I live in Boston, and Curt Schilling had a brief moment there where he was like unto a God for finally breaking the Curse and redeeming the faith of Red Sox Nation.
Which was before the man, who came out against government handouts, threw a massive hissy fit about how Massachusetts was, like, totally going to lose all its video game money unless it gave him a massive tax credit. You know, trifling little studios like Irrational, Harmonix, Rockstar, Turbine, Zynga, they were all going to dry up and blow away. No, Massachusetts needed to support his startup, and their sure to be epic MMO, “Kingdoms of Amalur.”
We just want to note here that between 2004 and 2008, Curt Schilling made $80 million in salary off a beloved sports team before he flipped the entire state the finger and went south to Peter Griffin territory.
That’s relevant because 38 Studios not only stiffed its employees on payroll, but the reason they stiffed said employees, to pay the state of Rhode Island back $1.12 million on the $75 million the studio got to move to the state, bounced.
It’s worth noting here that Amalur’s sales were about in line with the game: unspectacular.
So, basically, an extremely rich game studio owner has just screwed his employees, and will likely screw the state of Rhode Island out of a good high eight figures, after crying about how he doesn’t have the money to support developing video games because those mean old states won’t pay him to make them. Oh, and considering Big Huge Games went to 38 Studios, that could mean “Rise of Nations”, a franchise gamers actually care about, is in trouble as well.
Hey, Curt, Activision might be hiring. You’ll fit right in.
image courtesy EA