I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to add to the pile of criticism accumulating around Curt Schilling, but it would seem more useful to get a few thoughts from someone who actually knows a lot about video games and that industry. So as I've done a handful of times previously, I've asked Stephen Heaslip - "Blue" of the popular gamer site Blue's News - for his take.
Last time Heaslip weighed in on Schilling's venture, he expressed a great deal of admiration for the fact that the former Red Sox pitcher has reportedly sunk $30 million of his own money into his video game startup, 38 Studios, along with extracting the now notorious $75 million loan guarantee from Rhode Island officials. What follows is his off-the-cuff reply to a few questions I sent him, with the key point, it seems to me, being that 38 Studios has gotten in this much trouble even before launching the game it was founded to produce:
Allegations of the bounced check and missed payroll make it sound like the company's financial state was allowed to become quite precarious before discussions with the state about the situation began, which is troubling.
That said, I still feel sympathy for Curt Schilling, as he reportedly has $30 million or more of his own money invested in the company, but you also have to feel for the taxpayers who have even more than that tied up in 38 Studios now, with their investment being basically involuntary, as opposed to Schilling's.
The game they previously released was "Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning," their traditional RPG; it's their unreleased MMORPG codenamed "Copernicus" that will have a still-unannounced business model (presuming it gets completed).
The two games is another twist about this story that seems to return to focus in light of these financial difficulties. Schilling formed the company to make the MMORPG, and along the way 38 Studios acquired developer Big Huge Games, seemingly doubling down on game development before their first release. This was also a small company taking on a company that a giant like THQ decided they would close if they could not sell barely a year after acquiring it, and I don't think it is second-guessing to say this was aggressive for a startup.
One could also argue that buying a proven developer was a quick way to get a product in the pipeline, but it represented another gamble, since this was the first RPG from a developer that had previously specialized in strategy games (though it didn't particularly harm the finished product, which got solid reviews.)
It certainly will be interesting to see what Rhode Island decides is the best way to proceed with this.
The latest news this morning is that 38 Studios did manage to make its loan payment.
