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Curt Shilling was double the "cool guy" to me. He not only led Boston's Red Sox to a long awaited MLB championship, he also founded his very own 38 Studios and chased a post-athletic dream of video games. Curt made an appearance on 93.7 WEEI, Boston's Sports Radio, this morning and discussed the fall of his studio, and more importantly, the 20 million dollar, annual tax-payment those who reside in Rhode Island will be paying back till 2020.
Residing in Massachusetts, I'm no stranger to the frustration of raised taxes. Those of us who live here have learned to tag the state "Taxachusetts" for a reason, making the frustrations of the state of RI completely understandable. A lot of money went missing, and this truth will effect more than just those involved; it effects all game developers looking for government grants to help bring their artistic vision to life everywhere in the States.
Curt claims to be financially "tapped out", investing something around $50 million, of his own money, to the birth of 38 Studios. He spoke of dropping the news on his family, preparing them for a less financially-stable future. His tone...beaten.
Honestly, I'm not the kind of journo that intends on analyzing the politics of the 38 Studios bankruptcy. I prefer to shed light on the more human aspects of these events, like the demise of a dream a lot of us can relate to. Sure, Curt has a legacy of talent that exceeds far beyond that which is required to have a successful game studio, making sympathy a hard emotion to feed Schilling. That doesn't mean we don't relate with the rise and fall of his attempt.
Had 38 Studios did the state of Rhode Island good by their cash, there may be 100 more government grants to help kickstart future development studios. Seeing as how that didn't happen, the highway that leads to more games in our future is cramped to 3 lanes. And with the state of the World's economy mixed with the cost of making retail video game experiences worsening, we all should be concerned about where 38 Studios went wrong, and what caused them to blow an important opportunity for developers needing a little help.
Comments
12 years, 5 months ago
Such a shame, I became a bit of a Schilling fan when he played for the Diamondbacks. I was really curious as too what he was coming up with. Nice post.
12 years, 5 months ago
So much potential, shame to see stories like this.
12 years, 5 months ago
It IS a shame what happened, but I also believe that Sean Bean, the producer of Kingdoms of Amalur, must have been a monumental idiot.
If you're a brand new studio with NO games under your belt, why on earth would you choose either
A) an MMORPG or B) a Single Player Open World RPG
as your very first game to create?
Those are arguably the two most difficult types of games to create, both in terms of how much money they COST, and in terms of how much money they are likely to MAKE.
38 Studios tried to make BOTH.
So, I'm hoping that, even though this is supposed to be "tragic and sad," that people don't forget that game studios can't get away with making stupid decisions without having a backup plan.