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Curt Schilling's 38 Studios Struggling Financially
medv4380 writes "38 Studios, run by Curt Schilling, is having a hard time paying its bills and employees. The gaming community hasn't been happy with the company since the issue with an Online Pass for Single Player Content, which we discussed previously. Now, 38 Studios has bounced a check intended as a payment on its $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island. If the company defaults, Rhode Island taxpayers will have to cover the loan and interest, which could total nearly $100 million."
Jesus people.
It's Schilling.
Curt Schilling.
Mr. Bloody Sock himself.
You need to get out of your basement once in a while.
--
BMO
"There can be no question our country is in the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. I also think there can be no question that it falls on us, the individuals, to find a way out of our own personal crisis." - Curt Schilling
It well and truly stinks that this man was ever allowed within ten feet of public funding in the first place. Even more confusing, though, is that he even pursued public funding in the first place.
It's enough to make one think that he never really believed the anti-gubmit pablum he was spouting in the first place.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Paying companies to relocation is a win for owners a loss for working stiffs. In the best scenario, tax payers in the new community get the benefit of more jobs at the expense of subsidizing millionaires. The old community losts the jobs the new community gains.
In this case, not only did the new community not gain jobs in the long term, but they are now responsible for $100M in loans. Brilliant job.
I like free markets. I have government in bed with big business.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
All of us techies living in Mass. saw this coming. You had a sports celebrity non-businessman CEO on one side, and unsophisticated investors on the other who happened to be controlling $75 million of taxpayers' money. The agreement they signed pretty much compelled 38 Studios to build the payroll to an unsustainable level (since the state was trying to hoping to create a local tech industry) and thus burn money as fast as possible. Elementary budgeting and accounting skills were lacking.
All I can say is good riddance. I'm glad that a shitty game with an even shittier DRM practice is not rewarded. We should be happy about this.
Remember all the hub-bub that KoA was getting about even though it was single player you couldn't get 1/3 the game unless you purchased new? Yet all of a sudden, even though it's average score was a 7, it was getting rave or good comments all over every game sites message board. The astroturfing was so obvious and egregious. And the problem was, it was so prevalent and everywhere people actually genuinely believed it was a good game.
What pissed me off more though is that everyone was carrying torches the day before it was released about the DRM, and then "they just bent over and took it."
So I say good riddances and thank god. Because if that game sold well, you know damn well that would open the floodgates to needing online passes for single player games forever on...consoles!
Ugh.
You need to get out of your basement once in a while.
Isn't this really the sort of knowledge gained by spending more time in the basement?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
You need to get out of your basement once in a while.
Isn't this really the sort of knowledge gained by spending more time in the basement?
Schilling's Bloody Sock is one of the most famous incidents in American sports in the 21st century, and occurred during the most-remembered playoff series in baseball of the last few decades. Lots of people who aren't basement dwellers know all about it.
A basement dweller hears Schilling's name and remembers that only 4.9% of the runs that Schilling allowed over his career were unearned, which is the lowest percentage for any pitcher with a long career. We, er, *they* know that this means that ERA undervalues Schilling, because preventing unearned runs is a skill -- you do it by striking out batters, not walking anyone, and getting batters to hit fly balls rather than ground balls.
Basement dwellers, and a lot of other people, also know that Schilling has been a very outspoken conservative proponent of small government for many years. He'd say that a free-spending government corrupts the market, corrupts individuals, and leads to lots of waste. I guess he just went out and proved himself right!
Now if you'll excuse me, Mom says that lunch is ready. Hope it isn't PB&J again!
Teabaggers are normally self important blowhards who expect everyone else to sacrifice for their benefit.
Of course, Slashdotters who aren't from the United States will be hard-pressed to even name a baseball team*, will wonder why unearned runs aren't prevented by the referee and will wonder what a French New Age pop band has to do with sports. Baseball and American football, while big in the states, are entirely obscure in much of the rest of the world.
* Well, I know that there is a team called the "Red Socks" but I have no idea whether it's a baseball or football team, nor do I care about it enough to ask Wikipedia.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
I honestly don't see the problem here. What was the state of RI doing giving venture capital to a start-up business in the first place? Most new businesses fail, so VC is basically a big gamble; you're hoping the company is going to take off and you, being part-owner, will make a ton of money, the way the Facebook owners have done. Giving a loan to a start-up is utterly stupid, and normally it's only done when the company is going to use it to buy a lot of capital equipment, which of course becomes collateral and the bank can seize in the case of default. You'll never find a bank willing to loan you millions to fund a start-up that doesn't have any significant capital equipment (or probably any start-up at all; it seems to me that most business loans are only given to companies that have already "started up" and are successfully operating, but want to grow and need capital equipment to do that; banks don't like to make loans without collateral).
So again, I fail to see the problem. The people of RI were stupid in giving this company so much (or any) money with no collateral except Aeron chairs, and were stupid to be in the business of angel investing. They deserve to lose their money for their stupidity. Maybe next time they'll do a better job electing leaders. At least the federal government investing in firms like Solyndra makes some kind of sense: Solyndra had tons of capital equipment (you can buy some of it on Ebay right now), and its business was something that seemed to be of genuine national importance (developing alternative energy technology). But a video game company? WTF? Not only is that not important, it's not even something we have a shortage of. There's tons of video game companies out there.