38 studios Auction Nov 14th and 15th.
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Sterling
El Presidente
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Namon
Blackwing Lair Raider
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According to this 900 grand.
38 Studios titles sold to video game publisher
What a shit show. Hindsight being 20/20, Rhode Island would have been better served to see this thing through, they would have recouped far more than 900k if they had, and that's pretty sad. My hope is, KoA looked interesting but I was not in the console game at that point (I know it released on PC but even that was under powered at the time), so I'd like to see a sequel as it sounded right up my alley. Here's hoping this purchase makes that a reality.
38 Studios titles sold to video game publisher
What a shit show. Hindsight being 20/20, Rhode Island would have been better served to see this thing through, they would have recouped far more than 900k if they had, and that's pretty sad. My hope is, KoA looked interesting but I was not in the console game at that point (I know it released on PC but even that was under powered at the time), so I'd like to see a sequel as it sounded right up my alley. Here's hoping this purchase makes that a reality.
Tmac
Adventurer
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That whole thing was weird because Curt totally distrusted government/politicians, but then trusted them so deeply that he put his baby in their hands. There still hasn't been much clarity around that whole deal.
Ultimately, his philosophy was proven true and people trolled him hard for it, so maybe that's why he's never spoken to it. Lots of hard lessons learned here for sure.
Namon
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Not trying to turn this into the politics thread but he was a typical Neocon. Say one thing about limited government and how they should never be involved in private industry, yet totally act in the opposite way. He thought that the state of Rhode Island would stick through with their stupid commitment, but they didn't. It was that simple. New Governor came in that he wasn't good ole boys with and called in the loan. Although I totally understood the guy's reasoning, as I said though, it really ended up not doing a damn thing to help the awful situation that he inherited.
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Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
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My read on the situation was that Curt got a low-scrutiny loan/guarantee from Rhode Island's governor when they had a Republican administration. After the governorship went to a Democrat, they saw an opportunity to embarrass Curt - a very vocal and popular dissenter (and potential future politician) - and acted on it. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the situation escalated dramatically and what would've been an embarrassing story revealing Curt as a crony capitalist turned into 38 Studios going bankrupt, Rhode Island losing tens of millions of dollars, and hundreds of people losing their jobs.
I have no insider info and am just a bro like you guys, but that's how it appeared to me when it all went down a few years ago.
I have no insider info and am just a bro like you guys, but that's how it appeared to me when it all went down a few years ago.
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Denaut
Trump's Staff
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Or, more likely, they would have just lost more money. RI made the right call to cut their losses rather than just keep throwing money into the fire.
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Denaut
Trump's Staff
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While Chafee was (rightly) against the deal from the start, the fall of 38 was 100% on Curt. He ran out of money and started missing loan payments (but first he quietly stopped paying health care premiums), and then asked to borrow more money.
The state said no, you haven't gotten anywhere with the money we already gave you, what guarantee do we have that you will finish with the rest? He couldn't give them one because he wouldn't have. Any money Curt received would have been flushed down the toilet because he neither knew how to run a company nor make a game.
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38 had a bit of a problem with budget tbo. The single player game was solid with some flaws and the combat was fun. The world and ideas where interesting enough, that if Curt had a decent CFO and the State wouldn't had played pussyshit politics they could of kept making some decent to fun games.
popsicledeath
Potato del Grande
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I believe there were benchmarks for the company to expand faster than was natural on top of mismanagement and political maneuvering, as well as promises of subsidies that the studio perhaps didn't qualify for or at least were later denied. Basically, it was a shit deal from the start that was only agreed to and would have only been feasible with a very friendly Governor on the other side slow walking any penalties and spinning any fallout. Instead, an adversarial Governor came in, used ruining 38 Studios as a way to send a message to political rivals while claiming he was a good guy cleaning up government. And of course in the end the only people who benefited were the politicians exploiting the situation for political power.
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Tmac
Adventurer
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Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
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To be fair, that game was in development for years and was in some state of completion when 38 Studios bought Big Huge Games. They kept the systems but abandoned the aesthetics and replaced them with Amalur.
That reminds me that there was a fucked up clause in their contract to the publisher that screwed them out of millions of dollars. Iirc it was based on a metacritic score of 85 and they got an 84 or something like that.
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Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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They've acquired a lot of stuff cheaply but not Saints Row, and with the last game being released only 3 years ago that's hardly what I would call forgotten. Volition had already been bought by Koch Media when Nordic acquired all the THQ leftovers in 2013, they didn't acquire Saints Row until earlier this year when they purchased Koch Media.
I really hope Darksiders 3 is more like the first one and less like the second one.
Tmac
Adventurer
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Yeah. I remember it something like, there was money, but they didn't have access to it for ridiculous reasons and that inevitably catalyzed 38 Studios' downfall.
From my memory, the crux of it all was a series of bad deals that got exacerbated by mismanagement. Like, if everything had gone to plan, they would've been fine. But, then nothing ever really goes according to plan does it?
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Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
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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.
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Denaut
Trump's Staff
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The deal itself was made so that the financiers whom put it together would benefit at the expense of the taxpayer using Curt as a desperate patsy.
But here is the thing, Curt let himself be said patsy knowing full well what was going on. He agreed to all of the ridiculous conditions because that was the only way to get the money because the aforementioned financiers had to justify the deal to the public.
I, literally, laughed out loud when I saw the deal knowing instantly that the money was gone. It was fantastic deal for Curt because he got enough money to keep the company going for a couple of years when no one else would give him even a dime. So the company still collapsed just has it would have, only a couple of years and millions of taxpayer dollars later.
For all my issues with Chafee, and despite all the shit he gets about this, he was the only one actually looking after the taxpayer while everyone else was picking their pocket. In the end he saved what he could.
Denaut
Trump's Staff
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Big Huge Games made that, not the main 38 studio. It was also bought mostly complete, and that studio finished it. So the only part of the company that had even a modicum of success was the part Curt was least involved in.
I say modicum because in the end the game was roughly a financial wash for the company. I ran the numbers some time back but it essentially broke even. For a game that is actually not too bad but it wasn't enough to prop up the RI studio.
Denaut
Trump's Staff
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You are thinking about Obsidian and New Vegas.
For Amalur, and my memory is somewhat fuzzy at this point, it was more along the lines of in order to agree to publish the game EA insisted on recouping their end completely before paying out to the studio. Since the game did well but not gangbusters everyone pretty much just made their money back.
Denaut
Trump's Staff
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Correction, you were completely right. This happened to them as well apparently.
https://kotaku.com/heres-what-a-publishing-deal-with-ea-looks-like-1732940729