38 Studios - Subpoenas to be Issued

Myrthos

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The mess that was created by the state of Rhode Islands and 38 Studios isn't over yet as the new chairwoman of Rhode Island's House Oversight Committee, Karen MacBeth, plans to subpoena all the key figures in the 38 Studios deal that went wrong two years ago.

Back in 2012, Kingdoms of Amalur team 38 Studios collapsed, causing great troubles for the state of Rhode Island, which had loaned the company $75 million for follow-up Project Copernicus.

Now Rep. Karen MacBeth is seeking subpoenas for multiple key people involved in the case, including 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling, former House Speaker Gordon Fox and former House Finance Chairman Steven Costantino.

"I think we owe it to the State to have answers from people that were involved," MacBeth told WPRI. "It isn't a witch hunt - it's certainly about getting answers."

"I would look to bring anybody that I think can give us answers," MacBeth added. "The state wants answers about what happened. I think it's my duty to get answers now."

MacBeth said that they need to be asking, "When did people know about this? And what did they know? When you look at some of the financial information that we haven't been given, it clearly shows that this was a bad investment."
More information.
 
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Will this soap opera ever end?
The money is gone and will be gone no matter what they do now.

But let's assume you have 75 millions to invest into a game development no questions asked.
Would you really throw it into developing another diablo clone endless respawn of mobs and chests grinder and expect it to sell at least 10 million copies? Wouldn't it be better if you invested into a pile of facebook cow clicker clones or pay2win phonegames?
 
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Not followed this in a while....

But from what I remember, Curt Shilling was an overexcited idiot who pummeled his own company into ruins.

Then you the Rhode Island Government who should've never even given the money.
 
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We have a similar case here in Germany : The MMC desaster … http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Media_Company
There doesn't seem to be an English-language article von it … But from what I've read in the newspapers, it's an similar soap opera …

One of the greatest German soap operas, however, is that of the WCC in Bonn, the former German capital : http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Conference_Center_Bonn

The investor was a company called SMI Hyundai.
What politicians and the bureaucracy not realized, however, was that this company had NOTHING to do with "the other" well-known Hyundai company … The chief of that company is the arrested Man Ki-Kim, and the abbreviation SMI stands - according to the newspapers and the Wikipedia article - for "Susi, Mimi, I".

Basically everyone fell prey of an impostor. Sad that so many buildings had to be erased for this massive, ill-fated building. It is still a ruin, will generate huge costs, and no-one knows whether it will really see proper running.
 
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they keep twisting the screw

is there no end to this vendetta?

what is it they are really after? revenge? muscle flexing? the 2016 election? or is just a distraction from real politics?

I don't think its fear of an outraged public. it seems like its a spin move to keep it in the public's mind.
 
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Oh good grief. Look, it's not like the money was a complete waste. You paid the wages of a few hundred people for several years, and had the potential to establish some roots for this industry in your area. What's done is done, but I guess some folks have to get their political posturing in.
 
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I dunno, if I were a Road Island resident, I'd be pretty pissed. I probably would want revenge of some kind if I couldn't have my $75mil back. That's a lot of money for any state, let alone RI…
 
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But let's assume you have 75 millions to invest into a game development no questions asked.
Would you really throw it into developing another diablo clone endless respawn of mobs and chests grinder and expect it to sell at least 10 million copies? Wouldn't it be better if you invested into a pile of facebook cow clicker clones or pay2win phonegames?

I'm not sure any government person would have had any clue what you are talking about. I think Schilling was able to get the deal done just on the strength of being a local sports hero. Pretty sure no one looked at his business plan or if he even had one. He treated his employees liked Gods or so I have heard. Grossly overpayed and coddled them to no end and that's where the money went.

Alrik, I don't think this is a simple case of fraud. They delivered a product that failed.Rhode island failed to do their homework. Just another example why governments should keep as far out of a business's way as possible. I do remember reading that Rhode Island refused to accept any of the bids for the companies assets. never heard what the bids were but perhaps they were unreasonable in their expectations of what they were going to get.
 
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This is the RI government's own fault. They should be disciplining their own people and establishing some kind of parameters for what their own govt. can invest in. High-risk ventures like computer games shouldn't be among them. If I were a resident of RI, I would be majorly pissed. Tax incentives? OK, that is today's market, like it or not. Throwing $75 million in cash at an upstart video-game company? Outrageous.
 
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I dunno, if I were a Road Island resident, I'd be pretty pissed. I probably would want revenge of some kind if I couldn't have my $75mil back. That's a lot of money for any state, let alone RI…

We have several cases of buildings running amok ... I mean, costs doubling and increasing into something they said they hadn't expected ... BS ... Of course citizens are pissed about this stuff, but it happens. And the ciotizens of Rhode Island are most likely getting their money back ... Writing it off seems to me to be the best solution to this mess ...
 
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We have several cases of buildings running amok … I mean, costs doubling and increasing into something they said they hadn't expected … BS … Of course citizens are pissed about this stuff, but it happens. And the ciotizens of Rhode Island are most likely getting their money back … Writing it off seems to me to be the best solution to this mess …

But despite the overruns, when the building is finished they still have the building.
 
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Alrik, I don't think this is a simple case of fraud. They delivered a product that failed.Rhode island failed to do their homework. Just another example why governments should keep as far out of a business's way as possible. I do remember reading that Rhode Island refused to accept any of the bids for the companies assets. never heard what the bids were but perhaps they were unreasonable in their expectations of what they were going to get.

Well, did KoA-R really fail? AFAIK the game was never expected to be a big commerical hit, just a marketing ploy to get Project Copernicus into the spot light. PK did not fail also, it just wasn't completed because the company went under because they ran out of investors.

@joxer
How do you know so much about Project Copernicus? Care to post your sources?
 
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Well, did KoA-R really fail? AFAIK the game was never expected to be a big commerical hit, just a marketing ploy to get Project Copernicus into the spot light.

I highly doubt that KoA was intended as a marketing ploy. There was way too much hype and advertising for that.

Project Copernicus was probably expected to be a more profitable endeavor, but I'm sure they expected more than what they got out of KoA.
 
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The reason the company went under is because Rhode Island wanted their money back 2 months after KoA was released which for one was too soon for the company to get the money from sales needed to pay them back. Also part of the money was for Project Copernicus which was still a long way from being completed. In multiple ways from just investing in something high-risk like a video game and wanting their money back too soon to not being knowledgeable about the video game industry it is the fault of Rhode Island that they lost the money.
 
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