38 Studios collapse could cost Rhode Island taxpayers $112.6 million - Polidicks

[quote][url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-05-15-38-studios-collapse-could-cost-rhode-island-taxpayers-USD112-6-million][img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12875849/jotain/gamesindustry.png[/img][/url] [B]If Schilling's MMO house closes, taxpayers could be paying loans until 2020 [/B] The collapse of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios could potentially cost the taxpayers of Rhode Island $112.6 million through 2020. Rhode Island politicians and 38 Studios' management are currently working to "keep 38 Studios solvent." Joystiq did the math and found that the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation borrowed $75 million from private investors, at interest rates between 6 and 7.75 percent. 38 Studios was then meant to repay those loans through the sale of its games. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, from 38 Studios' subsidiary Big Huge Games, only sold 460,000 in North America to date according to data supplied to GamesIndustry International by the NPD Group. 38 Studios proper is still working on its MMO, Copernicus, with no target release date in sight. That means little money coming in, while a great deal of money is still heading out the door. If 38 Studios collapses, the governor will ask the General Assembly to repay bondholders. Even worse, it may make other states cautious about offering funding and tax breaks to other studios. We have reached out to 38 Studios for comment, but as of this writing, no one has returned our calls or emails. [/quote]

Economically, Rhode Island is dying. When the government has to pay companies to move to the state, you know something is wrong.

[QUOTE=Boba_Fett;35970153]Economically, Rhode Island is dying. When the government has to pay companies to move to the state, you know something is wrong.[/QUOTE] governments subsidize companies to move to states/cities all the time. it has the potential to stir economic growth what is wrong with that

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;35970477]governments subsidize companies to move to states/cities all the time. it has the potential to stir economic growth what is wrong with that[/QUOTE] The state government drives away all business, and then expects to buy back economic growth at the expense of the taxpayers.

Rhode Island has a lot of ticks.

[QUOTE=Boba_Fett;35971035]The state government drives away all business, and then expects to buy back economic growth at the expense of the taxpayers.[/QUOTE] i could be misreading this but this doesn't seem to answer his question very well how exactly does the state government drive away business and what is bad about buying back economic growth with taxpayer dollars, when that economic growth will directly stimulate the economy taxpayers participate in?

I forgot we even had that. How do you like that...

The problem is when state officials decide to 'create jobs' by giving money to risky ventures. The computer GAME industry? Come on! Game developers shut down all the time, one bad selling title has killed many. Computer software is one thing, games is another. It's not enough to subsidize 'business', you need to know what kind of business you are giving money to and what's the likelihood of success. Unless corruption is behind this what probably happened is someone said the keywords "High tech... software" and the politicians signed the check without any idea of what kind of software was involved.

Kingdoms of Amalur was a boring game, so I'm not surprised they'd be in the loss over it. Especially considering the horrible advertising campaign it had; the only reason I know of/played the game was to get Mass Effect 3 items. I literally left the game running the first chance I got so I would be awarded the items.

Cthulhu will save rhode island

Cthulhu for 2012?

As far as the official story goes, 38 Studios was founded in 2006 to work on an Amalur MMORPG. Then they bought Big Huge Games, who were already working on an RPG, so they changed the setting to Amalur and released it as a prequel to the MMORPG. Were they really expecting to finance a giant MMORPG set in a world created by R.A. Salvatore with whatever profits Reckoning raked in? If yes, that's insane.