Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

[Sandman42]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

38 Studios lays off entire staff

Wow.

Edit: Big Huge Games shut down also.

http://kotaku.com/5913102/rumor-38-s...big-huge-games

What an awful way for it all to end.

[mestevo]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

That sucks.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

If they willing to relocate, they will instantly get hired by Microsoft Game Studios, EA or Sony.

[jyoung]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

So I read that they needed to sell 3 million copies of this game just to stay alive as a company due to the huge budget.

Was there no one in the company who thought that shooting for 3 million units on their first game with a brand new IP was maybe a bit too ambitious?

I mean, most companies start out by making low-risk, small-budget games.

It's like these guys just decided to fly out to Vegas and put their life-savings on a single game of blackjack.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

I think they thought Curt Schliing name recognition was going to cause the game to go flying off of store shelves. They would have been better starting off as an Xbox Live or PSN arcade game. Get their name out there, then move on to an actual full blown game.

When nobody heard of you and this your first game, it takes a hell of a lot advertising money to get your name out there on a nation wide level.

[Quint75]

Enjoyed the game, put about 60-70 hours into it and finished the main quest. But after a while, it got repetitive, especially the side quests which were largely just fetch quests. Glad I got it and played it, but I traded it in this week.

[bukktown]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

So I read that they needed to sell 3 million copies of this game just to stay alive as a company due to the huge budget.

Was there no one in the company who thought that shooting for 3 million units on their first game with a brand new IP was maybe a bit too ambitious?

I mean, most companies start out by making low-risk, small-budget games.

It's like these guys just decided to fly out to Vegas and put their life-savings on a single game of blackjack.

I just read this and came on here to post the exact same thing.

3 million copies?!!!!!

Are you effing kidding me?!!!


How did they weasel 75 million with the odds so stacked against them?

The bloody sock?

[goh]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

This is why we can't have nice things.

[jyoung]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Reading some more about this debacle, the reason the game's budget got so ridiculous is because of the $75 million guaranteed loan the state of Rhode Island offered 38 Studios just to move to Rhode Island.

There was a key stipulation in the $75 million loan that 38 Studios was required to hire a certain number of people, resulting in huge overhead that burned right through all that money.

So the state of Rhode Island made the mistake of trying to turn a game studio into a "job maker" instead of a "money maker."

Rhode Island's politicians thought they would look good by "bringing new jobs" into the state, but it backfired on them when they hired so many people that the project became overstaffed and overfunded, to the point that they had to sell a ridiculous amount of copies (3 million) just to pay off their bloated project.

[Tyrant8RDFL]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Reading some more about this debacle, the reason the game's budget got so ridiculous is because of the $75 million guaranteed loan the state of Rhode Island offered 38 Studios just to move to Rhode Island.

There was a key stipulation in the $75 million loan that 38 Studios was required to hire a certain number of people, resulting in huge overhead that burned right through all that money.

So the state of Rhode Island made the mistake of trying to turn a game studio into a "job maker" instead of a "money maker."

Rhode Island's politicians thought they would look good by "bringing new jobs" into the state, but it backfired on them when they hired so many people that the project became overstaffed and overfunded, to the point that they had to sell a ridiculous amount of copies (3 million) just to pay off their bloated project.

Oh wow , this is interesting news and sad. Definitely a bad idea from the state of Rhode Island to even phantom this approach would work.

This game is solid and in all honety should have sold over 3 million copies. It's sad many people did not give this game a shot.

[goh]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Release mod tools and someone will make a zombie invasion mod then everything will be ok.

[jfsolo]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Reading some more about this debacle, the reason the game's budget got so ridiculous is because of the $75 million guaranteed loan the state of Rhode Island offered 38 Studios just to move to Rhode Island.

There was a key stipulation in the $75 million loan that 38 Studios was required to hire a certain number of people, resulting in huge overhead that burned right through all that money.

So the state of Rhode Island made the mistake of trying to turn a game studio into a "job maker" instead of a "money maker."

Rhode Island's politicians thought they would look good by "bringing new jobs" into the state, but it backfired on them when they hired so many people that the project became overstaffed and overfunded, to the point that they had to sell a ridiculous amount of copies (3 million) just to pay off their bloated project.

Yes, it's clear the state threw a mountain of cash into an endeavor that they were completely and totally oblivious about. Yeah, no one is going to turn down that kind of dough, but there had to be a few bright folks at 38 Studios who knew that the entire situation was a powder keg just waiting to go off.

[DocHolliday]

Bummer.

Does anyone else think 370 employees for a studio working on 1 "game" kinda High?

Seems like a cluster from the head of the company down.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flawless]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2 was in 'pre-production'

Several sources with knowledge of the situation tell Joystiq that the company was in advanced talks with a publisher before the events that led to the dissolution of the team.

Even if the Big Huge Games team could be salvaged under a different banner, it is unlikely that they could work on Reckoning 2. The intellectual property, tech and code (the latter used as a springboard) required to make a sequel is still owned by 38 Studios for the time being, but will likely soon be owned by the state of Rhode Island. Sources close to discussions with Rhode Island tell us that the state's asking price to release assets is too high.

Elements tested for the sequel were higher graphics quality across the board, no loading screens between zones, expanded and improved combat animations, fewer branching quests and greater effect on the world by players.

"We had a good base to work from, and it was going to be all about improving everything," said a source who asked to remain anonymous, given that there's still the slightest chance the project could be salvaged. "We listened carefully to fans and critics and were going to implement everything we possibly could."

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which -- despite what RI Gov. Lincoln Chafee was advised as being a "failure" -- did have a successful launch for a new IP, with 1.2 million units sold over 90 days. We understand that Electronic Arts, the publisher of Reckoning, did pass on the sequel due to executive politics and 38 Studios was shopping around the title.

Former BHG employees repeatedly tell Joystiq that 38 Rhode Island did give info and guidance about the Amalur IP, but it didn't produce any assets for Reckoning. In terms of the day-to-day work, the Rhode Island team "didn't work on it at all."

"Reckoning was developed with EA publishing money, NOT Rhode Island tax dollars," a former BHG employee told us. "It had nothing to do with the $50 million dollars from RI. That money went directly to the MMO project."

[Flawless]

Re: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

This is very awesome of Epic Games:


Big Problems Need Huge Solutions

Our heart goes out to the people affected by the unfortunate events surrounding 38 Studios and its subsidiary in Baltimore, Big Huge Games. Through it all, the team stayed together in a way that’s been really heartwarming to see. The team kept working, hoping that there’d be a way to secure last-minute funding and save the company. People brought extra food into the office to help those unable to pay their bills. And last week, in bittersweet irony, Big Huge Games was named to Game Developer’s Top 30 studios in the world list.

You may be wondering why I’m writing all this – and it’s because Epic is going to do something to help them, and we want people to understand why we think it’s the right thing to do.

On Wednesday, the ex-BHG leadership team contacted us. They wanted to start a new company and keep together some of the key talent displaced by the layoff, and hoped that they could use an Epic IP as a starting point for a new game. We loved that they all wanted to keep working together, but it was pretty clear they’d have trouble building a demo and securing funding before their personal savings ran out.

In one of life’s coincidences, Epic’s directors had spent the morning discussing how we’d love to build even more successful projects with our growing team, but that we’d need a dramatic infusion of top talent to do so. Which, we all knew, was impossible.

So now we’re planning to start an impossible studio in Baltimore.

It’ll take a while to find space, set up desks and PCs, purchase sufficient Nerf weaponry and Dr. Pepper, etc. But some of these folks have been going too long without a paycheck to wait for that. So, as soon as we can, we’re going to try to get people working down here at Epic headquarters in Cary, NC as contractors.

There’s a million things to work out. How many of the team can we hire? What will it be called? What will they be working on? We don’t know all the answers yet. Please give us some time to figure it out; we hope to have more to share soon.

The way we see it, there’s been a big storm in Baltimore, and we’re taking in a few of the refugees — as are the awesome folks at Zynga East, Zenimax Online, and other southeastern studios. Epic’s in a situation where we can do this, and it very clearly fits with our company values, so we’re going to give it a whirl.

Dr. Michael Capps