah, the games generate more money when they go free to play but there aren't many that are doing well. League of Legends is probably having the most success with its free to play model, right? That game was built with it being a free to play game in mind though, so they did it right. The big budget MMOs that later went free to play like DDO, LOTRO, Aion and Rift are all a bit weird. I bet the people working on Project Copernicus and TES: Online looked at all these games being transitioned to weird free to play models and thought, "Fuck, what are we going to do with this traditional MMO we're developing?"

So yeah, what I mean is nobody really wants a traditional MMO anymore. Developers need to change their expectations because of this, since making these big MMOs is pretty expensive.

I don't think that the "traditional mmo experience" is tied to the aspect subscription of it.  But I do agree, the market is changing, and F2P is just more profitable from a payment formula standpoint.

Edit: I understand what you mean now. I would say the two are tied, just because these MMOs aren't developed with microtransactions in mind. Really, I wonder if a developer will ever make microtransactions feel right in these Everquest/WoW style MMOs.

F2P models feel right to me in some games.  LoTRO is doing a fairly good job but the only thing that makes me a tad bit annoyed is that some of the very very important features for a character is cash-op.  I can understand gold-cap and a couple other things but there are many features that make it seem to be pay-to-win.  It is nice that they do allow you to earn turbine points as you play the game, though.  That at least allows you to purchase the most important things if you sink in enough time without even touching your credit card.

I also personally liked Champions Online's F2P model.  The only things you really need to purchase are expansion dungeons and costume pieces.  I guess there may be a few other things that I can't think off right off hand that you have to use cash for but most of it isn't enough to concern yourself with.

In order to understand why a lot of us play MMOs, you have to enjoy MMOs and if you don't then whatever.  One less person in this world to worry about when it comes to server queues for the more packed games XD

MMOs have no end. They're just an addiction. Tons of tiny goals set up to be accomplished that get repeated. I like endings. I sometimes even like replaying games. Crazzzzzy

They're just an addiction.

Maybe so lol.  Not for myself though luckily.

Its just like chewey and NAM said, though. People hear MMO and think WoW, myself included. Just because something is massively-multiplayer, and online, doesn't mean it has to be a turn-based genre role-playing game.

Quit being a baby, Arlen.

Oh, sorry, I don't actually care about this argument, I was just being an ass.

Edit: I understand what you mean now. I would say the two are tied, just because these MMOs aren't developed with microtransactions in mind. Really, I wonder if a developer will ever make microtransactions feel right in these Everquest/WoW style MMOs.

Yeah, Aion does it alright, and GW2 is fixing to do it as well, though it's less "Traditional".

Its just like chewey and NAM said, though. People hear MMO and think WoW, myself included. Just because something is massively-multiplayer, and online, doesn't mean it has to be a turn-based genre role-playing game.

Exactly, MMO* is a technology, but it has seemingly become synonymous with MMORPG.  I hope that changes and we can see more variety in the future.

Epic Games is hiring former employees to start a Baltimore branch.
http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/03/epic-purchases-big-huge-games/
Nice going!