38 Studios - Payment Clears

Dhruin

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VG247 reports Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee held a press conference to announce 38 Studios' first payment had now cleared:
Earlier reports stated that in order to make the required payment, the firm deferred payroll and let go of all contract and temporary staff. The report also said the check handed over to the state bounced, but it seems to have cleared now.
“It’s time for them to go out and get private capital funding,” said governor Chafee. “That’s the deal. It’s a generous deal, but stick to it.
“I want to make sure we’re doing everything possible to make sure 38 doesn’t fail. We’re in deep. There’s not going to be any money from the state. They’re not coming here for easy money.”
He also revealed 38's Copernicus MMO is expected June 2013, if they make it there.
More information.
 
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It seems all this trouble has spurred (sp?) them on to release more info (or use the momentum of the bad publicity, is there such a thing as bad publicity?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U&feature=youtu.be

Also, I wonder if that money was used to buy BHG (BigHugeGames) or even used on Reckoning at all. It seems the loan was very specifically aimed at jobs in Rhode Island, while BHG is still operating out of Maryland.

It isn't cheap to develop an MMO or games for that matter. I believe Bethesda had two injections of 100 mil, from private equity but it was probably used for Bethesda Game Studios' games, buying studios, developing Bethesda Softworks into a semi-large publisher AND the MMO.

The man-hours going into MMO's seem to be immense, where BGS can develop a 300 hour single-player RPG every two-three years, Amalur (or Project Copernicus) and TESOL have both been in development since 2006 or 2007. I didn't really follow SWTOR so I don't know when that was first announced.
 
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I didn't really follow SWTOR so I don't know when that was first announced.

Both SWTOR and GW2 had ~5 years dev time with ~200 people teams. The team size increase closer to the end when they hire temp QA testers too.
 
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This place reminds me of the 'new' Interplay all of a sudden. A shame for a studio headed by some big name game people.
 
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Thanks for the movie idea - I had not even heard of it but will check it out now! 20 million budget, 777k gross - poor poor crazy box-office anathema Mel.
 
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Yes.

Ask Mel Gibson.

His latest movie is good Get the Gringo but was straight to video.

The key word here is 'anti-semitism'. This is the only form of bad publicity. And only in western countries.
 
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I'm very skeptical about Copernicus. What exactly are they doing that's different from the WoW clones that have been failing for the past 5 years or so? And by June 2013 they are going to have a lot of competition.
 
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I'm very skeptical about Copernicus. What exactly are they doing that's different from the WoW clones that have been failing for the past 5 years or so? And by June 2013 they are going to have a lot of competition.

Their original plans probably assumed KoA was going to be a smashing success. Since it wasn't, everything else is likely to fall apart.
 
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I'm very skeptical about Copernicus. What exactly are they doing that's different from the WoW clones that have been failing for the past 5 years or so? And by June 2013 they are going to have a lot of competition.

I have no concrete idea, but I would presume action-combat would be high on the USP list.
 
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