1. This is about the industry: if your post has something to with the business of making video games, then you are probably on the right track. Sales numbers, hiring or firing of employees, opening or closing of development teams, and so forth are good topics. Minute details on the quality of games, what Reggie had for breakfast, Sony's TV sales, and so forth tend to be outside the scope of this thread.
2.
This is not a chat thread. It's not a place to shoot the breeze and casually talk about video games as a whole. While you don't have to be super serious to post here, there is going to be substantially less tolerance of content-less posts that are comprised of an image macro or YouTube video.
3. Discussion on
why a game/company failed or succeeded will come up. It's fine to kick around gameplay or other factors as reasons to why. Getting into a multiple page discussion on why nerfing wizards caused this MMO to lose 100,000 subscribers is when you have crossed a line into inane chatter. If you are unsure where that line is, then I recommend not making that particular post.
4. This is not a place to proselytize nor antagonize. "Console war" crap will not be tolerated, nor will needlessly crapping/cheering on a particular game/company/etc. Pondering about why Capcom hates Megaman is not really relevant to the industry.
5. You are not the arbiter of what is discussed here. Farmville is a game. Kinect games are just that: games. If you don't like that a large number of recent posts are discussing something you are sick of hearing about, then bring up other industry topics or take some time off from this thread. Do not complain that people aren't talking about what you want to talk about. If you feel that the discussion is detrimental to the thread (whining about Mass Effect 3 for the billionth time), then feel free to use your report button.
6. While an economics degree is not required to post in here, one not versed in the subject would do well to read and think carefully before posting. Sales do not necessarily reflect on the game's quality! A game can sell a lot but still be a failure if was expensive to produce! Before immediately posting something, think critically a bit and remember that business is a different beast that tends to be very much detached from the hobby itself.
7.
VGChartz is mostly horseshit and should not be taken seriously. Why?
Read about it here.
8. No lists. Besides being pretty much off-topic, they are a breeding ground for shitty posts and stupid squabbles.
Bottom line: business is for adults, and thus you should post in here like an adult. If you want to casually chat about video games, then we have a
whole forum for you to do that in. This thread is not the place for that. Nor is it the place for petty bickering amongst yourselves (we, in fact, have no place on these forums for you to do that).
Having said all that, enjoy the thread.
Posts
38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, is the entertainment and IP development company founded by Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling and named for (drumroll, please) his jersey number.
Feeling that the only thing that can be better than one huge ego in his company is three huge egos, Schilling hired R A Salvatore and Todd MacFarlane to help create a massive new IP, the Kingdoms of Amalur. The first game, the single-player Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, came out earlier this year and got a pretty good reception from gamers and critics, even though it wasn't quite Skyrim. 38 Studios planned to release an Amalur MMO, "Project Copernicus," a little later.
The problem is that 38 Studios decided to develop the two games simultaneously, with a combined budget north of $100 million. Any way you slice it, that's ginormous. To help meet that budget, the studio got a large loan from the state of Rhode Island. Unfortunately, to keep making payments on that loan, Reckoning would have had to have sold three million copies... it barely cracked a million.
Because of the financial crunch, employees weren't paid since May 1, their health insurance was cancelled, and finally, this happened:
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/24/38-studios-and-big-huge-games-lay-off-entire-staffs/
How big of a massive clusterfuck is this? Not only could Rhode Island taxpayers be on the hook for $112.6 million, but two state officials (state economic development corp. executive director, Keith Stokes, and vice chairwoman Helena Foulkes) have been forced to resign. Not to mention the 300+ people who lost their jobs.
http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/24/second-official-resigns-amid-studios-flap/U0hk3st9s5Zb61WyOHcjPO/story.html
Also, Quads.
By the way, we're now up to two state officials who have been forced to resign over this. This is huge, huge news for Rhode Island.
Also, the truth behind 38 Studios' dumb name is revealed: it was Schilling's jersey number during his baseball career.
We don't know for sure, but they were the ones running the show when the state made an extremely shitty loan to an unstable company that cost the taxpayers a ton of money, plus it arguably cost 300+ employees their jobs plus it's the top story in Rhode Island news. It's a highly visible fuckup, so they're taking the fall.
Jobs and tax payer money are always a big deal, but especially right now given the economy and how small Rhode Island is. Any company pulling out of a small area like that is going to cause some ripples.
Plus the Governor who approved the deal already lost his job in large part due to this deal
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
LMAO, this really is a comedy of financial errors.
My god. What's next, a clause specifying that 38 Studios would be given a county of their choice? Ritual puppy sacrifice?
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/general/view.bg?articleid=1061134310
But I wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly.
No one was a big evil monster, the company failed, government is inept, blablabla.
Most ambitious project ever! We're building an MMO! Goal is only a modest 130 million dollars. C'mon guys, sponsor us!
Though it never should of gotten to a place where that decision was necessary. Trying to develop a mmo and a single player rpg at the same time, hoping the rpg makes enough to pay for continued development on the mmo was just insane. I would guess that KoA made a little bit of profit, but not enough to pay for the huge budget of a mmo.
If they had just stuck with the whole single player KoA games, maybe released a few largish dlc packs, a sequal in 1.5-2 years to build up the IP than go into mmo development if the market still looked ok for them, that would of made more sense.
Do we know the conditions of the loan program?
edit: Here's a copy of the loan agreement.
http://www.riedc.com/files/38 Studios Authorization Resolution Fact Sheet 072610.pdf The incorporation of 38 Studios in Delaware was not a condition of the loan, only that they relocate.
It is a well known fact that every month we have a studio close, then take down half a state with it.
Twitter
That's for the specific loan to 38 Studios, not the Rhode Island loan program. Let me see if the loan program's rules are online, the BOSTON GLOBE reporter may have been wrong...
The RIEDC Business Incentives program can be found here, including the program specifically aimed at motion picture and videogame companies: http://www.riedc.com/files/RIBusiness Incentives- 2011_0.pdf. I don't see any mention that the companies are required to be incorporated in Rhode Island.
I think it'd be funny if the state of Rhode Island should post a Kickstarter to finish the MMO and run it as the state. Could go to the the state capital building to visit the "Office of MMO Management" or something.
Twitter
That would be a clusterfuck if I've ever seen one.
How else can you explain Delaware?
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/25/3043282/38-studios-downfall-leads-to-second-mortgages-for-some-employees
Also:
Professor Layton and The Miracle Mask has been trademarked in North America
Switch (JeffConser): SW-3353-5433-5137 Wii U: Skeldare - 3DS: 1848-1663-9345
PM Me if you add me!
This double mortgage thing will be such a fucking headache for everyone. gad damn
Almost surely an October release. Layton 4 was also announced last E3 if I remember correctly.
Twitter
They showed it off at E3 2010, but there hasn't really been much info since then.
Switch (JeffConser): SW-3353-5433-5137 Wii U: Skeldare - 3DS: 1848-1663-9345
PM Me if you add me!
You're thinking of Wyoming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56uSDQECrRQ
At any rate, Zynga's going to E3 for some reason.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/170977/Whats_Zynga_doing_at_E3_anyway.php
http://www.examiner.com/article/reckoning-s-sales-had-nothing-to-do-with-the-collapse-of-38-studios
The article is short enough that you can read it for yourself.
Many, many corporations are Delaware corporations because that state has created a corporate law that is extremely favorable to corporations. This in turn has led to much of Delaware's corporate law being applied in courts, which in turn means that it is better understood and more predictable to corporate lawyers, which in turn can help keep legal costs down, which in turn motivates corporations to incorporate there, which in turn...you can see where I'm going with this.
Over half of all publicly traded companies are Delaware corporations. It's not altogether strange for other states to let companies keep their incorporation status there while still giving them incentives to do business locally.
Very true. And I'd post the "we're in Delaware" bit from Wayne's World if I hadn't already used up my allotment of YouTube links for the day.
At any rate, it turns out the whole thing with GameStop forcing you to take the digital version of Game Informer was based on jerky managers.
http://kotaku.com/5913419/gamestop-says-they-wont-mess-with-your-game-informer-subscription-after-all
Twitter
Damn you.