Entire 38 Studios Staff Laid Off, Effective Immediately

[The_Waspman]

This News makes me sad.

It makes me sad for all of the employees who have been kicked to the curb without warning (or it seems, their final three weeks pay).

It makes me sad because - even though Amalur wasn't all that original - I enjoyed playing it. It was a meaty RPG. Sure, none of the characters were that memorable (except for that spaced out hippy chick in Cradle of Summer and whats-her-face who dressed in blets), and the quests were pretty standard stuff, but I enjoyed the combat, I enjoyed the crafting and god damn did they know how to make DLC. No 30 minute extra mission here (unless you bought it preowned).

I haven't really been following the tragedy of this studio's demise closely, but it sounds a lot like the typical 'executive screwing over the little guy' story that is all too familiar nowadays.

I wish all of those employees the best of luck with continuing their careers, and as unlikely as it is, if any of them are reading this, I personally enjoyed the game you had a hand in creating. Small recompense I know, but thank you.

 

[Terramax]

Whilst this is a real shame, seriously, if a game that sells 1.2 million copies isn't enough to keep a company afloat, something is very wrong.

Devs and games are just getting too big.

 

[Hutzpah Chicken]

So they went out of business because their one game didn't sell at an outrageous rate? That sounds a tad bit dramatic. Since Capitalism works, they can get work real quick, especially if Gearbox and EA are helping.

 

[zombiesinc]

I spent nearly 140 hours with KoA. Although it should have only been around 100, game-breaking bugs are no fun. I suppose I now see why they offered little to no support to KoA, or at least understand to some extent. Obviously, I enjoyed the game, but I can see why others may not have.

A shame that so many workers have been laid off, for the obvious and more important reasons, but it's great to see certain companies reaching out and offering support. I'd imagine though, with so many signs of certain trouble, that many individuals were already looking for employment, or at least I hope so.

On a selfish note I wonder if this means there won't be a sequel to KoA? Also a shame 'cause it's been one of the very few games I've genuinely gotten into in the past, say, year or so. Which is odd, considering just how many games of higher quality have been released in that time frame.

 

[kajinking]

Well that went downhill fast, Still I guess it was kind of expected considering they were betting on a fantasy game not only being able to compete in a market with WOW and Skyrim but also being able to go full on MMO after only one game. It just seems like they were expecting way too much out of a new IP that didn't have all the much going for it in a very over-crowed market. May as well be trying to bank an entire company on a brand new Modern Military Shooter IP when you got the resident Godzilla and Kingkong Battlefield 3 and COD fighting in the background.

Uhhh...they DID compete. They sold above expectations. Nobody was expecting this to be a WoW or Skyrim killer.

Come on.

I never said it was suppose to be a Skyrim or WOW killer but still the market for a new Fantasy IP could have been better. Also if they sold above expectations and they still apparently didn't make enough money to cover costs doesn't that mean they never expected to make enough to cover costs?

 

[weirdee]

gonna sound exactly like a huge jerk here, but i think given recent similar events and outcomes, i think the best way to get hired is to first be employed by a game studio that's about to go under, because i've never seen this many hungry vultures in such a time span

 

[Epona]

I spent nearly 140 hours with KoA. Although it should have only been around 100, game-breaking bugs are no fun. I suppose I now see why they offered little to no support to KoA, or at least understand to some extent.

Well, they had enough time and resources to put out three DLC's priced at $25 total. I would think the game breaking bugs would take priority but I guess not. Now, those bugs will never get fixed.

 

[Something Amyss]

I never said it was suppose to be a Skyrim or WOW killer

And nobody claimed you did, dear.

but still the market for a new Fantasy IP could have been better.

And yet they sold damn well for a new title in a fantasy market. HUH.

Also if they sold above expectations and they still apparently didn't make enough money to cover costs doesn't that mean they never expected to make enough to cover costs?

If you preclude all other logical possibilities here, then yes. Cost actually does not seem to be the issue here.

 

[GeorgW]

That really, really sucks. I absolutely loved Amalur. Yeah, it had its fair share of problems, but it was still a very fun game that I still play today. The sequel could have improved upon the game to the point of it being able to compete with TES6. It sucks that it'll never have that chance, and that all those people got fired. I wonder if it would have sold better if it waited a month for Skyrim to die down.

 

[Khanht Cope]

Wow this went from bad to WAY WORSE really quickly. It's a shame to see so many folks lose their jobs and probably get screwed over even more by all this.

I blame Schilling for trying to jump into the big name game development too quickly and overstepping his bounds. Given the talent involved in KoA it was rather a letdown, I got bored with it about halfway through as it really started to drag on and get kind of monotonous. After KoA came out the talk started about turning it into an MMO and this was a mistake. The original game was not strong enough as a single player game to warrant turning the IP into an MMO already. Schilling's studio needed to get some more games under their belt before they started trying to make an MMO out of KoA.

I don't think KoA would have made that great of an MMO anyway.

According to the hearsay that reached my ear; it started out as a single player action RPG being developed by Big Huge Games. 38 Studios bought them and connected the game to their IP for an MMO project that 38 Studios had been working on; "Project Copernicus".

This resulted in Kingdoms of Amalur, which it seems they wanted to establish the IP and help their MMO hit the ground running. MMO's are really big projects, so I think it's likely that a lot of the financial pressures came from supporting Project Copernicus. Even Bioware were probably hoping for their Dragon Age and Mass Effect sequels to help fund SW:TOR.

 

[0p3rati0n]

Wow that's sad. I felt my heart sink when I read this. I can only imagine what I was like in those offices when every employee read that notice. Hopefully they can all find good work.

 

[justnotcricket]

Oh, that's a shame. I think KoA showed promise for the studio. I'm glad that some other industry bods are coming out in support of the ex-38studios employees - KoA might not have set the world on fire, but it seems like colossal financial mismanagement has gotten in the way of us finding out if they can make an even better game next time.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

The industry really needs to get shaken up. Time for a change, starting from the top.

 

[Hungry Donner]

According to the hearsay that reached my ear; it started out as a single player action RPG being developed by Big Huge Games. 38 Studios bought them and connected the game to their IP for an MMO project that 38 Studios had been working on; "Project Copernicus".

This resulted in Kingdoms of Amalur, which it seems they wanted to establish the IP and help their MMO hit the ground running. MMO's are really big projects, so I think it's likely that a lot of the financial pressures came from supporting Project Copernicus. Even Bioware were probably hoping for their Dragon Age and Mass Effect sequels to help fund SW:TOR.

That's not hearsay. Work began on the game in 2007, two years before THQ sold Big Huge Games to 38 Studios. The project was sufficient to get Ken Rolston out of retirement, and I doubt he and the rest of the team spent those first two years twiddling their thumbs.

If I remember correctly their game actually had a 2009 or 2010 target for release, but after 38 Studios acquired them the game was redone with the Kings of Amalur setting. I don't know how much of the original game was kept, although I suspect most of the world building was scrapped.

 

[lomifeh]

Read today over at The Verge that they were starting work on a sequel already aiming to fix common player complaints among other things. Also the report quoted someone from Big Huge stating that 38 studios had done no actual work on Amalur. It's a shame because the game was fun and showed some promise. I loved how you could easily respec at any moment and be equally badass.