State Lawyer: 38 Studios Assets "Being Eaten Up"

[BlameTheWizards]

State Lawyer: 38 Studios Assets "Being Eaten Up"

Rhode Island's full senate will soon vote on a bill that encourages out of court settlements as a way of hopefully making its money back from the 38 Studios fiasco.

Legislation to make it easier for defendants to settle out of court in Rhode Island Commerce Corp's case against 38 Studios is due before the state's full senate in the near future. Lawyer Max Wistow, representing Rhode Island Commerce Corp, encouraged the new bill due to 38 Studios' recoverable resources "being eaten up very rapidly," according to The Associated Press.

The new law would protect any party in the case who settles with Rhode Island from future lawsuits filed by any of the co-defendants. The bill will also allow the state to maximize its potential financial recovery from 38 Studios, Wistow said. Rhode Island proposed the new law <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131169-Rhode-Island-Proposes-38-Studios-Law-for-Settlements>earlier this month. Wistow commented in the Providence Journal that similar proposals helped Rhode Island move along litigation in the 1990s and 2003.

The bill already passed a hearing and vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. "It's no secret among the defendants that we are seeking this. Some defendants are very eager to see this pass," Wistow told the Journal.

38 Studios is on the line for a $75 million loan the state gave it for moving the company to Rhode Island in 2010. The studio, founded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, shut its doors less than two years later, leaving Rhode Island with the unpaid tab. The company's only game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was released in early 2012.


Source: <a href=http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20140124-legislation-in-38-studios-case-goes-to-the-rhode-island-senate.ece>Providence Journal, <a href=http://www.whdh.com/story/24531542/ri-lawmakers-to-review-38-studios-settlement-bill>The Associated Press, via <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/24/5341432/38-studios-recoverable-resources-are-being-eaten-up-lawyer-says>Polygon


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[RaikuFA]

Jeez, RH is being asses with this whole fiasco.

BTW: Amalur only failed because it was released right after Skyrim.

 

[rasputin0009]

Well they made a game with the invested money sooo... ya, they invested in the wrong product. Oh wait this is America; the country of suing others for your own screw-ups. The American dream!

 

[viranimus]

Such a sad story.

But Yes, Rhode Island, You totally made the right call, you got tech jobs brought to your state and instead of being reasonable about the nature of this industry, you decide to look two foot in front of your faces, howl for blood, and effectively kill any long term benefit that you could have had from the investment.

So I hope you guys recoup all those losses with raping and dismantling the studio. Surely the bits and pieces of 38S carcass will get you more than what 38S would have been able to bring as one functioning cohesive unit. Serves you right for gambling in an industry you clearly know little about all in the bottom line of trying to buy tech industry jobs.

Captcha: Sausages

Only if you are trying to say they were being a bunch of dicks, Captcha.

 

[Nielas]

Such a sad story.

But Yes, Rhode Island, You totally made the right call, you got tech jobs brought to your state and instead of being reasonable about the nature of this industry, you decide to look two foot in front of your faces, howl for blood, and effectively kill any long term benefit that you could have had from the investment.

So I hope you guys recoup all those losses with raping and dismantling the studio. Surely the bits and pieces of 38S carcass will get you more than what 38S would have been able to bring as one functioning cohesive unit. Serves you right for gambling in an industry you clearly know little about all in the bottom line of trying to buy tech industry jobs.

Captcha: Sausages

Only if you are trying to say they were being a bunch of dicks, Captcha.

38 Studios was hemorrhaging money and was going bankrupt all on its own. The studio was dead no matter what Rhode Island did. The mistake was bringing the company in to Rhode Island in the first place and trusting that Schilling knew what he was doing. The company and the states's investment in it were doomed from the start.

 

[viranimus]

Such a sad story.

But Yes, Rhode Island, You totally made the right call, you got tech jobs brought to your state and instead of being reasonable about the nature of this industry, you decide to look two foot in front of your faces, howl for blood, and effectively kill any long term benefit that you could have had from the investment.

So I hope you guys recoup all those losses with raping and dismantling the studio. Surely the bits and pieces of 38S carcass will get you more than what 38S would have been able to bring as one functioning cohesive unit. Serves you right for gambling in an industry you clearly know little about all in the bottom line of trying to buy tech industry jobs.

Captcha: Sausages

Only if you are trying to say they were being a bunch of dicks, Captcha.

38 Studios was hemorrhaging money and was going bankrupt all on its own. The studio was dead no matter what Rhode Island did. The mistake was bringing the company in to Rhode Island in the first place and trusting that Schilling knew what he was doing. The company and the states's investment in it were doomed from the start.

I would disagree, because while KoA might not have been able to live up to its unrealistic expectations, the fact is that 38S had built the assets that were going to allow them to quickly capitalize on further installments of the franchise, not the least of which would have been the MMO (which likley would have had its own pitfalls) Again this is why RI failed, because they did not understand that nature and how such quick turn arounds with things like Sequels can generate much greater profit than the original IP.

Rhode Island already got return on its investment before anything was ever released, In that the reason they gave the loan was to lure 38S to Rhode Island that the state parlayed into "job creation". However getting that motivation sated was not enough and they demanded blood far too soon.

Sure 38S might have had its problems internally, but most of those problems would have self corrected if simply given proper time to do so.

 

[Nielas]

Such a sad story.

But Yes, Rhode Island, You totally made the right call, you got tech jobs brought to your state and instead of being reasonable about the nature of this industry, you decide to look two foot in front of your faces, howl for blood, and effectively kill any long term benefit that you could have had from the investment.

So I hope you guys recoup all those losses with raping and dismantling the studio. Surely the bits and pieces of 38S carcass will get you more than what 38S would have been able to bring as one functioning cohesive unit. Serves you right for gambling in an industry you clearly know little about all in the bottom line of trying to buy tech industry jobs.

Captcha: Sausages

Only if you are trying to say they were being a bunch of dicks, Captcha.

38 Studios was hemorrhaging money and was going bankrupt all on its own. The studio was dead no matter what Rhode Island did. The mistake was bringing the company in to Rhode Island in the first place and trusting that Schilling knew what he was doing. The company and the states's investment in it were doomed from the start.

I would disagree, because while KoA might not have been able to live up to its unrealistic expectations, the fact is that 38S had built the assets that were going to allow them to quickly capitalize on further installments of the franchise, not the least of which would have been the MMO (which likley would have had its own pitfalls) Again this is why RI failed, because they did not understand that nature and how such quick turn arounds with things like Sequels can generate much greater profit than the original IP.

Rhode Island already got return on its investment before anything was ever released, In that the reason they gave the loan was to lure 38S to Rhode Island that the state parlayed into "job creation". However getting that motivation sated was not enough and they demanded blood far too soon.

Sure 38S might have had its problems internally, but most of those problems would have self corrected if simply given proper time to do so.

That's not the impression I got from reading the articles about what happened. The company was broke and there was no money coming in from KoA anymore since they already spent the advances EA paid them and the sales have not reached the level where they were eligible for more royalties. They also had a ton of unpaid bills outstanding as evidenced by fact that moving companies never got paid for work done six months previously and later tried to recoup the money from individual employees.

Given the size of the company and its excessive spending, the additional funds they were seeking would have kept them going for probably another month or two. The MMO would not have been ready for release by then so they would have needed even more investment. RI would have probably have had to support 38 Studio for another year at least before they saw any revenue. They considered it throwing good money after bad and pulled the plug on the money spigot.

38 Studio should have been working on a standard KoA sequel and not jumped right into the MMO. A well managed company could have maybe pulled it off but they were spending way too much money too fast and had no revenue coming in.

 

[Nergui]

Jeez, RH is being asses with this whole fiasco.

BTW: Amalur only failed because it was released right after Skyrim.

KoA was released one month prior to Skyrim, but your point is still relevant. Had KoA been released six or more months prior or after Skyrim, the game might have been a bit more successful.