[Dipswitch]

I'm sure thats true and I hate to see video game companies go under but in real life he is a true piece of shit.

Jesus......what did the man do to get you so riled up? Piss on your dog?

The lack of common courtesy shown on this board is mind boggling at times.

[bishoptl]

Settle down, you lot.

[Inorigo]

*sings* I smell an acquisition!

[Zigzz14]

Could you stop?! It's posts like this that puts us gamers in a bad light. Like the game or not, show some respect for the man.

My feelings about Curt have nothing to do with his video game. I haven't even seen a single screen shot of it let alone played it.

Your right though probably best unsaid

[Ninja Scooter]

Alex Rodriguez' GAF account discovered.

[Micromegas]

Was going to buy, but played the demo on the PS3. While the game showed promise, and lots of it, the PS3 was like a tech abortion.

[BigDug13]

One of the problems is they got Todd Mcfarlane and R.A. Salvatore which added nothing to the game. The story wasn't good and the enemies were pretty bland except for maybe 1 or 2. When all elves look the same you have problems. I'm sure those names probably cost 10 times or more what a regular author and art lead would cost. You can't just throw money at things and think they will work out.

Plus they were breaking into a genre that already had brilliant games. Can't really compete with the likes of The Witcher 2, Fallout: NV and Skyrim with a mediocre entry.

[Alucrid]

Plus they were breaking into a genre that already had brilliant games. Can't really compete with the likes of The Witcher 2, Fallout: NV and Skyrim with a mediocre entry.

wut?

[HadesGigas]

Was going to buy, but played the demo on the PS3. While the game showed promise, and lots of it, the PS3 was like a tech abortion.

The demo actually ended up being way buggier than the actual game. Since it was outsourced to a different developer instead of made in house (EA wanted a demo, 38 Studios didn't).

[antispin]

You guys/gals should play the game, at least I had lots of fun with it. Get it on Steam if you don't want to EA

[Wiggler]

That sucks. I wonder if they were betting on Elder Scrolls fans to play their game? I absolutely love Skyrim, but I could not get into the KoA demo at all. I just wasn't feeling it.

[CitizenCope]

Yikes!
My friends list can be a pretty good indication of sales so when I saw a dozen other friends playing this on 360 I thought it was going to be an easy mill. I was wrong. :(
Loved the game enough to play for 50+ hours.

[sparky2112]

Nothing like butthurt baseball hoolies shitting up a thread...

[Laughing Banana]

For what its worth Amalur was one of the few games this gen that I played for so many hours. That game has many problems, but I really, really enjoyed it.

It's scary however that a gaming company that can produce a game that sold around 600k (?) worldwide can still go under in the current industry climate.

[scitek]

It's one of the few Skyrim-ish type games that I enjoy due to the combat. I hope they turn things around if they are in trouble.

[timetokill]

It reads like, there's 38 studios in trouble

I was thinking, "wow, only that many? I guess the industry is getting better!"

[GillianSeed79]

This is really depressing news. I didn't buy KoA but I played the demo and enjoyed it a TON. I didn't buy it at the time cause I was absolutely broke and still deep into Skyrim. I got a couple of my friends to pick it up though. I still want to play it.

Same situation with me. I really thought the buzz was positive and the game sounded cool, but I was broke and already knee deep in Skyrim. The sales mentioned in this thread are just retail though right? NPD doesn't count digital downloads if I'm correct.

[SquirrelNuckle]

After around 12 hours in the game I just got extremely bored with the game and sent it back to Gamefly.

[megamerican]

I remember that both EA and 38 Studios seemed pleased with Amalur's sales. Going from what is presented in the article alone it seems like a bit of a leap to say the studio is in trouble. Obviously meetings with politicians and cagey non-statements don't fill me with confidence though.

In fact I think that Amalur probably had one of the best new IP launches in the last few years.

[coopolon]

so the studio that did amalur is called "38 studios"? It reads like, there's 38 studios in trouble I gotta say, the guy went on weekend confirmed and pimped it so much that I probably will never want to play it. The hard sell that was happening was.. pretty terrible

That was Ken Rolston, the lead designer (who was also the lead designer on Morrowind and Oblivion). He's kind of...crazy. If he worked for me I would never let him talk to anyone but enthusiasts at places like PAX because he never gives a good first impression.

Also wanted to say that I thought Amalur was a fantastic game. Not without significant flaws - the biggest one being the terrible difficulty - but I still had a great time with it and hope to return to it in the future once they patch it (or once I know that will never happen so that I can settle for community mods.) If they released a difficulty patch I'd pick up all the DLC, what I've heard about it makes it sound really good, there's just no need for more content when it's all rendered boring by the lack of difficulty.

[ShdwDrake]

Sony buy them so u have an RPG studio!

[megalowho]

then buy it on Steam, 38 Studios self-published that version so EA won't be getting any of your money

I did not know this. I feel better about my impulse purchase.

[Neuromancer]

You guys realize that Reckoning was made by Big Huge Games down in Maryland, right?

I'm not saying it wouldn't be affected by this somehow but it's a totally different studio (it's owned by 38 Studios but its not the one the article is talking about.)

Edit: ok it was mentioned, carry on

[FieryBalrog]

What's with all the really rude people in this thread?

[Nista]

What's with all the really rude people in this thread?

People are cranky because D3 hasn't unlocked in the US yet?

I'll worry about this news when it's more than just a local news article. Talking to the government can mean a lot of things.

[Neuromancer]

Is it worth it though?

Yeah it's a great game. I heartily enjoyed it.

[Neuromancer]

I believe Reckoning was originally intended to be an MMO. Then they decided to turn it into a single player RPG.

Negative. Big Huge was already working on their own action adventure RPG when they got bought, which was turned into Reckoning.

Curt was one of the most engaged and friendly developers I've ever seen in my time of GAF. He was patient, understanding of criticism and responded with long, intelligent commentary aimed at dispelling or clarifying problems people had. He never took things personally and was always genuinely passionate about his product. As an ex-mod we dealt with plenty of developers, and some were good and some were bad, but Curt was seriously amazing..

Agreed, it was very cool seeing his posts in the demo thread leading up to the games release. Seemed to me like a real thoughtful guy who really cared about the game.

[SteveWinwood]

What's with all the really rude people in this thread?

Baseball is serious bussiness!

[Jive Turkey]

Alex Rodriguez' GAF account discovered.

I was thinking the same.

[alexandros]

Just imagine next gen where you sell 2.2 million and your still in deep shit...

Some people will dismiss your post because "it will never happen" but the truth is we're heading there already. It's a sad, sad future.

[Tdog987]

Been playing it a lot recently. Ive put about 50 hours into it so far. Its the RPG Ive been looking for.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I appreciated Curt's posts here a lot, even though I haven't bought Reckoning yet (probably will when the Ultimate Edition on Steam is lower in price), so I'm pretty sad about the news. I mean, you can clearly see that the man and the whole team were really passionate about the product and poured their heart into it, even though they took some decisions I'm strongly against (MMO-like structure, too much content, not much of a challenge).

That said, the MMO market is both extremely risky and extremely expensive, and Reckoning sounds like it had decent but unimpressive sales, so I'm not too surprised. On top of that, Kingdoms of Amalur just doesn't look like a franchise strong enough to support both single-player titles and an MMO, it doesn't really seem to have enough distinctive qualities, both in setting and characters. Reckoning's selling point was "we have action combat!" and that's becoming quite common with RPGs as of now.

[Donny Hayabusa]

I'm playing amalur right now. Sunk 40h in already. Great game. But what is this about an online pass?!

Did I forget to check the box? I never entered anything.

On topic: hopefully it sounds worse than it is.

[lucius]

I still play Amalur, using chakrams(fire) as primary weapon and septre(freeze) secondary then adjusting difficulty to hard the gameplay is really solid. The writing I will admit is boring at times but the House of Ballads quest line was really well done. I have about 35 hours in on ps3 plays fine for me, just bought the 2 dlc for it will start that soon.

[Rflagg]

Have they even shown anything form the mmo at all yet? I remember being excited way back when, but after awhile it just seemed silly to try to follow it's development.

[TyrantGuardian]

You know, I was super hyped for Amalur before release, but I said to myself -"No, wait. This is an EA game and considering the scope, I'm sure the game will have plenty of issues that need to be patched. So I'll simply wait and see how quickly they can churn out the required patches before I purchase it."

I never did purchase it.

[vireland]

The demo actually ended up being way buggier than the actual game. Since it was outsourced to a different developer instead of made in house (EA wanted a demo, 38 Studios didn't).

This. Almost skipped the real game because the demo was so crappy.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Have they even shown anything form the mmo at all yet? I remember being excited way back when, but after awhile it just seemed silly to try to follow it's development.

Shown? No. But Curt released some snippets of information in podcast, interviews and the likes.

[Aaron]

As a Sox fan, I found Reckoning disappointing. The combat was really great, but nothing else was. The world, the quests, the loot, the characters, the menus... all rate from bland to terrible. I've played a lot of RPGs, and many of them weren't great, but at least had something that made them worth playing. Reckoning just wasn't interesting.

[JacksUsername]

I was actually hoping to move to Providence in the next year or so, and 38 Studios was one of the places I was thinking of applying to. Really hope they can find work things out. Strange to see Turn to 10 linked on GAF though, I grew up watching that news station.

[Foliorum Viridum]

I heard Amalur was fun but flawed so I'm waiting for Steam sale.

I hope they do alright. Curt seems like a cool guy and that's where RICH GALLUP works, man.

[JacksUsername]

Just took a look around the local papers' websites to see if there were any more details. Providence journal also had a pretty ominous quote:

http://news.providencejournal.com/br...fficial-3.html

James S. Bennett, the city's economic development director, said Monday night that two company executives called him either Thursday or Friday -- "letting us know, obviously, there are 200 jobs in the city, and [seeking] any help."

Once again, I really hope they can pull it together - would love to have more studios pop up in New England, and I liked how they tried outside of the Boston/Metrowest area. Wish them the best.

[jimmypop]

Is this really necessary? Curt posts here. Be nice to your fellow famous, wealthy GAFers.

FTFY. Spare me the lecture on civility on GAF, particularly as it pertains to a public figure.

[LOCK]

I'm all for a new Amalur game.

[Derrick01]

FTFY. Spare me the lecture on civility on GAF, particularly as it pertains to a public figure.

Calling him a piece of shit without backing that up with any kind of story as to why isn't necessary. In fact I'm pretty sure you'd get banned if you did that to any other gaffer unprovoked.

[lordmrw]

Ah crap I forgot about this thread because of Diablo 3. I watched the channel 10 news story on this last night (I live in RI) and the indication I got from the story is not that the company is in serious trouble but that the city wants to make sure there are no problems moving forward pretty much. The $75 million loan went towards completion of the MMO; the single player rpg was separate from that. Another tidbit was that the 440k sales were first month so who knows how much its sold since release.

And somehow I never noticed that the 38 studios building is directly behind where I work even though I've been at the same job for 9 years. Small world.

[ReaperXL07]

I'm playing amalur right now. Sunk 40h in already. Great game. But what is this about an online pass?! Did I forget to check the box? I never entered anything. On topic: hopefully it sounds worse than it is.

People blew this Online pass out of proportion. The online pass gives you an arena style faction to participate in called the House of Valor, but it's not content that was cut from the game, or an on disk unlock. Originally the dlc you get with the online pass was going to be their first paid DLC for the game. EA pushed for an online pass though, and 38 choose to give away the first DLC to new buyers instead of cutting content from the game to do it.

I loved Reckoning, and it's easily my favorite game so far this year despite it's issues, it's kind of sad that most of the issues seem to be tied to EA's pushing, and deadlines. They have been saying on their forums that there are patches still being worked on and coming, but there were issues with EA on getting them out. I'm guessing because they wanted to include free content with the patch(Harder modes).

I'm hoping that they can push through this because Curt already commented that they had gotten other Publishers on board for the MMO, and a Reckoning Sequel, and I think if they had an oppritunity to make another game in the series that it could pretty amazing. People can say what they want about Curt, some will obviously not like that he is Republican, but to this day I don't think i've known another studio thats been as open with their community as they have been.

[Fine Ham Abounds]

This thread is why we can't have nice things!

I couldn't disagree more with the guy's politics, but I enjoyed Reckoning quite a bit, and I'd never diss an oldschool EQer who is making an MMO.

At least not until it's released ;p

[Shig]

I still don't understand how every single developer and publisher thinks they can become Blizzard. It is not going to happen. You can be successful with an mmo, just like EVE but EVE is successful because they didn't try to supplant WOW and any fantasy or space fantasy MMO is clearly looking to try and supplant WOW. Elderscrolls Online is going to be an even bigger disaster. 5 plus years of development time? Stuff like this is why I don't really take business people seriously.

Developers may have the capacity to become Blizzard, but the thing none of them seem to understand is that it's not going to happen in one game. It didn't happen to Blizzard that way. They had quite a few titles under their belt before Warcraft came around, and even that didn't really take off until 2.

Devs need to plan for throwing a lot of stuff at the wall before something sticks, instead of putting everything into one throw and then being up the creek when that isn't a massive success.

[JacksUsername]

I hope it's mostly overreaction from the media. My entire commute to work, this was the lead story on he radio (WPRO Providence). People were calling in furious, saying the city and state shouldn't give 38 any more money, and the host is already declaring them dead in the water. They also mentioned 38 removed themselves from showing at E3.

On the other hand, seem like media is jumping the gun and looking to stir up controversy. They had a city council member and the air and the only thing he mentioned was that it started when auditors created a doubtful report. That and the phone call doesn't mean instant death, at least I really hope not.