Kingdoms of Amalur developer 38 Studios may be in financial trouble, according to a news report by Turn to 10.
Quote:
PROVIDENCE --State officials have been meeting with the video game company owned by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, Gov. Lincoln Chafee told NBC 10 on Monday.
"We're always working to keep Rhode Island companies solvent, and that's what we're doing with 38 Studios," Chafee said.
Providence-based 38 Studios was founded in Massachusetts but lured to Rhode Island in 2010 after state officials offered it a $75-million loan guarantee. The state said its backing would help the company bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars of tax revenue to the state.
"We're working with 38 Studios on different issues. That's all I can report right now," the governor said.
Calls placed to 38 Studios on Monday were not returned.
I really was interested in picking this game up... it just came out around the time of Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim, so there was no time. Those games took priority.
Got the game, its decent, the art direction isn't something im wild about, the story is a bit cliche, but what isn't these days. I didn't get the sense of exploration like I do with elder scrolls games. Maybe its the lack of first person view....I dunno.
Amalur had a lot of potential, this is sad news indeed. Was looking forward to much-improved sequel. The combat and gameplay of Amalur mixed with the open and detailed world of Elder Scrolls would be...awesome
Just another example of why public dollars have no place as investment in private companies. Solydra, Lightsquared, 38 Studios--it's all the same story of governments, state or federal, taking on the risks of private businesses using the taxpayers as unwitting guarantors.
Here's an idea, politicians: how about rather than giving taxpayer-guaranteed loans or one-off tax exemptions to specific companies, you instead work on creating a favorable environment that equally benefits ALL the businesses in your state? Wouldn't it be better to woo new companies to your state en masse rather than doing it one at a time and in a way that infuriates those small businesses already operating within your borders? Food for thought.
What? This game WAS on my radar if I thought the bugs from the beta would be fixed. There hasn't been jack other than DLC$ since release?
I stopped following it after they announced the first $DLC without announcing any bug/balance fixes. But, I've not seen any patch notes for the game, so who knows.
According to the article, the game has sold only 400k units on 360, PC, and PS3. For new IP, that is OK but not if you got a $75 million loan. Looks like the MMO may get scrapped as that can be very costly to develop. The game may be hitting the bargain bin soon. Kinda sad as the game had potential.
ElektroDragon: The game was not anywhere near Skyrim or ME3.
It did not have any selling point - what is the main thing you will remember Amalur for?
Art direction? It looks like WoW.
Graphics? They were mediocre.
Story? Not really - standard stuff.
Items / gear? Nope.
Free roam? No - it's a linear game and really falls short compared to Skyrim.
It has a lot of features that we have already seen before, and just feels like WoW but as singleplayer - that is not what people want to play!
I really wondered about their grand ideas for MMO's already.. they seem to be going too fast too soon. They should have not made this billion dollar game without any real epic selling points. I played for 7 hours and was just bored to death.. I think there is good stuff in there, but it's spread too thin and the art direction really hurt them I think.
They should have made it hardcore realistic graphics with gore mature content - at least seperating them from the graphics artstyle so many games adapted after WoW. And made a focus point for the story early on.
^ I will remember Amalur for its combat, which I thought was pretty good. However I will also remember it for the huge amount of copy-paste filler dungeons.
WTF?? Dude, its not mediocre AT ALL. It's an excellent RPG, I've sunk 60+ hours into it already. Definitely up there with Skyrim and ME3.
It's a game one'd play if there were no better games. However, there are.
Everything in Amalur is a bland/generic copy or something else. What Qoz said.
I find it amazing that every thinks the background/artwork is so generic. I think they hired RA Salvatore to create the background and story and Todd McFarlane to create the artwork.
I guess that is money not well spent as that seems to be the biggest criticism of everybody.
I was excited about the game based upon the talen they hired, but was not inpressed by the demo. I found some of the key combinations to be difficult to pull off, especially when you need to hold down the "X" key, while I still using "WASD" to manuever.
