4 ms·

Curt Schilling’s $150M Fail Shows What’s Broken in Video Games

15 points by weare138 6y ago

thrower123 6y ago
It's really interesting how much scrutiny this particular game studio failure gets. It's almost the norm that video game companies struggle and court disaster with over-ambition. But because of Curt Schilling's association, and the polarizing reactions he gets, this story won't die the way a hundred other similar stories do. Well, that and the state of Rhode Island foolishly plowing money into the endeavor. I haven't played it myself, but everybody I've talked to who has says that Kingdoms of Amalur is really a pretty decent game.
- jbluepolarbear 6y ago
  That’s because KoA was made by Big Huge not 38 studios. I’ve worked with a lot of people from Big Huge and they had been working on KoA long before 38 acquired the studio.
matt_the_bass 6y ago
I live in RI. State funding of this was (in my and many people’s opinions) an awful decision. RI has a long history of making bad economic decisions that are or at least appear to be corrupt. I can’t speak to the quality/promise of the game. But who would think that a baseball start would be effective running a tech company? Useless fun fact: after the auction of their assets, there was a lot of left overs in their office space that was all going to be trashed. I had a connection to the contractor and they let us take whatever we wanted. It saved them labor and disposal costs. We took a bunch of fantastic whiteboards. And the cabinets in my office’s kitchen came from there too.
- linksnapzz 6y ago
  Wow. You lucked out. I had to explain to my RI family what an MMORPG was, why they might cost upwards of 150mil to make, and how exactly the citizens of the state got stuck with the bill for a failed one. The State Economic Development Council ought to be abolished, and if it can't, the budget they can work with/promise to MLB bigshots should be limited to $500 max. The smartest thing Linc Chaffee has done in his career so far was to NOT throw more good money into that pit. He's caught hell for it too, from RI residents who do not understand the sunk costs fallacy.

15 points by weare138 6y ago

It's really interesting how much scrutiny this particular game studio failure gets. It's almost the norm that video game companies struggle and court disaster with over-ambition. But because of Curt Schilling's association, and the polarizing reactions he gets, this story won't die the way a hundred other similar stories do. Well, that and the state of Rhode Island foolishly plowing money into the endeavor. I haven't played it myself, but everybody I've talked to who has says that Kingdoms of Amalur is really a pretty decent game.

jbluepolarbear 6y ago
That’s because KoA was made by Big Huge not 38 studios. I’ve worked with a lot of people from Big Huge and they had been working on KoA long before 38 acquired the studio.

matt_the_bass 6y ago

I live in RI. State funding of this was (in my and many people’s opinions) an awful decision. RI has a long history of making bad economic decisions that are or at least appear to be corrupt. I can’t speak to the quality/promise of the game. But who would think that a baseball start would be effective running a tech company? Useless fun fact: after the auction of their assets, there was a lot of left overs in their office space that was all going to be trashed. I had a connection to the contractor and they let us take whatever we wanted. It saved them labor and disposal costs. We took a bunch of fantastic whiteboards. And the cabinets in my office’s kitchen came from there too.

linksnapzz 6y ago
Wow. You lucked out. I had to explain to my RI family what an MMORPG was, why they might cost upwards of 150mil to make, and how exactly the citizens of the state got stuck with the bill for a failed one. The State Economic Development Council ought to be abolished, and if it can't, the budget they can work with/promise to MLB bigshots should be limited to $500 max. The smartest thing Linc Chaffee has done in his career so far was to NOT throw more good money into that pit. He's caught hell for it too, from RI residents who do not understand the sunk costs fallacy.