Collapse of 38 Studios sticks some devs with second mortgage

dont worry curt schilling im sure you can find some way in your mind to blame obama for this.

This whole deal has kickback written all over it. The only people more corrupt and greedy than bankers is Democrat governments.

Handsup who thinks you can still make a generic RPG using a fantasy setting so similar to everythign produced in the last 15 years that it is almost indistinguishable and.... still make a killing on it at the game store ? Please PM me your answers because I have an investment opportunity for you. Its called Realmsofwowkingsinwitchlandofleftrollgiantswordskingdomthingy.

The last 3 paragraphs, along with the video, are a direct copy and paste from another article.

Well done Gamespot.

I knew this game would only be average, but I didn't expect the company to have one of the worst failures in recent times.  Guess that's what you get with a brand new IP and a charge of $60 for it along with a load of expensive DLC and pre-order/demo/etc. rewards that give you direct ingame power. Can't believe it's still on sale for $60.

PS: What the hell is this terrible comment system?  The old one was way more functional and far less clunky.

I found it strange that the company would spend so much money relocating their employees, but I find it even stranger that they would do so by promising to buy out their old mortgages before the company was even established. It just sounds like some BAD business decisions all around. Perhaps this was driven by the bailout mentality, if things go wrong just turn to nanny government to get a handout (which is exactly what creative director Steve Danuser said: "We just needed a little more help, and we thought the state would have our backs on that."). Sounds like the company 

One thing is clear: if you want to invest your money, give it to a competent investor. If you want to throw your money away, give it to the government.

If I were the former employees of 38 Studios, I'd sue Schilling and EA! However, they probably had a clause in their contracts preventing that.

This has been a messy, sad story. Let it serve as a lesson: When liberal governments are involved, disaster will follow.

i had to much hope for that todd spawn guy and am still hopeful he will get a better team/partnership to deliver an awesome spawn movie and game

3mil to break even?,thats a tall oder for a new IP, Sony got fan favorate AAA tittles that on their 3rd installment that can hardly pass the 3mil mark

Kingdoms Of Amalur was not a fantastic game, but it wasn't exactly horrible either. I think the developer rushed the production of the product to get the final product released. And besides, what were they thinking when going head-to-head with Skyrim? Bethesda have been making role-playing games for 18 years now and have more than enough experience to rule the crowd. 

Keep in mind that one of the creative forces behind Oblivion & Morrowind (Ken Rolston) did develop Amalur, but I doubt he had much creative freedom because of budget constraints and the tons of pressure piled upon the studio.

When your studio is getting loans from the government, it doesn't take a genius to figure out you are in trouble. And on top of those already large problems, a former baseball player was helming the game, a baseball player! What does he know about running a company? It doesn't matter now, 38 studios is gone, and people will learn from this episode. 

Now you know why games are really made by wall street entities.  To pay off their LOANS.  Not to provide YOU with a good game, or to provide their workers with an equitable and fair job.  It's to provide you with whatever bare level that is needed to meet those needs.

Now while the creative people BEHIND this company actually did create a game loved by many, it doesn't mean it will escape the same failings behind the structure of PRETTY MUCH EVERY video game maker.

The sad fact is they are in business to pay off their creditors so they can take out NEWER, BIGGER LOANS, and in that process the few at the top can make their bonuses and reward their stockholders from this overall scam with bigger dividends and a higher stock price.

YOU think they are in the video game business.  NOPE...they are in the business of WALL STREET.

Funny thing though, I bet those people getting hounded by 'banks' are being hounded by banks that don't actually own the 'note'. How many millions of people need to be kicked out of THEIR homes by people that don't own them? Funny enough, it happens to almost each one that does get kicked out of their homes.  Funnier still, odds are in order to BE kicked out of THEIR home, the bank that CLAIMS to own it, commits FRAUD UPON THE COURT in order to do it, and gets away with it scot-free.   For example, signed by 'Linda Green', is really rubber stamped for the good of the TBTF who screwed everything up. 

Every mortgage 'securitized' has been lost in the fraud of wall street, yet that won't stop them from foreclosing on you.  The man of the people who brought change, even allows them to knowingly do this.  Thanks Wall Street Walker Ner-O.

Now we have a situation where someone decided to pull the loan plug (in a ZIRP environment mind you) that destroys a company that utilized a broken business model (industry wide standardized broken business model), and in the process it's employees (and customers in other ways) risk having THEIR homes stolen away from them by some banks that CLAIMS but ACTUALLY DOESN'T have legal claim to their home.

Don't worry if they can't find work for 99 weeks they'll go off the roles and be claimed to 'not trying to work' thus enabling the 'official farce unemployment rate' to decline, even if no one actually was hired.  Besides of course the millions of jobs they add because a computer model aka a fake way of adding jobs that don't exist doesn't decrease it either.

Land of the idiot, and the home of the scared.  Play fraud.

Glass-Steagall

Thats pretty harsh for the employees to have to put of with, given they have just lost their jobs. It's a shame game studios are so transient these days. How are you meant to provide stability for a family when your job could end after one game is done.

With each day this story gets worse.  It's looking more and more like serious mis-management at 38 studios, possibly bordering on illegal activity.

No doubt someone will try to sue them, but what can you sue for when the company is bankrupt to the tune of tens of millions of dollars?

Those insane loan and investment figures just reek of mismanagement. Really feel sorry for the devs...

So?..bye bye Project Copernicus?? or what??

Curt Schilling should have to pay for this not the people!!

This is sickening and getting uglier by the day.. first having not paid since May 1 so they worked for no wages until being let go.

And now news that most likely they'll have to go through bankruptcy marred with bad credit to accompany unemployment

Well...poop.

Wait, how could they not know that their homes weren't sold?

If you had someone else sell your house and they told you that they had just sold the house, wouldn't the first thing you say to them be, "great, let me have the check so I can use it to pay off my mortgage"?

Anyone else find it a little suspect that Sinclair thought this was news-worthy?   Why does this article even exist?   What was the purpose of letting us know that the poor employees over at 38 Studios had to get second mortgages?  Is he trying to guilt trip u us or something?  My inner conspiracy theorist would connect this article to the ever-growing notion that developers and publishers are VICTIMS of used game sales and piracy and need YOUR money, lest they be thrown out onto the streets like Tiny Tim. 

Yeah, my mother was recently fired after working dilligently at her workplace for 15 years.   You cannot fathom how little I care about someone needing a second mortgage.