Despite numerous pleas, reassurance from the top, continued taxpayer loan payments and various looks of the in-development MMOG, 38 Studios remains on the brink of collapse. Recent events include not paying its employees, eventually letting a healthy sum of its staff go or seeing a talent exodus. Some to local companies like Turbine Entertainment, others to faraway lands.
Late yesterday, Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee put another bullet next to the studio. He admitted that the company has seen no new outside investment, an emerging trend in the genre. Making matters worse, the plea for additional taxpayer funds has gone unanswered. Leaving the company in an ever-deepening hole. Chafee stated that he is doing everything in his power to make sure the company remains afloat. A complete collapse would see the state lose hundreds of millions of dollars and almost certainly Chafee’s chance at a reelection.
With employees fleeing like rats off a sinking ship and rumors that the company’s healthcare is about to expire, 38 Studios and Project Copernicus may not be long for this world.
I for one, am still cheering for the underdog.
They just laid off 400 employees, nearly everyone there. Their only product “Kingdoms of Amalur” sold poorly; bad business decision releasing it at the same time as Skyrim.