Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

More visions of the Copernicus that could have been come to light.

Trust me, it gets even better than the above image, but Boston Magazine has made an incredible and in depth report on all of 38 Studios' closure, most notably the idyllic, if naiive, attitude Curt Schilling had while managing the company. Jason Schwartz has compiled interviews with Schilling as well as many of his employees, and if you cared at all about the last few months, this is a great read. A worthwhile line: 

"Curt Schilling set out to build the greatest video-game company the world had ever seen, and to get rich — Bill Gates rich — doing it. Instead, the whole thing exploded in his face."

Well, any thoughts of Curt or the state making it out of this one in decent shape are out now. WEEI Boston's radio show for sports, Dennis and Callahan, Schiling had some somber words. 

"I put everything in my name in this company," he said, insisting he was not looking for sympathy. "I believed in it. I believed in what we built. I never took a penny in salary. I never took a penny for anything. [...] The employees got blindsided. They have every right to be upset. [...] The money I saved and earned playing baseball was probably all gone...life is going to be different."

There is contention over what happened to 38 and Copernicus, and who is responsible. Mismanagement by Schiling is extremely likely. But at least this tragic collapse is not going to make any one person a great deal richer. 

A final comment from Schilling worth noting; comments have been accusing him of being a hypocrite for seeking loan guarantee and tax credits from the state, despite political advocacy for smaller government. To that, he said. "I don't know how that relates to this. I don't have any problem with government helping entrepreneurs and small businesses."

This is just too awesome for words. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games, made an announcement on their blog that they just hired a huge chunk of the Big Huge Games team. Apparently Epic's directors had been talking about more projects and a bigger team, and needing top talent, so the business reached a hand out to the refugees of the 38 Studios collapse. Nothing has been worked out yet - they don't even have a studio - but for now Epic is outsourcing and trying to get them work as contractors. Those who haven't gone to Epic have started work at Zynga East and ZeniMax Online, the studio working on the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online. I don't even know what to say about this story other than fist pump, because it's really uplifting to see.

Through this whole fiasco with 38 Studios, blame lay mostly on Curt Schilling, who it was believed botched the studio's potential, overestimated the costs, and mismanaged the finances. New reports inFormer dicate that might not be the case - some sources, not just limited to Schilling himself, are claiming that Governor Chafee used the anxiety of the situation to scare off investors. Including, most notably, calling the loans "taxpayer money" misleadingly, implying the $75 million dollar loan was already in 38's bank, or insisting that the lead-in game Reckoning was a failure because it failed to meet a deal signed by EA for further funding. We'll be keeping an eye on this situation as it develops, but one thing is clear; this is a very messy situation.