Entire 38 Studios Staff Laid Off, Effective Immediately
- Thread starter Mike Kayatta
- Start date
Well dang, all I know about KoA is the review Yahtzee did so I can't speak with any certainty, but if it sold well is this just a case of execs saying 'screw you' and taking all the money? I can't see any other reason that this would have happened with over a million copies sold.
It's nice to see a sense of community in the gaming world though, immediately accepting applications of this unfortunate circumstance, hopefully they all find places that aren't dicks.
It's nice to see a sense of community in the gaming world though, immediately accepting applications of this unfortunate circumstance, hopefully they all find places that aren't dicks.
Not every game is worth $60 (that number going up even more in other countries) and they wasted an absurd amount of money on a horrible business idea in the first place. The Witcher 2 was made with around $10 million and 38 studios just wasted over $70 million. If you are honestly wasting that much money to the point your game has to be that massive a hit just to break even you need to reconsider what you are doing. I didn't buy the game at all because I tried the demo and didn't care for it one bit. I feel sorry for the people who lost their jobs but to say this couldn't have been predicted is beyond inaccurate. They were trying to make an MMO in the first place with no brand recognition whatsoever they would have all lost eventually. Blaming the consumer for not buying a game they didn't want to pay $60 for is just stupid. Not to mention they knew they were dying and still didn't try to do anything. The sales I've seen on KoA are negligible with barely anything off and if they were so desperate to survive they should have put up a massive sale to try getting as much revenue as possible going. However they didn't and now they are gone. They died because of their own problems no one elses.doctorjackal777 said:
No it isn't. It's a sign that this particular company did something wrong. The problem is simply that they spent a certain amount of money making the game, and needed a certain number of sales to make it back. Where they went wrong was in expecting a reasonably competent but utterly generic fantasy game to sell that well. This says absolutely nothing about the industry as a whole (other than it currently being chock full of generic fantasy games). Clearly there are plenty of companies that make games much more cheaply and therefore are successful with far fewer sales, and there are quite a few companies that make more expensive games that sell much better and also make their money back.The Random One said:
38 simply chose a high risk business strategy, and it didn't pay off. If they'd stuck to a smaller scale and lower budget, they wouldn't have needed such high sales, and would have had much less to lose in the event of a failure. But instead they went with a single big budget product and were screwed when it failed to be successful enough. Sure, it sucks for those involved that this has happened. But there are plenty of other companies, both big and small, that haven't made these mistakes and continue to do well. So let's not pretend that the failure of of one business that took a huge risk somehow says anything about the state of the industry as a whole.
This game was destined to fail..it came out with in 6 months of Skyrim. That certainly didn't help it's sales as every fantasy rpg going be compared to it. It seemed like an alright game, but I already had my fill of the fantasy world setting by time it came around and want something else. I'll likely pick it at some point but it's not going be soon enough save any of these people's jobs.
From Schilling's Wikipedia page:
"In July 2010, the Rhode Island Board of Economic Development approved a $75-million guaranteed loan to 38 Studios. 38 Studios has promised to bring 450 jobs to the state by the end of 2012. The company is developing two products. One is a single-player game called ?Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,? which was released in February, 2012. Executives from 38 Studios introduced the game at the Comic-Con 2010 convention in San Diego.[61]
In May 2012, 38 Studios defaulted on its loan from the state of Rhode Island and failed to meet payroll obligations to its employees. Consequently 38 Studios and it's subsidiary, Big Huge Games, had to lay off their entire staff. [62]"
So they funded the game on a loan they could not pay back. Unfortunate. Best intentions, after all.
"In July 2010, the Rhode Island Board of Economic Development approved a $75-million guaranteed loan to 38 Studios. 38 Studios has promised to bring 450 jobs to the state by the end of 2012. The company is developing two products. One is a single-player game called ?Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,? which was released in February, 2012. Executives from 38 Studios introduced the game at the Comic-Con 2010 convention in San Diego.[61]
In May 2012, 38 Studios defaulted on its loan from the state of Rhode Island and failed to meet payroll obligations to its employees. Consequently 38 Studios and it's subsidiary, Big Huge Games, had to lay off their entire staff. [62]"
So they funded the game on a loan they could not pay back. Unfortunate. Best intentions, after all.
Almost 400 people? I don't know if it's more crazy that they were all let go at once or that so many people were employed there in the first place. Reminds me of Realtime Worlds except with even more employees.
I first read the title as "Entire 38 Studios Staff Laid". This is not what i was expecting at all, no this is much more serious... And for the ones that aren't even getting laid, well my heart goes out to them even more.
Ironically, my hatred of EA is what helped this happen. I refuse to buy new games published by EA. It really is a shame because I liked the demo when I played it.matrix3509 said:
I have great feelings of apathy about this... except the hilarity of the (gaming) business world, man that stuff cracks me up.
"I am here now and without saying it myself everyone will start hating this game"
But don't mind me. I. Can't. Read.
I also seem to be on an Experimental Double Secret Hush-Hush double probation (shh, secret), feel free to report me if anyone has their feelings hurt because of whatever.
Am not familiar with that expression, it just reads like you want everyone to know that you are here 'then' and after which point the '"They made a game that sucks therefore deserved to be fired" comments start drowning the thread' are surely to follow.matrix3509 said:
"I am here now and without saying it myself everyone will start hating this game"
But don't mind me. I. Can't. Read.
I also seem to be on an Experimental Double Secret Hush-Hush double probation (shh, secret), feel free to report me if anyone has their feelings hurt because of whatever.
Love how you yourself included an insult in your own post telling him not to insult you, even if it was deserved still couldn't not laugh at the idea.matrix3509 said:
CAPTACHA: "drink milk" Why thank you, I shall
It's nice to hear some of the industry rallying together in and to support those workers.
I doubt 38 Studios will ever reopen. Or at least that many former employees wont go back if they do. Killing the entire staff with one clean sword cut with no prior notice of the execution date, they tend to hold a grudge.
I doubt 38 Studios will ever reopen. Or at least that many former employees wont go back if they do. Killing the entire staff with one clean sword cut with no prior notice of the execution date, they tend to hold a grudge.
The last bit annoys me. Companies are creating jobs for them. If these companies had the need for employees prior to this, why are they not advertising this already? Creating jobs because someone is laid off, while well meaning, is a serious fucking insult to every hard-working already unemployed programmer, artist, UI designer, storyboarder, or other, in the business.
That has irritated me so much.
Anyway, my most sincere wishes of successful remployment to those who were laid off. I'm as surprised as they probably were, given how well Amalur appeared to do on the surface. It didn't sell Skyrim numbers, but it's a new IP by a relatively unknown developer, it was never going to.
That has irritated me so much.
Anyway, my most sincere wishes of successful remployment to those who were laid off. I'm as surprised as they probably were, given how well Amalur appeared to do on the surface. It didn't sell Skyrim numbers, but it's a new IP by a relatively unknown developer, it was never going to.
Part of this was RI's governor wanted to spite the Democrat who came before. The current guy always thought the loan to 38 Studios was a bad idea, so he's going out and lying and sinking the company to basically show how right he was.