Curt Schilling, 38 Studios, and Rhode Island

i don't know if anyone else has been following this story but, wow. curt schilling is the worst person.

we'd had hints of that

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2012/05/25/curt_schillings_38_studios_lays_off_entire_staff/

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 was watching the local news last night precisely because of this story

a victory for "small government" "job creators" everywhere, good job everybody

can I just

http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2012/05/25/1337919654_0011/539w.jpg

http://www.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/large_lightbox/hash/monty-python-gay-drilling-260.jpg

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/24/kingdoms-of-amalur-reckoning-had-to-sell-3m-just-to-break-even/

Despite Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning selling "1.22 million copies in its first 90 days" according to 38 Studios head Curt Schilling, it apparently never crested the 3 million mark it needed to break even. "The game failed, the game failed," Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee told attendees of a press conference this afternoon.

i am having trouble coping that our already strapped state economy is being fucked over even further by the failure of an MMORPG. having to hear our governor talk about the financial crisis spawned by a video game is just too absurd.

ha, yea, of course i know one of those guys, it's RI

this whole thing is unbelievably absurd

I don't know that many ppl in the gaming industry but I know some dudes who worked on Asheron's Call, I wonder if any of them floated over to this

just so everyone understands, the loan guarantees were approved by former republican governor don carcieri during his last term, after declaring he would not seek reelection

And unfortunately, through a comedy of errors Lincoln Chafee looks like a genius as he denounced the 38 Studios deal struck by Schilling, Carcieri, and the General Assembly in 2010. Then-candidate Chafee said:

A serious misrepresentation has been made to the taxpayers of this state about the value of this deal. The time to put a stop to it is now. The original information used to make this decision was flawed. First, the initial job numbers were inaccurate. Second, new information about the slowing growth of the video game software industry requires a serious second look. Third, some of the loan’s proceeds will be used to pay off a Massachusetts bank loan of unknown size, not create new jobs. The conclusion is inescapable: this is an insider deal that does not serve the best interests of citizens.

http://wrnipoliticsblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/gov-chafee-asked-afl-cios-nee-to-resign-from-edc-board-nee-refused/

schilling is such a garbage human being, this entire thing is awful

whole ordeal enabled by slavish parochial sports fandom / red sock of courage bullshit imho

how much money could I make off of CHAFEE WAS RIGHT t-shirts

schill was a hell of a pitcher though.

sure, but how does that translate to him being a good CEO? only the RI general assembly knows!

Despite Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning selling "1.22 million copies in its first 90 days"

hmmm the number i heard was far less than that, 500K in the first month, which would have meant it sold more in the 2nd month...though he could be citing worldwide figures, not just U.S.

if their break-even projection numbers were over 3 milllion, man, that's a tough row to hoe.

to be honest, big huge games is a solid studio, and they hired ken rolston, who played a big role in making both elder scrolls morrowind and oblivion.

i wonder how much they wasted paying RA Salvatore and Todd McFarlane to deliver boilerplate fantasy crap?

it's a shame that Big Huge just got shut down, because the game itself was pretty good, and if it really sold 1.5M that's not bad for a new franchise....if they think making an even more expensive project (the mmo) in an even riskier genre that's littered with the bodies of companies that thought they were the "next World of Warcraft", they are insane.

i heard through the grapevine that schilling had gotten money out of a bunch of pro athletes as "investors" lol

pro athletes should be banned by law from investing their money

lol, at first, because of the RI connection, i was thinking of seth mcfarlane and thinking, "duh, of course it was doomed to failure!"

oh man I had forgotten that this was the Spawn meets Drizzt Do'Urden MMORPG

what do the farrelly brothers do with their money?

Big Huge did Rise of Nations, right? the Civ/Age of Empires mash-up series?

What pisses me off is that the motherfuck makes fucking loud-ass Tea Party noises for years, then runs for public coffers for dosh to pay back himself first, iirc.

Setting up a system for subsidized loans to entice high-tech industry and gamedevs is a good idea(Bethesda is in MD, if you remember); dumping insane amounts of funds into a new studio run headed by a first-timer trying to make a blockbuster MMO on their first try is not.

likewise, sinking all of the state's economic development funding into a single business!

exactly! awesome example of appeal to authority as a cognitive fallacy, too!

i heard through the grapevine that schilling had gotten money out of a bunch of pro athletes as "investors" lol

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, May 25, 2012 2:25 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao

iirc schilling actually asked for MORE loans to cover costs after 38 couldn't make payroll, over and above the loans already received. the request was turned down, which led to the mass firings this week. afaik, the only remaining thing 38 can do to raise money is to sell off their tax credits to other businesses.

Big Huge did Rise of Nations, right? the Civ/Age of Empires mash-up series?

What pisses me off is that the motherfuck makes fucking loud-ass Tea Party noises for years, then runs for public coffers for dosh to pay back himself first, iirc.

― Choad of Choad Hall (kingfish), Friday, May 25, 2012 1:48 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep they did Rise...studio was founded by Brian Reynolds, one of the ex lead producer types at Firaxis, like a said a good, solid PC oriented studio, Schilling certainly didn't pick a bad company to work with...

I believe the Reckoning project was actually started with another publisher, dropped and picked up by 38 Studios

to your second point, Big Huge was in Maryland and Schilling actually sort of played Maryland and Rhode Island against each other to see who would give me the most "job creation" kickbacks...Rhode Island got sucked into his celebrity and also the very misguided idea that making money on these dang games those kids love so much is really easy - why my kids play video games all the time!

Schilling is basically just a well-heeled fanboy with the hubris to think he knows one fucking thing about running a successful game company, no different than any million dudes except he's famous.

if i've learned nothing else, it's that the business is incredibly complex and just crushingly difficult -- even if you are amazing at what you do. and that enjoying playing games has very very little to do with whether or not you'd be good at making them.

RI public radio roundtable on the subject, including Gov Chafee

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wrni/news.newsmain/article/0/13/1932647/Top.Stories/Political.Roundtable.the.future.for.RI.and.38.Studios

right, Dunning-Kruger Effect in action.

Will take this moment to state that I really want Firaxis or Reynolds to do an updated Alpha Centauri, my fave of all Civ games.

I enjoyed it so much I even read _The Jesus Incident_, its source material.

Schilling actually sort of played Maryland and Rhode Island against each other

this is exactly what happened, it essentially became a bidding war

you win this round, maryland. *shakes fist*

massachusetts comes out of this looking great too because our politicians our dumb but thankfully weren't dumb enough to call when rhode island raised

I really can't see Deval Patrick going for this at all

I mean, there's no casino component

hah yeah pretty much

curt schilling is the worst person.

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Friday, May 25, 2012 11:37 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

$75 million loan is just a staggering amount, like how many fn people did they think this place was gonna employ

400-450 iirc

public documents from the RI EDC are online, who knows what's buried in the fine print

http://www.riedc.com/38studios-public-documents

i realize that fantasy genre shit with foofy names makes tons of money all the time, but it still cracks me up that this much coin was riding on something called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

as far as fantasy names go, that's super tame and boring tbh

One former employee told the video game blog Kotaku that 38 Studios workers learned of the payroll miss only when checks failed to hit their accounts. According to the employee, workers learned by word of mouth that their health insurance was to expire abruptly, Thursday night at midnight. "We found this out when an employee's pregnant wife was told by her doctor, this was on Tuesday 22nd May this week," the employee wrote.

ra salvatore made $5 million off this, lol

that to me is the worst shit, like it's one thing to hear "oh you're not getting paid in 2 weeks" and another to hear "oh that bill you thought you were gonna pay today? yeah that's not happening"

ironic that my video-game-loving son's public school may end up getting shuttered and consolidated because of a failed video game

schilling's the dope who drove this into a wall but carcieri's the moron who handed him the keys to his car, unfortunately I live in that car and, well, I don't really know where I was going with that metaphor

into a wall

Catherine Welch ‏@CWELCHRI
@RINPR Ex-38 Studio employee tells RIPR that Gov Chafee stonewalled the company
2:48 PM - 25 May 12 via web

i completely understand 38 employees being outraged at the sudden loss of their jobs but i honestly don't think chaffee is the appropriate focus for yr anger, dudes

he would not give us $78m more dollars

trying to make an MMO from the start seems like the worst business plan ever for a game company

i just don't know what oversight could the state have provided re: how the funding was dispersed, short of interfering with the actual development of the game?

are there any truly successful MMOs that aren't built on the back of existing IP and reputation

just imagine the RI general assembly getting involved in the development of an mmorpg

what on earth would that game be like

character class: potatohead

probably more interesting than a generic fantasy MMO

i hope this stops Delaware from staking its future on non-erotic Twilight fan fiction

just imagine the RI general assembly getting involved in the development of an mmorpg

what on earth would that game be like

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Friday, May 25, 2012 4:30 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that is the game dont u see

Yeah, I'm wondering who made that call.

About starting with an MMO right out of the gate. Don't these people play Game Dev Story?

trying to make an MMO from the start seems like the worst business plan ever for a game company

― ciderpress, Friday, May 25, 2012 4:27 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are there any truly successful MMOs that aren't built on the back of existing IP and reputation

― ciderpress, Friday, May 25, 2012 4:29 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

yes its completely insane. how on earth did nobody in charge go WHOA WHOA WHAT THE FUCK before this money was given to schilling

new quest!
objective: bring me some stuffies & clamcakes from flo's

curt schilling with an entry into the nominative determinism hall of fame

someone probably said that already though

Scott MacKay ‏@ScotMackRI
Gotta love Rhode Island, only state that can take $75 million and turn it into a Schilling
11:19 AM - 25 May 12 via web

this is insane! i feel a little better about MN political culture now, at least we're gonna have a stadium out of the deal

yes its completely insane. how on earth did nobody in charge go WHOA WHOA WHAT THE FUCK before this money was given to schilling

― Hungry4Ass, Friday, May 25, 2012 4:35 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well you see ppl involved in state government are essentially the lowest form of life on the planet

lower than dwarves and endelrons? i dunno man

does this mean the state of rhode island is going to own *googles* Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Chafee:

"If the company's not going to be profitable and can't give us the confidence [it can get] on solid footing, then we have to deal with the ramifications," Chafee said. "Industry experts tell us this is very, very expensive and it's not only the cost of producing the game, but then maintaining it once it's released, and then tens of millions of dollars to market it. I think the Red Sox lost Babe Ruth because the owner invested in a play called No No Nannette. And the play failed and he had to sell Babe Ruth. This is very very similar. The game failed. That was integral to the success of the company."

seems like 38 was in the process of developing another mmorpg as this all went down.

also:

Gov. Lincoln Chafee said today that 38 Studios is back in default with Rhode Island because the video game company violated its loan agreement by not informing state officials about yesterday’s mass layoffs in advance.

they've been developing that mmo for years, and in fact their single released game was one they got from buying out another studio because they had to release something

What the hell wrong with these people; make a match-3 iPhone game to start or sumthin, then work up a bit.

It's really not that hard to figure out; bit easier than making a MMO or three out of the gate.

http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/05/38-studios-bond.html

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A gaggle of lawyers from Cranston to Los Angeles -- including a former R.I. lieutenant governor -- shared close to $545,650 in payments from the state-backed sale of $75 million in taxable revenue bonds for former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's collapsed video-game venture, 38 Studios.
The local payments from the 2010 bond sale included $124,790 to Adler Pollock & Sheehan, as legal counsel to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation; $36,990 to Taft & McSally as the state's disclosure counsel; $120,620 to First Southwest Company as financial adviser to the EDC; $190,000 to Moses & Afonso as bond counsel to the EDC; and a $12,250 "partial payment'' to Pannone Lopes Devereaux & West as local counsel to the "placement agent."
The lawyers involved in the bond sale approved by the EDC when Republican Governor Donald Carcieri chaired the board included: former Republican Lt. Governor Bernard Jackvony at Pannone Lopes Devereaux & West, according to recently released EDC documents.
At Taft & McSally, they included Robert Murray, a chief of staff to another former Republican governor, Edward D. DiPrete.
At Adler Pollock, they include the EDC's long-time legal adviser Robert Stolzman, and at Moses & Afonso, lawyers Antonio Afonso Jr. and Paul M. Harley.

^^ for ppl wondering how this could happen

this entire thing is one of the dumbest ideas ever

http://blogs.wpri.com/2012/05/25/salvatore-defends-38-studios-its-game-would-blow-you-away/

for that kind of money it better do more than blow me right fellas

somehow extra depressing that you only need $500k of corruption on a $75mn package.

RIP Rhode Island, you will now be known as Connecticut East.

Actually, I was biking home yesterday afternoon and some a-hole in a minivan with RI plates cut me off really closely and I wished bad things on the state. This is all my fault.

eh, don't worry about it. our state prides itself on bad driving & open corruption.

"Some of the hundreds of 38 Studios employees laid off yesterday were hit with a second round of bad news this week when they were told by banks that homes they thought the company had sold for them hadn't been and that they may be stuck with a second mortgage, Polygon has learned.

Several sources directly impacted by the mortgage issue confirmed the news today and a 38 Studios official, who asked to not be named, said the company is working to try and get to the bottom of the notifications and find a resolution."

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

wow that's next level

The upside of all this is that Curt Schilling is going to be a bankrupt, broken man.

what are the odds of criminal charges being brought against 38 i wonder

eh, don't worry about it. our state prides itself on bad driving & open corruption.

hey, that's what we from New Jersey take pride in! we got their first!!

man my girlfriends parents could not stop talking about this the other weekend

blamed of course on unspecified "mini-obamas" in the RI gov't

objectively this is a terrible terrible thing but it's also basically hilarious

also will probably spend the whole day thinking about a rhode island RPG

You have obtained: DELS LEMONADE

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: BUCK A BOOK

blamed of course on unspecified "mini-obamas" in the RI gov't

do they not know that you are a communist propagandist?

blamed of course on unspecified "mini-obamas" in the RI gov't

mini... obamas...?

presidential imitators, dwarf division

lollipop choom gang

Character Race: Obama Dwarf
Character Class: Politician
Level: State Government (Appointed)

The upside of all this is that Curt Schilling is going to be a bankrupt, broken man.

Schilling put something ridiculous like $30 million into this

oh, wow, that's hilariously dumb

ha that makes me feel a lil better, what a muppet

I thought he paid himself back from that state loan first thing?

corporations are people, my friend

Pictured, top to bottom: Curt Schilling, Rhode Island

http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Jeff-daniels-toilet-dumb-an.jpg

In his first public remarks on the company's problems, Schilling told the newspaper for its Tuesday editions that public remarks by Gov. Lincoln Chaffee that the state was trying to keep his company solvent were "devastating." He said that shortly after those remarks, a video-game publisher pulled out of a deal to finance a new game.

"The governor is not operating in the best interest of the company by any stretch, or the taxpayers, or the state," Schilling told the newspaper. "We're trying to save this company and we're working 24/7. The public commentary has been as big a piece of what's happening to us as anything out there."

"I have done whatever I can do to create jobs and create a successful business, with my own income," he said. "Fifty million dollars, everything I've ever saved, has been put back into the economy. The $49 million from Rhode Island has been put back in the economy. I've never taken a penny and I've done nothing but create jobs and create economy. And so how does that translate into welfare baby? I've tried to do right by people."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/05/29/schilling_says_ri_played_role_in_companys_trouble/

this fuckin' guy

it's not government cheese if I am a recipient, see. hands offa my Medicare when i turn 67, too, for that matter.

The $49 million from Rhode Island has been put back in the economy.

what a delightful euphemism for "we had $49 million and spent it all."

he didn't specify WHICH economy ... a chunk of that $49 million could be in Cayman Island or Swiss bank accounts for all anyone knows at this point.

well some of that $49 million was used to repay private bank loans in Massachusetts and to pay mortages on former out-of-state homes of relocated employees, way to give back to rhode island, baby

i don't think he understands that you can't just "create jobs," you have to "keep jobs around once you have created them"

And so how does that translate into welfare baby?

also I'm hearing that the main reason that Schilling took the RI state loan guarantees was because he was unwilling to get private venture capital in the first place -- investors were unwilling to sink money into such a risky venture without a guarantee of oversight, and schilling was unwilling to give up any of his equity or control of the company

investing your entire $50m fortune into a video game company is one of the dumbest athlete investments of all time

seriously, just open up a string of steakhouses and call it a life

also baseball reference estimates that he made $115m in salary alone in his playing career -- what happened to the other $60 million?

something "scaring away investors" is always the most bullshit economic argument made by conservatives

what happened to the other $60 million?

pies

Lost it at the track?

Blew it all on Silver Age comics?

Bought Fleer and Donruss and tried to make them kiss?

clean socks

and that $115 doesn't include endorsements, any potential investment that he actually turned a profit on, any paid work (ESPN etc) that he did after baseball -- obv some of that is probably illiquid and tied up in real estate etc, but... $60+ million? he's either the worst investor/money manager of all time, or he's bullshitting about being on the brink of "financial devastation"

you're talking about someone who put $50 million of his own money into a WoW-killer

yeah.... yeah.

Did anybody here actually _play_ KoA: Reckoning? The sense I got was that it wasn't shit and not exactly Skyrim either.

lenny dykstra now kicking himself for missing out on RI job creation

why would you ever assume anyone's current net worth to be anywhere near their total lifetime earnings, whether rich or not? this is just a dumb line of questioning.

at least Tug McGraw had enough class to spend 90% of his baseball earnings on Irish whiskey and women. boy o boy, the standards for retired ex-Phillies has sure gone downhill.

schilling also sore that the state did not grant the company film tax credits as originally agreed, which they could have sold off to raise funds.

not exactly sure why a video game company would qualify for film tax credits in the first place, tho. and from the looks, the tax credits were withheld after 38 could not make their first loan repayment? idk

the film tax credits were promised on the pretense that these guys would make a porno

http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2012/05/25/1337919654_0011/539w.jpg

Did anybody here actually _play_ KoA: Reckoning? The sense I got was that it wasn't shit and not exactly Skyrim either.

It's not a past-tense thing! There's a demo which I downloaded a few weeks ago and spent some time with yesterday - It's far from shit, but yeah looks a bit generic. Though they did post a message on their forums saying that they had a patch nearly ready to go, and now it'll never see the light of day.

the film tax credits were promised on the pretense that these guys would make a porno

from the looks of that photo, that just might have happened.

I am sorry those dude are out of work but that picture cracks me up

not exactly sure why a video game company would qualify for film tax credits in the first place, tho.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_video_games

the middle one might have a promising career in gay hacker pr0n if he put his mind to it.

sounds like most of them will be good--turbine has already held a job fair essentially just for the 38 staff.

And 38 Studios did pay well: an average of $67,500 for jobs created in Rhode Island, a requirement of the deal with the state. But a number of 38 Studios employees were making well into six figures, said Marc Mencher, chief executive of GameRecruiter.com, a Florida staffing agency that has worked with 38 Studios.

“They were really picky, careful with who they hired,’’ said Mencher, who is now working to help some 38 Studios employees find new jobs. “I am not anticipating that these people are going to have much trouble at all.’’

this is from a couple weeks ago but man:

Now that it has paid the $1.125 million it owed the state, Schilling's 38 Studios is out of default and once again eligible for the tax credits, if state economic-development officials certify that it has met all of the requirements for its $75-million, state-backed loan guarantee, and that has not yet happened.

But state Tax Administrator David Sullivan told a press conference on Friday that 38 Studios had initially requested $2.1 million in tax credits for 2011. But Friday the company submitted another application for an additional credit worth $6.3 million, bringing the total request to about $8.4 million.

http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/05/38-studios-appl.html

(how the hell did the last Resident Evil movie make so much money? is it because it was 3D?)

Milla Jovovich with guns, man.

well yes, but it made more than the previous two RE movies put together

since RI is generous on those state tax credits, all that they're missing is a RI Uwe Boll to make shitty video game movies to rake it in.

3D Milla Jovovich with 3D guns shooting 3D bullets in your 3D brain.

btw can I say, I saw that Dungeon Siege movie and it was SUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER terrible

Postal July 21, 2007 8% $15,000,000 $146,741

amazing

Schilling doesn't have a BloodRayne in him (bloody sock notwithstanding).

so basically the sweetheart deal that the state gave schilling wasn't sweet enough and now he's a pouty loser blaming the state for not bailing him out

what a vile pigfucker this dude is

And so how does that translate into welfare baby?

slice this dude's balls off and sink them to the bottom of narragansett bay imho

taking some dude's point above into consideration i am still dumbstruck that he is saying he has spent all of his baseball money on this.

oh yeah that part is amazing and hilarious, no doubt

CNN reports some bits I hadn't read yet, like how the total bill gunna be something like $112M when all said n done:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/28/technology/38-studios/

"MMOs are the third rail of the industry. Even established publishers get into trouble with MMOs," he says. "The latest good product, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Electronic Arts spent $200 million to develop plus $80 million for post-launch content and support. Then they spent $50 million on marketing. You cannot make a MMO for $75 million. Rhode Island didn't do their due diligence."

Nearly all of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation's board of directors have resigned or asked not to be reinstated when their terms end.
Rhode Island now effectively owns all of 38 Studios' intellectual property and the rights to Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning and Project Copernicus. Dent expects Rhode Island to try to sell the assets to a major publisher -- most likely Electronic Arts (EA), since they were 38 Studios' publisher for Reckoning.

Financial analyst Michael Pachter, with Wedbush Morgan Securities, thinks 38 Studios might be worth $20 million now. However, an out-of-business shell with a half-finished game and no employees isn't going to price well on the market, Dent says.

"[Rhode Island] should have gotten an injunction against 38 Studios from making any material decisions like laying off employees," Dent says. "You could have put together a tax credit package for 38 Studios employees. You need these creative people to make 38 Studios worth anything."

"[Rhode Island] should have gotten an injunction against 38 Studios from making any material decisions like laying off employees"

the mass firings put 38 studios violation of the loan guarantee, I think they have would have had to give 2 months notice if they intended to fire more than 50 ppl iirc

in violation

I wonder if anybody in power will actually get charged for this stupidity

RI is seeking an audit, I think.

Rhode Island also may launch a forensic audit of Schilling’s company as soon as tomorrow.

oh boy

wat is "forensic audit"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_audit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_accounting

One of the less popular CSI brands then

maybe they'll do a 30 for 30 on this

Nearly all of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation's board of directors have resigned or asked not to be reinstated when their terms end. and will be fleeing the state just as quickly as their little feet will carry them.

Pareene:

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/31/welfare_baby_curt_schilling_i_am_not_a_welfare_baby/singleton/?mobile.html

See, Curt, it translates into “welfare baby” because you are… begging the government to give you more money? (Schilling also blamed independent Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee — who opposed the loan guarantee deal from the beginning — for 38 Studios’ failure, saying that if the governor hadn’t pointed out publicly that the company was out of money, no one would have noticed that they were out of money, and they could have attracted investors from the private sector, who are of course chomping at the bit to throw money at a video game company founded by a former professional baseball player that successfully released one game in six years.)

i remember a Schilling interview way back when where he stated that we were living in the end times, smh

he got a state to give him $75 million to make a videogame so he may have a point

^lol

http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Original_Photo/2007/10/21/1192973855_3249.jpg

http://h9.abload.de/img/simpsons-mmorail-smalsrzqe.gif

lol

brilliant

In February, the day after 38 Studios released its first game, Schilling posted 3,200 gold coins — worth roughly $5 million at current prices — as collateral for a loan from Bank Rhode Island in Providence, according to financing statements filed in Massachusetts.

oh my god.

http://articles.boston.com/2012-06-01/news/31963290_1_gold-coins-canadian-maple-leafs-tax-credits

Coins ‘N Things declined to talk about its relationship with Schilling.

the name coins 'n things is really funny

In February, the day after 38 Studios released its first game, Schilling posted 3,200 gold coins — worth roughly $5 million at current prices — as collateral for a loan from Bank Rhode Island in Providence, according to financing statements filed in Massachusetts.

oh my god.

― real men have been preparing manly dishes for centuries (elmo argonaut), Sunday, June 3, 2012 11:54 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

it's not that impressive, he had a cheat code on so he wouldnt sustain damage and lose the coins

What the fuck is it with right wing weirdos and gold coins?

(I mean i know what it is, but for Pete's sake.)

hahaha took me seriously like 3 minutes of rereading that sentence to realize that we were talking *actual gold coins* and not wowgold or somethin

The Kotaku commenters on any article on this are predictably terrible.

still laughing at all these gold coins

"but i've put so much of my personal wealth back into the economy!" *hoards gold coins*

curt schilling is literally a dragon, obv

the real money's in palladium. i have an uncle who buys up bars of palladium and keeps it in the attic, with a honey trap made out of gold in front to 'fake out' the thieves.

http://fawkes.rpgresource.net/images/latinum_slip.jpg

my ferengi lawyer advised me to invest in gold-pressed latinum

at least he still has his +3 Helm of Warding

don't really follow MMOs, but does this article seem on point?
http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/06/04/what-happened-to-38-studios/

also like this comment:

Some more details:

-This particular loan was backed, in large part, by stimulus funds. The stimulus which Curt railed against.

-They laid off the entire staff Friday. The staff got an email from
Schilling and the board which consisted of three lines. Not even a good
luck or goodbye.

-38 Studios helped lure people into Rhode Island by helping them sell
their homes. Except they didn't and now some of the laid off staff are
getting messages from the bank wondering why they haven't paid their
second mortgage.

-Schilling claimed to have put 30mil into the project, when papers
revealed he only put in the 4mil. There's evidence that the first thing
he did was pay back the 4mil he put in.

-The state borrowed from the banks in order to do this. The banks made 7% on this and have already been paid in full.

-I read the Facebook wall post of a friend of a friend who was part of the 38 studios layoff. His resume? Full Sail University.

curt schilling is the worst person.

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Friday, May 25, 2012 11:37 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― lag∞n, Friday, May 25, 2012 3:49 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wish Karl Ravech or somebody, anybody, would just ambush the hell out of this guy on Baseball Tonight.

when was the last time he was on ESPN? i don't really watch baseball tonight anymore, so i'm genuinely curious. imagine he'd have more important things on his hands.

He was on Baseball Tonight a couple of nights ago, so I guess he's still doing his regular ESPN gig! I had the sound off, waiting for something else at the top of the hour.

that's insane!

Seriously! ESPN has suspended the talent for cuss words, racist headlines, sexist behavior, etc, but apparently bilking RI out of millions and "o snap we didn't really sell your house for you" is ok.

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/38_Studios.jpg

drown curt schilling in a vat of pig shit imho

not to lol at laid-off workers in this economy, but this:

-I read the Facebook wall post of a friend of a friend who was part of the 38 studios layoff. His resume? Full Sail University.

wanna bet the Full Sail University was one of these dudes?!?

http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2012/05/25/1337919654_0011/539w.jpg

Full Sail University ALUMNI, even!

Bankrupt.

http://news.providencejournal.com/business/2012/06/schillings-38-studios-declares-bankruptcy-law-enforcement-investigating.html

Meanwhile, Col. Steven G. O'Donnell, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, says that his agency, the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's office and the Rhode Island attorney general "are working together to investigate activities that have recently come to light at 38 Studios."

cmon "curt schilling is a sex trafficker" sideplot

well RI has already had its laws changed by anti human trafficking pressure groups, for instance the legal prostitution loophole was closed a couple years ago

haha m bison

i feel like this is the right thread to tell the world that i would love to play a baseball RPG

omg if he went to jail that would be the greatest thing ever.

btw, what i got out of reading some articles on the providence journal's site is that 38 managed to secure an $8.5 million cash loan from a bank with $14.5 million in PROMISED tax credits??? how the fuck can you use theoretical tax credits (which i imagine assumes that you're making enough money as a company to even owe $14 million in taxes it he first place) to secure a cash loan?

i know shit about the financial industry but isn't that fraud?

haha yeah i think that's what the police / FBI investigation is gonna be about. well, that and state political corruption leading up to the initial EDC loan guarantee, probably?

seems like when youre engaging in corruption its prob a good idea to stay away from celebrities as they tend to generate headlines

thought u were suposed to be pro at this rhodey

ha my manager hipped me to buddy cianci, i'd love to hear his radio show these days

i feel like this is the right thread to tell the world that i would love to play a baseball RPG

― Mordy, Thursday, June 7, 2012 2:34 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there have definitely been baseball MMOs, they all look hilariously low-budget and ive never played them

thousands of virtual people roaming the mediaeval countryside playing baseball against each other

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_Ripken's_Real_Baseball

there have been tons of stat-based baseball board games - there have got to be video game RPGs out there

When investing in celebrity-founded gamedev studios, stick with Vin Diesel's.

curious how 38 studios could possibly owe north of $150 million to over 1,000 creditors? here's some light reading from their chapter 7 filing: http://www2.turnto10.com/mgmedia/file/552/38-studios-creditors-holding-unsecured-nonpriority/

their office lease is $10m. that seems a bit high, doesn't it?

what a mess

yeah i saw that--they've been there for a while and it seems like they may have never paid rent, or actually every paid for anything?

pay for everything with loans, set up in prime real estate, generate no income for years while hiring expensive talent. who could have foreseen the failure of such a flawless strategy?

lock everyone responsible inside a dilapidated house in south providence and torch it

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/06/08/could-big-huge-games-have-saved-38-studios/

Citizen's bank has filed a lawsuit against Schilling for $2.4m

The RI EDC and Bank Rhode Island have both been subpoenaed in the investigation over the company's collapse

Also:

A confidential investment memo obtained by GoLocalProv reveals in painstaking and dramatic detail the true risks of the 38 Studios venture back in 2009—in marked contrast with the highly optimistic picture that consultants and staff presented to board members of the state Economic Development Corporation one year later.

The document, technically known as a Private Placement Memo, was issued on May 1, 2009 by 38 Studios in a bid to secure $25 million in investment funds. The memo pulls no punches in describing the investment opportunity as “highly speculative and inherently risky.” It warns that membership interests in the company should be purchased only by those “who can afford to lose their entire investment.”

http://www.golocalprov.com/news/investigation-edc-board-kept-in-dark-on-true-risks-of-38-studios/

hilarious and insane.

excerpted memos here: http://www.golocalprov.com/news/secret-documents-see-copies/

Gamasutra received the letter below on Tuesday evening. In it, the wife of a former 38 Studios employee describes a uniquely heart-wrenching story about uprooting a five-person family for an exciting new opportunity in Rhode Island, where now-defunct 38 Studios was located.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/172303/38_Studios_Spouse_speaks_out.php

that story is pretty fucked

disgusting behavior

something about that picture of the superfan with the bloody sock is putting me in mind of all those fake relic salesmen in the late middle ages

waving the bloody sock

BOSTON -- Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling said Friday that the collapse of his 38 Studios video game company has probably cost him his entire baseball fortune, and he placed part of the blame on Rhode Island officials, including Gov. Lincoln Chafee.

Schilling said during a 90-minute interview on WEEI-FM in Boston that he put more than $50 million of his own money in the company and that he's had to tell his family that "the money I saved during baseball was probably all gone."

"I'm tapped out," he said.

lol

"You could hang yourself!"

http://images.wikia.com/avenueq/images/5/54/Bad_Idea_Bears.jpg

He should go on the road with Pete Rose.

oh come on, dude has a secret cache of gold bullion somewhere and we all know it

what kind of dummy puts all of his money into any one thing, unless that one thing is a magic money copying machine

haha for sure, both schilling and the RI EDC both were like, "wow, this basket is huge! i bet we can all fit all of our eggs in it!"

tbh I think if you manage to tank a state's economy, you should have to go down with it, so I am very light on sympathy for Herr Schilling

the night they drove old rhodie down
all the nerds were lollin

afaict schilling is blaming state officials for the collapse because the RI EDC promised in a letter to 38 studios that they would grant 38 more film tax credits for it to sell to generate revenue -- except the EDC had no authority to promise the tax credits and cannot be held legally responsible for not doing so. i don't know how the blame for this falls on chaffee tbh but oh well

chaffee is the little boy in this emperor's new clothes story, seems like

obtaining more bank loans against future revenues to be generated from selling tax credits promised by an entity lacking the authority to grant them... this is not a good business model

i read that schilling had ~80% ownership of 38 studios fwiw

chaffee is the little boy in this emperor's new clothes story, seems like

― goole, Friday, June 22, 2012 11:40 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah totally

Wait, the film credits were going to be for pr0n, right?

Emails obtained by The Associated Press under a public records request show that J. Michael Saul, who was managing director of financial services for the state Economic Development Corp. at the time, asked the chief financial officer of 38 Studios, Rick Wester, about a finance director position in December 2010. Saul also inquired about working there as chief operating officer.

The financing deal between 38 Studios and the EDC was finalized on Nov. 2, according to the emails.

"On a separate note and very confidentially I am beginning to investigate my next opportunity," Saul wrote to Wester in a message sent from his EDC email account. "I do not know whether there might be a fit with 38 but I attach my resume as well."

http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnewssports/2012/07/rhode_island_official_sought_j.html

http://media.pennlive.com/patriotnewssports/photo/11276565-large.jpg

WOULD YOU TRUST THIS MAN??

I do not know whether there might be a fit with 38 but I attach my resume as well.

with this, i thee attach

• excellent communication skills
• good attention to detail

please see my attached resume

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7mkvZUcOj2I/0.jpg

* great at spending money

attaching yr resume when youre shaking someone down for a job is such a rookie move

KoA: Reckoning strangely _not_ a part of the Steam sale today, which seems insane to me.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/2012/07/38-studios-end-game/

Asked about 38 Studios’ failure, Schilling says his management team suffered from “significant dysfunction” and that his video-game developers worked too slowly. Those problems, he allows, are his fault.

Hold up; his devs worked too _slowly_? By what metric was he holding them to? This is a rhetorical question by now, but how long did he expect it to take to pull off a decent AAA game? Did he confuse that designation with the minors?

The moral of that article = kids, don't do sports.

Or at least don't do sports well.

the moral of that article = being good at one thing does not make you good at everything

also Curt Schilling is the worst

http://www.vh1.com/celebrity/bwe/images/2009/08/tom-landrys-hat.jpg

"Are you guys working?"

"Yes, sir, Mr. Simpson."

"Could you … um … work any harder?"

"Sure thing, boss!"

great article

Yeah - surprisingly somewhat even-handed, when most stories have gone for the (deserved) easy attack

Once, after an IT guy’s rottweiler died, Schilling presented him with a brand-new pup during an all-staff meeting. There was much applause.

i dont want a new dog! he yelled running in tears to his cubicle

lol

Hahaha

looool

Minor bit of good news:

http://m.kotaku.com/5933268/epic-games-announces-best-studio-logo-ever

Some of the unemployed dudes got picked up by Epic and formed a new studio with this awesome logo:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/post/9/2012/08/impossiblestudios.jpg

They're working on an Infinity Blade game currently.

http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/8460451/curt-schilling-sell-bloody-sock-collateral-failed-loans

the schadenfreude would be richer if he wasn't taking an entire state down with him

he put up the bloody sock as collateral for a loan. jesus.

More importantly, someone accepted a bloody sock as collateral for a loan.

Even a regular sock would have been bad enough.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy

He was on Sports Center the other night as an analyst. I was shocked. What does a guy have to do to be disqualified from a job there?

More importantly, someone accepted a bloody sock as collateral for a loan.

― Tom Hardy & the Batbreakers (Phil D.), Thursday, October 4, 2012 2:50 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is this offer open to the general public

this amalur game is kinda fun yall

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling — whose video game company underwent a spectacular collapse into bankruptcy last year — is selling the blood-stained sock he wore during the 2004 World Series.

Chris Ivy, director of sports for Texas-based Heritage Auctions, says online bidding begins around Feb. 4. Live bidding will take place Feb. 23.

The sock previously had been on loan to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. It has been at Heritage's Dallas headquarters for several weeks and will be displayed at the auction house's Manhattan office before it is sold, according to Ivy.

He said the sock is expected to fetch at least $100,000, though he described that as a conservative estimate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP205ee1b492d0473399d89b5ae9274f76.html

it's a conservative something

What sucks is that this amalur game is kind of great

Yeah, I bought it super-cheap a while back and haven't had the chance to play more than an hour or so, but I was really charmed by what I've seen so far. It was this RPS piece that made me pick it up: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/26/why-didnt-everyone-play-kingdoms-of-amalur/

It's good, but it's irritatingly buggy; like, entire sidequests can become unplayable because of bugs... (Though the game has literally hundreds of sidequests, so missing a few doesn't feel as bad as it might in some other game.)

Hint: when you get to one of those bulletin boards with missions you can accept (mostly in Warsworn fortresses, but they're elsewhere too), accept all three missions at once! Because if you accept only one mission, and later on return to get the other two, they may not work anymore.

Huge article in today's NYTimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/business/curt-schilling-rhode-island-and-the-fall-of-38-studios.html?hp&_r=0

In the end, with warnings like these apparently ignored by the staff, only one of the 13 board members voted against the investment in 38 Studios. That lone dissenter was Kurt Wadensten, who owns Vibco, one of the country’s main manufacturers of industrial vibrators.

waht

That man is living the dream

http://www.vibco.com/

"This can't be right, a million orders for an A. Jourgensen?"

pretty disappointed "industrial vibrators" aren't what i was envisioning.

When the recreational and medical vibrators just won't do, you really do have to move up to the industrial models.

love that their page has no sense of self-consciousness or anything about this.

just like my gf.

"We can shake ALL the air bubbles outta your cement, awwwwwwyeahhhhh"

we're the vibrator guys
          ^expert

I went to their web page and started getting flashbacks to Morel Orel, had to click off

Help me out... what was like Moral Orel on their site?

guess he did put his fortune into that video game http://www.forbes.com/sites/zillow/2013/10/07/retired-baseball-player-curt-schilling-selling-house-home-contents-in-estate-sale

who wants to make a video game that bad damn

there are so many video games already

I feel bad for the people who lost their jobs and the people of the great state of Delaware, but on the other hand: lol

Delaware and Rhode Island are the same place to me

tough but fair

Curt Schilling ‏@gehrig38 3h

If someone were to buy Amalur, put team back on it, it's a billion dollar franchise, 2 years later and still no ones done what we were doing

it's true, I can't think of another software developer who bankrupted a state

Only one video game company put up a blood-soaked sock as collateral.

' 2 years later and still no ones done what we were doing'

Weird kinda delusion makes you make public statements like that, or sink your fortune into taking on WoW right out of the gate with a team of no MMO experience, or be a ball player who adds 'Gehrig' to his twitter handle

@williemayshayes

Gehrig is his son's name fwiw

Seriously?

Also, did KoA ever go on super sale on Steam or amazon or anywhere? I'd to actually try the game out now that all the shouting's done

he's just a really big gehrig fan, and i believe has used that handle forever on wow and message boards and stuff. it's probably the least offensive thing he's done.

A ha

diagnosed with cancer, and the fact that he doesn't want to talk specifics leads me to fear the worst :/

Game is on Steam, finally. Was on sale this weekend.

I mean, I don't even care about Schilling beyond schadenlols and I thought responding to "dude has cancer" with "plus his game came out" was cold

i took it as a pvmic but idk

It's a horrible diagnosis, but one of the things I've been curious all along is what the actual thing that effectively started all this downfall was like as a game.

I'll grant my juxtaposition could have been handled better.

Sort of. That one that actually came out was developed by another studio that got swallowed up by Shilling's studio during all this, and it was already mostly done. I believe they rebranded it to fit into their fictional universe, the main game of which never came out.

Really? IP acquisition is weird. I always thought that his studio led with the design and brought in all the nerdcult names to work on it. Like, this thing was a piece with the MMO.

http://deadspin.com/various-lowlights-from-curt-schillings-failed-38-studio-1732879364

Chas Pierce paying attention to this loony

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a47895/curt-schilling-senate-elizabeth-warren/

and Taibbi!

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/curt-schilling-is-the-next-donald-trump-w435754

Curt Schilling...Mike Pence...is there a right-wing American fucknut called Pound, by any chance?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Ezra_Pound_1963b.jpg

in many ways the ur-fucknut

TY. Eric Morecambe behind EP, too.

hahaha is that actually Eric??

http://deadspin.com/detective-curt-schilling-is-on-the-case-of-the-hoboken-1787242420

next trump http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2016/09/28/curt-schilling-run-president-haha-sure

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--JYqz9Ent--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/r7t7jjyzhcggacqjivbc.jpg

lmfao

he still hasn't deleted it

Gotta go on Twitter and thank him for the display name