越来越觉得阿玛拉王国工作室倒闭事件像个洗钱或者骗局了

tianyamingyue

38 Studios Defaults On $75 Million State Loan


http://www.trueachievements.com/n8789/38-studios-defaults-on-75-million-state-loan.htm


Update: The 8:30 AM meeting I mentioned in the original story has now concluded and information has been released by the Rhode Island EDC (Economic Development Corporation). 38 Studios requested more money to repay the original loan and keep the company solvent. In order to get what they want, 38 Studios is up as collateral. This means that, if 38 Studios is not able to repay the money they owe to the state of Rhode Island, the entire company and all of their IP, will become state property.


While it's amusing to think of Governor Chaffee developing a game through the studio, which given the history of Providence would be really similar to a Godfather title, it is more likely that the entire studio would be sold off piecemeal in order to repay the debt.


Analysts agree that the Kingdoms of Amalur IP will not be worth the total $112.5 million (initial loan plus interest) on its own.


Original Story: Just a few days after expanding our news coverage, 38 Studios, the developer of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, defaulted on their $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island. The original loan, granted by the Rhode Island EDC (Economic Development Corporation) in 2010 was granted with the promise that 38 Studios would create 450 jobs at their main office near Providence, Rhode Island. Also, that $75 million was a loan and required regular payments in order to pay it back which does not look likely as 38 Studios missed their first payment of $1.125 million this past Monday.


Before 38 Studios failed to make payment, the Rhode Island government was not happy with them as the quota of 450 jobs was not met with only 288 workers in Providence. The other 91 employees are still in Baltimore using their old building as part of Big Huge Games, which was acquired a few years ago by 38 Studios. None of the loan money was used in the Big Huge Games acquisition, and supposedly, none of the loan money was used to fund Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.


The $75 million loan was broken down into chunks with $49.8 million converted into cash used by 38 Studios to fund their MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) set in the Kingdoms of Amalur universe. $23.4 million was set aside in a Capital Reserve Fund for the purpose of helping to pay back the loan. The remaining $1.8 million was used to float the loan, which means it was used to pay the interest rates that were lower than normal due to its status as a floating loan.


What makes this entire situation far more interesting and far more volatile than a standard studio's financial problems, is that this loan was backed by the state government of Rhode Island. The numbers in the following chart, provided by WPRI, represent what 38 Studios owes and if they can not pay, it represents what the state of Rhode Island owes to their creditors.








Part of the reason 38 Studios is in this situation, aside from the hefty financial cost of starting a MMO, is that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning failed to set the world on fire. 38 Studios debut title only sold 1.15 million units across all platforms. The Xbox 360 version moved 560,000 units, PS3 sold 400,000 units and PC fell way behind with only 150,000 units. These are world-wide numbers valid as of May 5th, 2012. While they may seem large to me and you, developing a large-scale, cross-platform retail title with a new IP (Intellectual Property) from a brand new studio involves a lot of overhead cost.


In addition to providing steady paychecks for over 300 full-time employees, 38 Studios also owes author R.A. Salvatore $1.46 million in October, with the potential to earn an additional $5 million in royalties based off of the success of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and the follow-up MMO, originally slated for a Fall release. The price of research and development, high-end equipment and specifically, the high-end server farms one needs to keep a MMO running have the potential to eat away very quickly at any profits from the below expectations performance of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.


Today at 8:30 AM, Rhode Island Governor Chaffee is meeting with Curt Schilling, CEO of 38 Studios, to try and figure out how the two parties can move on from here. Unfortunately parts of this meeting will be closed with information unlikely to be released, though if it is, you can be assured we will be following this story as it continues to develop.

                     

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



http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/28/kingdoms-of-amalur-reckoning-2-was-in-pre-production/

ingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2 was in "pre-production" at 38 Studios' Big Huge Games in Maryland before all employees were let go last week. 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, more 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.


Speaking to former Big Huge Games employees, we asked what they felt was the most inaccurate portrayal of the 38 Studios implosion by the media. They expressed that Reckoning's development being tied to 38 Studios Rhode Island has been the biggest gaffe.

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."

The former BHG employees are thankful that 38 Studios purchased the studio in 2009 and saved them. Schilling is commended for his support of the studio. At that time, the MMO 38 Rhode Island had been working on was already in production for three years and it was believed it would launch before Reckoning. That didn't happen and the latest moving target date was June 2013.

At this point, given significant uncertainty about the production tech and Amalur IP, the best a reformed Big Huge Games team could manage is making an RPG with a similar feel but using a different intellectual property (think Demon's Souls to Dark Souls). The team has done it before: when purchased by 38 Studios from THQ, it converted its "Ascendent" RPG to fit the Amalur world.

"Creating Reckoning wasn't a matter of simply replacing some textures and doing a search/replace on names and such," said a former BHG employee, who explained that the conversion required new environments, animations, characters and voice acting. There was a foundation to work with from "Ascendent." It appears the company will have another foundation to work from with Reckoning if the team can reassemble.

紫字第一句表明人家找政府贷款了7500万美刀，然后还要位当地提供450个工作岗位。。所以38工作室换地方了。。

红字第一个说向政府贷款的钱明确表示用来开发单机阿玛拉王国的，而不是用来开发网游的。。第二个则提到了单机阿玛拉用的是ea的钱开发游戏，7500w贷款全用在网游上了。。

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=Kingdoms+of+Amalur

vg上说阿玛拉卖了120w，也许不算漂亮但考虑到新作前提， 至少能回本 小赚一笔的。。。



至于阿玛拉开发规模问题：现在除了刺客信条最顶尖级别作品采用千万级别投资，其他都是百万级别的；r星疯狂的亿元投资独此一家。。



38工作室为什么没钱？ 我们看看钱花在哪里了：收购Big Huge 工作室这是比大钱，开发阿玛拉王国，提供工作岗位。。



但是不论怎么说从政府获得了7500w贷款，它总不可能一下子用掉吧？？ 上面说了阿玛拉这个游戏应该不会是千万级别的，就算到了，人家还有几千万备用呢。。。实际上阿玛拉如果只出单机而不去抽风砸网游被人说违约，又是个无底洞。。也许阿玛拉王国2我们都能玩到呢。。

可是被网游的这个无底洞吸进去了7500w，我承认网游的确烧钱，wow和星战这些游戏投资的确惊人。。但是它的做法是贷款协议上明确不允许的，这是个典型违约。。而阿玛拉王国收购的大角工作室之前没有任何开放网游经验，叫一个没经验开发网游的去开发网游？ 这是不是不负责任？？

执丶念

我看不懂...

Paoctoly

那钱呢？钱呢...$_$..$_$....

狐Ж姬ǎ

这坑爹事国内还少吗

浅蓝yj

反正骗的不是我

tbchyu001

好厉害的样子

被嚇壞の煜兒

啊啊啊.........

Y出尘

不明觉厉，求真相{:10_330:}

天空之神X

敲诈。。。

btchong2008

钱去哪了呢？{:10_350:}{:10_350:}{:10_350:}