Curt Schilling's 38 Studios Struggling Financially 158
medv4380 writes "38 Studios, run by Curt Schilling, is having a hard time paying its bills and employees. The gaming community hasn't been happy with the company since the issue with an Online Pass for Single Player Content, which we discussed previously. Now, 38 Studios has bounced a check intended as a payment on its $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island. If the company defaults, Rhode Island taxpayers will have to cover the loan and interest, which could total nearly $100 million."
Schilling. (Score:5, Informative)
Jesus people.
It's Schilling.
Re:who? (Score:4, Informative)
Curt Schilling.
Mr. Bloody Sock himself.
You need to get out of your basement once in a while.
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BMO
As surprising as a Hollywood divorce (Score:4, Informative)
All of us techies living in Mass. saw this coming. You had a sports celebrity non-businessman CEO on one side, and unsophisticated investors on the other who happened to be controlling $75 million of taxpayers' money. The agreement they signed pretty much compelled 38 Studios to build the payroll to an unsustainable level (since the state was trying to hoping to create a local tech industry) and thus burn money as fast as possible. Elementary budgeting and accounting skills were lacking.
Thank Goodness! (Score:5, Informative)
All I can say is good riddance. I'm glad that a shitty game with an even shittier DRM practice is not rewarded. We should be happy about this.
Remember all the hub-bub that KoA was getting about even though it was single player you couldn't get 1/3 the game unless you purchased new? Yet all of a sudden, even though it's average score was a 7, it was getting rave or good comments all over every game sites message board. The astroturfing was so obvious and egregious. And the problem was, it was so prevalent and everywhere people actually genuinely believed it was a good game.
What pissed me off more though is that everyone was carrying torches the day before it was released about the DRM, and then "they just bent over and took it."
So I say good riddances and thank god. Because if that game sold well, you know damn well that would open the floodgates to needing online passes for single player games forever on...consoles!
Ugh.
Re:so he bounced a check.... (Score:4, Informative)
See that's the problem. He took, how much, $75 million, of the state of Rhode Island's money (as a loan.) And spent it. It's gone. If you seize the company and put it up at auction, all you're going to get is a bunch of scratched-up aeron chairs and three-year-old computers. The state is out the money.