38 Studios auction

I came across this article about 38 Studios (Kingdoms of Amalur) while browsing sports news at CBS Sports. It talks about two auctions this week and next in Maryland where assets will be sold off to go towards 38 studios' bankruptcy. It's hard to believe how much money they owe.

Beyond the predictable offerings of computer equipment are audio conferencing systems, large flat-screen TVs and touch monitors that allow users to draw directly on the screen with a special pen. A motion-capture suit whose inertial sensors record a wearer's movements in real-time is for sale, along with the ins and outs of office life — coffee makers, chairs, a conference room table and even a couch.

38 Studios and 38 Studios Baltimore made separate bankruptcy filings in June. 38 Studios, which at one point was burning through about $5 million per month owes $150.7 million and has assets of $21.7 million, according to court filings. 38 Studios Baltimore owes more than $121.4 million, with assets of more than $335,000, which includes the value of the items being auctioned this week.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/2…up-for-auction

Wow. At that burn rate, how could they ever have hoped to come out on top?

They hoped everyone wants to grind, grind and just grind. They believed RPG's main quest has to be kill a billion of mobrespawns and hoped it'll sell better than sex.

They were creating an hack & slay clone (after Blizzard's template) with WOW-graphics.

They tried to invent an Offline-MMO. The game has so many MMO-parts just ported to an Offline-Singleplayer RPG that I just cannot understand that it failed. It should have been a success with all WOW gamers out there, in my personal estimation.

It really surprises me that they failed.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
It really surprises me that they failed.

It might have turned out to be successful, but they simply didn't finish the project. They never got enough financing. They still had a lot more work to do, as the only video footage I've seen shows only the environments.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
They tried to invent an Offline-MMO.

But that's just it, it's offline. That means no constant revenue stream. You could maybe sustain such a burn rate with a successful MMO, but how on earth would you expect to fund yourself with a single player game?
As far as I know, KoA didn't do terrible at all, especially considering it was a new franchise and a new studio. But expecting it to sustain a studio with this burn rate for the eventual development of an MMO (that was Shillings plan, right?), just doesn't seem like a viable strategy, looking at these numbers.

When I saw it, I thought : "FINALLY ! Why didn't anyone put in crafting into an offline game earlier ???"

Crafting is one of the things one can still exclusively find in online games, none in offline games, as far as I know at least.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
When I saw it, I thought : "FINALLY ! Why didn't anyone put in crafting into an offline game earlier ???"

Crafting is one of the things one can still exclusively find in online games, none in offline games, as far as I know at least.

Huh ?
The Elder Scrolls : Morrowind allows for pretty much limitless crafting. Gothic allows for limited recipe based crafting. KOTOR lets you craft weapons and lightsabers….

I think he's talking about crafting as a "career" rather than just crafting being in the game. That said, most games that do include crafting don't really make it all that useful—by the time you collect the skills and components to craft something, you've already found far better.

That's why I loved crafting in Two Worlds 1 and 2. Crafting allowed you to combine the same types of weapons in one and allowed you to break all weapons and armor down in two and use the components to improve your own. I loved that! Somebody added a mod that allowed you to do the same with gems and other items too, where even junk items ended up having a craft value, if you didn't need the cash from selling them.

The only negative with the system was the amount of time it took to break everything down and recraft. Hopefully they'll perfect that in TW3.

Originally Posted by dteowner
I think he's talking about crafting as a "career" rather than just crafting being in the game. That said, most games that do include crafting don't really make it all that useful—by the time you collect the skills and components to craft something, you've already found far better.

Then again those singleplayer games which do include useful crafting make it far to useful to the point where it completely unbalances equipment rendering pretty much any unique or found loot item useless by comparison - except perhaps to break down for components ala KoA:R. Another somewhat similar example would be crafting in Skyrim.

Yeah, never found crafting particularly great in any game. Nice for a little bonus item, but those don't really affect the game.

And color me amazed at how much these guys spent on developing their games. Mind blowing.

Crafting?

I hate crafting. I don't like busywork timesinks in video games at all. And crafting is always just busywork. I wanna chop up monsters and quest and stuff. Not sew pants. I can sew pants in reality.

Originally Posted by darkling
Crafting?

I hate crafting. I don't like busywork timesinks in video games at all. And crafting is always just busywork. I wanna chop up monsters and quest and stuff. Not sew pants. I can sew pants in reality.

Basically, it sounds as if you prefer playing to roleplaying, which is fine. I don't mind a light amount of non-gaming roleplaying, but I wouldn't want it to be the focus either.

I adore crafting. If it's done well. And that means no need to grind for months to be able to make some awsome thing you later discover it's utterly useless compared to items that need no crafting.

MMOs do have crafting, usually. However, usually it's just a time waster grinder and with the most powerful items you construct you still can't beat others (those who payed to win).

I don't mind crafting as long as it's something that can be done fairly quickly, and I usually enjoy alchemy which could be considered a form of crafting.

Er…how did this turn into a thread about crafting anyways?

I thought Reckoning did a great job with crafting. If you chose to go that route you could get some powerful equipment, and lots of the time you could make something better than the gear you were finding. It was balanced pretty well I thought.

Regarding KoA: I wasn't impressed by the game at all, but I'll probably give it another shot someday. It's not worth full price to me, but I'll grab it when it dips below $20 on Steam or GG.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Basically, it sounds as if you prefer playing to roleplaying, which is fine. I don't mind a light amount of non-gaming roleplaying, but I wouldn't want it to be the focus either.

No, I prefer games that have fun content.

Bullshit like crafting is just a timesink made to pad a games length. Hoarding herbs, skinning animals… just no. I've ran/played pen and paper RPG campaigns for years and you know what? Nobody ever had to waste hours in those games hunting and skinning animals, tracking down herbs to make potions or anything. Crafting is a downtime activity that is done by going "Oh. We have a week in town here? All right, I'll make a wand. *erases GP value* Okay. Now I have a wand. It's been a week right? Let's continue with the story."

If you like playing the "role" of a farmer, that's fine. I don't.

I played Reckoning for somewhere around 180 hours, and left a ton of content unfinished, so I would say it was definitely worth the full asking price for me. On top of the sheer amount of content, the game on the whole just oozes high production value. I would say the graphics alone were some of the best I've ever seen on the Xbox 360. Some of the locations in that game were jaw-dropping.