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Some things simply don't add up still for me. How did 38 Studios not have a better idea of their runway? Did someone forget that the loan payment was due? Why
by tibbon 14y ago
Some things simply don't add up still for me.
How did 38 Studios not have a better idea of their runway? Did someone forget that the loan payment was due?
Why did Schilling report on Twitter that sales of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning beat expectations, but it sounded like it needed to sell 2x as many units to break even? Was it expected to take a loss? Why was there talk of a sequel (which he was apparently trying to raise money for) immediately upon release? Its a good idea to run multiple projects concurrently and diversify, but it still strikes me as strange.
It also sounds like they were building an incredibly ambitious "WoW-killer", and that the funding wasn't enough to do that, no matter how you ran the math.
In my mind, you don't start a company to create jobs. Its a nice economic goal, but it should be a side effect of need internally, not the stated goal of the company. In doing that you're going to hire too many too early. Maybe the concept of 'lean' doesn't apply to game companies?
Why the last days were they still advertising new jobs on their site? (currently 18 open jobs listed on the site)
Why was there not greater transparency with employees? It seems like they were using brinksmanship as a managerial strategy and it bit them.
I'm also not sure why Schilling wasn't doing more to help employees find jobs. Yet, Jen MacLean (even after stepping down as CEO) is all over twitter (@JenMacl) helping place employees.
I can't really blame investors for not wanting to jump onboard. MMOs can be incredibly hit and miss, and Schilling being at the helm didn't really inspire confidence for many.
- SkyMarshal 14y ago>In my mind, you don't start a company to create jobs. Its a nice economic goal, but it should be a side effect of need internally, not the stated goal of the company. Indeed. The objective of all businesses is to create (or otherwise obtain) wealth. Jobs are a side effect, fringe benefit of that. This is common knowledge to people wired into the startup scene, but these days you hear so much about "Creating jobs" all over the airwaves, from Washington to local politics, to non-profits, to even frickin Starbucks (they have these gift cards you can buy at checkout where the proceeds go to 'creating jobs'). For a while I've wondered if it is generally understood where jobs come from, or is "Creating Jobs" a cargo-cult meme. Eg do most people know that job creation comes from wealth creation? Is that the general unstated assumption behind the "Create Jobs" meme in the US right now? Or, are lots of people who've never actually created jobs (politicians, professional athletes, etc) reciting it but most not really understanding how it fundamentally works? What I wouldn't give to see a politician run on a platform of "Create Wealth, and Jobs Will Follow!", and have that chanted from every rooftop and town hall in the country.