38 Studios

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Daidraco

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I discredited that author as soon as I looked at some of the other games that he said were the "BEST" of his list. Kingdoms of Amalur wasnt Elder Scrolls levels of good, but it wasnt the Vanguard of Single Player games either. I enjoyed playing KoA, regardless of its relatively minor faults.
The auctions for all the office equipment just blows my mind. I never would have guessed that that much shit would come from that company. Before all the doom and gloom set into peoples minds, Im sure it felt like the greatest place in the world to work. Things could have been handled differently, but it really does bum me out that 38 Studios failed. What blows even more is how the demise of the company was handled.
 

AlekseiFL_sl

shitlord
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http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01...h-bloody-sock/

In 2004, Curt Schilling ignored his doctor's advice and hobbled to the pitcher's mound with a wounded right ankle to win Game Two of the World Series, clenching the second of four straight victories against the St. Louis Cardinals and proving that the Curse of the Bambino had run its course.

The blood-stained sock worn by Schilling on that day is now stuff of Boston legend and had become quite an icon during the series. It seemed to be a piece of memorabilia that Schilling wouldn't dare part with, but his recent business dealings have forced his hand. And foot.

If you find yourself in need of a used bloody sock to frame in your sports den, you can start the bidding on February 4th. Schilling hopes to raise at least $100,000 through the auction
 

Agenor

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http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01...h-bloody-sock/

In 2004, Curt Schilling ignored his doctor's advice and hobbled to the pitcher's mound with a wounded right ankle to win Game Two of the World Series, clenching the second of four straight victories against the St. Louis Cardinals and proving that the Curse of the Bambino had run its course.

The blood-stained sock worn by Schilling on that day is now stuff of Boston legend and had become quite an icon during the series. It seemed to be a piece of memorabilia that Schilling wouldn't dare part with, but his recent business dealings have forced his hand. And foot.

If you find yourself in need of a used bloody sock to frame in your sports den, you can start the bidding on February 4th. Schilling hopes to raise at least $100,000 through the auction
The bloody sock game was vs the Yankees in the ALCS.
 

Cybsled

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Ya, -THE- bloody sock was the one from the ALCS vs. the Yankees, but it was supposedly thrown away. While the World Series win capped the season, that ALCS game was far more epic and what stands out in in the minds of fans the most.
 

bixxby

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I am announcing my auctioning of my skid marked jimmies from a july 2000 nagafen raid, let the bidding commence at $50 USD.
 

Erronius

Macho Ma'am
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The game did well. It sold something like 1.3 across the board, and EA specifically credited it as the main reason they were profitable in that quarter. The reason why it helped tank 38 Studios is because of the shitty publishing deal Curt & Co. signed with EA. I would have to look up the article again for 100% accuracy but IIRC the deal was basically EA gave BHG around $15-20m to finish KoA. Then, 38 Studios and BHG didn't see a single cut of any profits unless and until the game sold beyond 3 million copies.
Yeah I remember that as well, and what blew my mind was that there are a lot of "successful" titles that never sold over 3m copies and some of those that did, did so by spreading sales over long periods. And when you think that they were hoping to bankroll with those sales, they were going to need a LOT of sales in the near-term. Just have to shake my head at that. And I remember us breaking down the returns by % of "average" box sales and that was already something to worry over, the EA deal just seemed like an extra dose of dicking.

We all know that the industry is risky though, and I don't know that I'd ever invest in something like that. And we'd heard some of the issues/failings before 38 went splat, but I'd wager we haven't heard the half of it.
 

Fazana_sl

shitlord
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Quite a few of the Big Huge Games team (I believe it was they who made KOA) signed up shortly after the implosion with Epic Games to make Infinity Blade: Dungeons.

How's it going? Well...We're closing Impossible Studios./
We're closing Impossible Studios.

When former members of Big Huge Games approached Epic last year, we saw the opportunity to help a great group of people while putting them to work on a project that needed a team. It was a bold initiative and the Impossible folks made a gallant effort, but ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic.

In addition to providing Impossible Studios employees with 3 months of severance pay, we'll be giving the team the opportunity to form a new company with the Impossible Studios name and the awesome Impossibear logo.

This means that Infinity Blade: Dungeons is now on hold as we figure out the future of the project.
IBD looked almost ready to go months ago, it was even touted as a launch title for the iphone 5 and suddenly the studio is dead? Game Dev is hard apparently!
 

Tauntworth

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Lot of weird shit going down at Epic. Most of the big public faces have left. Wonder if there is some sort of internal craziness going down. Mike Capps, Rod Fergusson, Cliffy B, Quinn del Hoyo & I think maybe a few more have all bailed w/ in the past 6 months to a year. Not exactly 100% related to Epic dropping Impossible Studios, but may be of some relation financially, philosophically, whatever.....
 
Lot of weird shit going down at Epic. Most of the big public faces have left. Wonder if there is some sort of internal craziness going down. Mike Capps, Rod Fergusson, Cliffy B, Quinn del Hoyo & I think maybe a few more have all bailed w/ in the past 6 months to a year. Not exactly 100% related to Epic dropping Impossible Studios, but may be of some relation financially, philosophically, whatever.....
I wouldn't be surprised if Tencent buys them out shortly.
 

Agraza

Registered Hutt
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I just read an article about UE3 and campaigning for console hardware to power it not long ago. It's weird to hear that Epic is having issues.
 

Moorgard_sl

shitlord
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I would say that author is an idiot.

As much as I have disliked Schilling over the years, KoA wasn't made by his video game company. It was a project that was mostly complete by the time it was brought in house from THQ. 38 had very little to do with this besides (from my understanding) use existing art assets and switch IP and some story processes to reflect that. The majority of the story was even written around the older game before BHG was purchased. I have still only played the demo, but I have heard that while some of the game can be mundane, some of it was also very well done.

With that said, from what I have played (Demo, admittedly) and from what I have read everyone saying about it over the year, it doesn't deserve that ranking. Saying it was a passion project for Schilling is off too, as stated, the game was fairly complete when it was Ascendant.
That's not accurate. (Well, the part about the author being an idiot is right, but the rest is not.)

What existed when 38 acquired BHG was very mature tech built specifically for a single-player RPG. Ascendant had some cool assets built for it, but it was far from a complete game. There was framework for an IP, but it wasn't very well fleshed out.

At 38, we had a complementary situation in that we had a huge IP with a lot of depth, but all our MMO tech was still in progress. We'd built Amalur's history initially as backstory for the MMO, but quickly realized we were making something that could genuinely support multiple products and media. There was a notion that someday we'd make single-player games set within the world, but didn't think it would actually happen until after the MMO shipped. The timing of BHG's availability dramatically affected that timeline.

The same week the BHG acquisition was being finalized, we sent some MMO assets down to the Baltimore folks and they had them working within their engine within a day. I still have the videos they made. It was a huge shot in the arm for the 38 team, although we also felt the trepidation that it wasn't going to be the MMO that revealed Amalur to the public. As with any situation where two companies join together, it took some time to build up trust in each other.

After the deal was done, we spent the next several weeks working hand-in-hand with the BHG narrative guys on how the RPG would fit into our universe. We handed them our timeline and extensive lore documentation, and kind of pointed them to a couple areas we thought were well-suited to tell a single-player storyline. They delved into the Age of Arcana, which was exactly the spot we thought would work best. We at 38 had already written the overview of the Crystal War, including the Tuatha and the part they played, and we had dragons and their life cycles as one of the big plot lines of the IP. The BHG guys ran with that, and came up with the addition of Tirnoch as the driving motivator behind the Tuatha's actions. This was perfect, as it fit into the bigger picture and actually set up a ton of hooks that would pay off in the MMO. Thus began a very fertile time of cross-pollination, during which the 38 and BHG narrative teams would regularly have summits together and riff on each other's ideas. Instead of them just following along with our IP, their ideas were pulled into it, making the RPG and MMO all the richer for it. My job was to be the conduit between teams, making sure that the consistency and continuity of the overall IP was maintained, and looking for opportunities to tie the products together as tightly and organically as possible.

As the story for the RPG was being developed, so were the art assets that went into the game. While there were some bits reused and reworked from the Ascendant days, the vast majority was created after the 38 acquisition. Certainly to imply that the RPG was mostly done before 38 came into the picture is completely inaccurate.

If Reckoning ended up feeling to some like a single-player MMO, it wasn't because 38 wanted BHG to make it that way. In some cases, I think it's players with the knowledge that an MMO was in the works projecting those feelings onto the game, but in other cases (question marks above heads, etc.) that was a result of the way the tech and tools were built. The feel of the gameplay--especially the action combat core experience, as well as the dialogue and quest design--was what carried over from Ascendant, not the art assets or game lore.

Once they had the stakes in the ground, BHG proceeded to make the game they wanted to make. The Providence team didn't micromanage them, but we kept in regular contact, attending milestones, visiting back and forth, etc. So it's not accurate to say that "KoA wasn't made by his video game company" by any stretch--a bunch of us, including Curt, spent many, many hours in Baltimore helping the BHG folks in whatever way we could. And as production on the MMO ramped up, we were regularly taking their concepts and reworking them to fit within the needs of Copernicus. Both teams loved that synergy.

The fact is that Reckoning was, by nature of the EA deal, under an insanely tight budget and production schedule, and all aspects about it didn't come out the way any of us really wanted. I can say with absolute confidence that the Reckoning sequel, which was in pre-production when the doors shut, was off to a really strong start and addressed the weaknesses of the first game in a very compelling way. I'm as heartbroken that the next RPG wasn't made as I am that the MMO wasn't finished, and I'm extremely sad that Impossible Studios was cut loose by Epic because they had some really great folks there who I'd happily work with again someday.
 

Utnayan

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I have a new posting style as you all may know, so I will keep this as civil as possible.

What existed when 38 acquired BHG was very mature tech built specifically for a single-player RPG. Ascendant had some cool assets built for it, but it was far from a complete game. There was framework for an IP, but it wasn't very well fleshed out.
This was well beyond a tech build. I am curious why you would say this. The game story was already centered around the entire premise of what was released when Reckoning came to market. When 38 bought BHG it was a way to get something out the door quick and use the KoA concept to build upon a VERY high level 50,000 foot RA Salvatore overview which really was for all intents and purposes, existing assets renamed with KoA lore and IP concept information. I think RA Salvatore wrote a few poems for the Reckoning? Basically this amounted to nothing more than a Gearbox IP buyout and shuffling something out the door. Albeit, I believe you choose the right people. Unlike what Gearbox just did with Aliens Colonial Marines. Either way, this business practice exists heavily. I think you can agree with that. Regardless, you can see the similarities yourself in this trailer showing quite a few of the art assets and the combat it was most known for... in 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdJpYLusR6A

At 38, we had a complementary situation in that we had a huge IP with a lot of depth, but all our MMO tech was still in progress. We'd built Amalur's history initially as backstory for the MMO, but quickly realized we were making something that could genuinely support multiple products and media.
Yeah but this always the case. Before you had even launched a trailer or an announcement of the game, 38 had already started to tri-fecta a product release schedule of comic books, card games, the MMORPG, the action RPG, figurines, action figures - not only that, but had a method of distribution laid out, and this was before you even knew if anything would ever take off or not. Not only was this cart before the horse, it was damn near fire before the caveman.

There was a notion that someday we'd make single-player games set within the world, but didn't think it would actually happen until after the MMO shipped. The timing of BHG's availability dramatically affected that timeline.
Obviously.

The same week the BHG acquisition was being finalized, we sent some MMO assets down to the Baltimore folks and they had them working within their engine within a day. I still have the videos they made. It was a huge shot in the arm for the 38 team, although we also felt the trepidation that it wasn't going to be the MMO that revealed Amalur to the public. As with any situation where two companies join together, it took some time to build up trust in each other.
I would say there was more trepedation in "Why is our company spending money on a sunk asset when we need to be concentrating on our MMORPG. With that said, why are we alsomore concerned about the revenue from figurings and Comic books when we don't even know if the game will take off yet?

Instead of them just following along with our IP, their ideas were pulled into it, making the RPG and MMO all the richer for it. My job was to be the conduit between teams, making sure that the consistency and continuity of the overall IP was maintained, and looking for opportunities to tie the products together as tightly and organically as possible.
Because Rolston wanted to salvage his vision. Although I am sure it was an easy compromise.

More later.