38 studios Auction Nov 14th and 15th.

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Flight

Molten Core Raider
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The details of the loans given by Rhode Island were cut throat. 38S was pretty much dead the moment they took them out. They included :

1. huge interest payable from the minute the loans started paying out, meaning much of the loans were paying the interest, and

2. commitments to ramp up the number of employees hugely on guaranteed dates short, medium and long term.

Curt was betting the house on an early release and WoW levels of success.
 

arallu

Golden Knight of the Realm
535
46
So anyone think we'll see those Copernicus assets in anything THQ makes? Or a KoA2?
RA Salvatore wrote up most of the lore and previously has sounded like he'd be interested in working with whoever picked up the IP
 

tyen

EQ in a browser wait time: ____
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-On January 15, 2008, THQ acquired Big Huge Games
-On May 27, 2009, 38 Studios announced that they were acquiring Big Huge Games and retaining 70 employees out of approximately 120 who were at THQ.
-THQ Nordic, formerly Nordic Games, acquired the THQ name as well as Darksiders, Red Faction and other properties from that publisher, which was liquidated in early 2013. It took the THQ Nordic name in 2016 in light of acquiring so many brands associated with THQ.
-2018: THQ Nordic picks up Kingdoms of Amalur IP from 38 Studios’ wreckage


Weird 10 year of history for the THQ brand
 
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Denaut

Trump's Staff
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1,279
-On January 15, 2008, THQ acquired Big Huge Games
-On May 27, 2009, 38 Studios announced that they were acquiring Big Huge Games and retaining 70 employees out of approximately 120 who were at THQ.
-THQ Nordic, formerly Nordic Games, acquired the THQ name as well as Darksiders, Red Faction and other properties from that publisher, which was liquidated in early 2013. It took the THQ Nordic name in 2016 in light of acquiring so many brands associated with THQ.
-2018: THQ Nordic picks up Kingdoms of Amalur IP from 38 Studios’ wreckage


Weird history

THQ Nordic is a completely different company than the old THQ, formerly known as Nordic Games. They are pretty well known for scooping up properties from defunct companies, including a bunch of stuff from when THQ went under. Notably they also bought the THQ name and then rebranded as THQ Nordic.
 
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Tmac

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It’s a shame that Curt didn’t seem to have anyone to reign in his ambitions and keep him more grounded and practical. Here’s hoping we get some quality RPGs out of THQ.

That's probably due to the fact that business owners typically learn that lesson early on when the business is still small and can afford mistakes. I did something similar with my business, but it was to the tune of a $40k / mo burn rate instead of, I'm assuming, a $4m / mo burn rate.

Even though people like to demonize big-money CEO's, there's a reason they get paid the big bucks. They don't make mistakes like this, because they've already learned that lesson.
 

Lunis

Blackwing Lair Raider
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Curt has a personality disorder, just read his tweets. He has to be 'right' about everything just like my 6 year old niece.
 

Tmac

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Curt has a personality disorder, just read his tweets. He has to be 'right' about everything just like my 6 year old niece.

So your niece has a personality disorder?
 
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Bobbybick

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I've tried to play that game a few times. It seems fun for the first hourish but I can never get too into it for some reason so after the first play session it gets uninstalled a few weeks later.
 

popsicledeath

Potato del Grande
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I wonder how the current state of politics and the gaming industry would have changed things. Seems to be an increased distrust and scrutiny of politicians and fuckery in the gaming industry that may have shaped how this story played out.

Maybe wouldn't change anything, but I could see a scenario where Schilling wouldn't get his studio tied up in politics like he did, which nowadays seems like a no brainer but at the time probably seemed like a great idea. If it all went down now there would probably have been more scrutiny on that incoming governor that did seem intent on undoing the former governor's project.

Maybe Schilling would have seen what was happening with Star Citizen and either saved the company with ponzi style crowd funding, or been motivated to be more conservative about spending, but he was definitely operating in a time of over confidence in the gaming industry were studios and fans alike expected everything to be big budget and assumed huge success. Blame WoW and China for that, imo, for propping up an industry artificially with commie bucks American companies couldn't compete with.

Yesh, it's an ironic case of a company like 38 studios helping create through their failures the environment that may have enabled them to succeed.

Red pill here is that the government helps ruin everything it's involved in?
 

Teekey

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Red pill here is that the government helps ruin everything it's involved in?

I mean, he's supposedly a fiscal conservative...except when it's to benefit himself apparently. He basically swindled Rhode Island through crony capitalism.
 
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Chanur

Shit Posting Professional
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I mean, he's supposedly a fiscal conservative...except when it's to benefit himself apparently. He basically swindled Rhode Island through crony capitalism.
Rhode Island swindled themselves with those loan requirements. Good use of tax payer money democrats!
 
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popsicledeath

Potato del Grande
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I mean, he's supposedly a fiscal conservative...except when it's to benefit himself apparently. He basically swindled Rhode Island through crony capitalism.

I only believe you're right because of your use of buzz words.
 
  • 3Worf
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Teekey

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Rhode Island swindled themselves with those loan requirements. Good use of tax payer money democrats!

They were definitely dumb. But it's also hilarious for Schilling to be politically against these kind of things...but also take advantage of it and fail spectacularly.
 

Denaut

Trump's Staff
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I wonder how the current state of politics and the gaming industry would have changed things. Seems to be an increased distrust and scrutiny of politicians and fuckery in the gaming industry that may have shaped how this story played out.

Maybe wouldn't change anything, but I could see a scenario where Schilling wouldn't get his studio tied up in politics like he did, which nowadays seems like a no brainer but at the time probably seemed like a great idea. If it all went down now there would probably have been more scrutiny on that incoming governor that did seem intent on undoing the former governor's project.

Maybe Schilling would have seen what was happening with Star Citizen and either saved the company with ponzi style crowd funding, or been motivated to be more conservative about spending, but he was definitely operating in a time of over confidence in the gaming industry were studios and fans alike expected everything to be big budget and assumed huge success. Blame WoW and China for that, imo, for propping up an industry artificially with commie bucks American companies couldn't compete with.

Yesh, it's an ironic case of a company like 38 studios helping create through their failures the environment that may have enabled them to succeed.

Red pill here is that the government helps ruin everything it's involved in?

38 never, ever had a chance of turning a profit. That place was an utterly dysfunctional mess being run by completely incompetent people.

After Schilling burned through millions of his own dollars he turned to every ball player and private firm he could find, everyone turned him down because 38 was a stupidly bad investment. This was when the people running the RIEDC and private its backers realized they could use Curt and the studio to skim money from taxpayers by taking fees on a deal the state had no business being involved in. It was always a scam because the RIEDC had to publicly make the deal look great by inflating numbers and Schilling would have agreed to literally any terms to get that money because he had absolutely no other choice other than go out of business.

By far the best move was what Chafee did by not releasing the extra funds once 38 started missing payments. There was no point in throwing good money after bad and causing the company to collapse sooner rather than later was by far the best option. RI was never going to see a cent of that money back and in the end, after recovering as much as they could from all parties involved, the state seems to only be on the hook for a few million rather than the tens of millions they would have wasted had they kept shoveling money into that furnace.
 

Kuro

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But we could have gotten a sweet wow clone, surely that's worth burning the house down.