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On June 08 2012 07:52 Belisarius wrote:Show nested quote +On June 08 2012 03:50 Bourneq wrote:
I thought that 38 different studios had declared bankruptcy there for a bit. ...yeah. That would have been a much bigger deal. Was Reckoning actually any good? I'd feel bad for them if they put out an amazing game and it got ignored because it wasn't an established franchise, but if it was bad-to-mediocre it's pretty much their own fault.
think of WoW with better combat. Then you get Amalur.
originally they wanted to release an MMO but they didnt have the money so they made it a single player game.
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i liked that game quite a bit ... :< the combat was just astonishingly good compared to other games.
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On June 08 2012 07:52 Belisarius wrote:Show nested quote +On June 08 2012 03:50 Bourneq wrote:
I thought that 38 different studios had declared bankruptcy there for a bit. ...yeah. That would have been a much bigger deal. Was Reckoning actually any good? I'd feel bad for them if they put out an amazing game and it got ignored because it wasn't an established franchise, but if it was bad-to-mediocre it's pretty much their own fault.
It was more like mediocre-to-good than bad-to-mediocre, maybe 7/10ish with a few standout elements but overall feeling incomplete and unrefined.
It certainly didn't get ignored, quite the contrary actually. People who marketed that game did a sick job.
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3391 Posts
On June 08 2012 03:55 gullberg wrote:
Some horrible management basically. Reckoning sold over a million copies, which is fucking fantastic for a first game and it still wasn't enough to keep them afloat (they had to sell 3 million).
This exactly.
All things considered the game didn't do terribly, and wasn't all bad (with a coop multiplayer I bet it would have seen even much higher sales, it just felt missing from this style of game). Just didn't add up for them.
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I thought 38 different studios declares bankruptcy lol
Never heard of 38 Studios
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On June 08 2012 09:20 Duka08 wrote:Show nested quote +On June 08 2012 03:55 gullberg wrote:
Some horrible management basically. Reckoning sold over a million copies, which is fucking fantastic for a first game and it still wasn't enough to keep them afloat (they had to sell 3 million). This exactly. All things considered the game didn't do terribly, and wasn't all bad (with a coop multiplayer I bet it would have seen even much higher sales, it just felt missing from this style of game). Just didn't add up for them.
It's cause they were staffed for an MMO but were unable to attain any additional funding other than the government's. It's not unusual to get funds of that sort when building games like that, they were unable to get it. That 3 million quote is to break even, but that's not expected for all new IP- the point of the first game is usually to get the name out there and get the later games to sell better.
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I really liked KoA:R, so for me it is sad to hear 38 studios are bankrupt. For the future I was hoped for some other good games from them...
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I heard the combat was really good, but I didn't buy it because of EA and Origins.
I won't touch any EA account/Origins game even if you give them to me for free.
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Brings painful memories of Presto Studios going bankrupt 2 decades ago. The Journeyman Project series was an awesome game and still wasn't enough to let them stay afloat. 
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Ah I didn't notice till I looked on wiki that "Curt Schilling" is actually the former MLB player Curt Schilling... such a shame it all turned out this way.
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This is kind of old news. I think I read about it on Ars a week or two ago. It's made to sound a lot worse than it is here, implying mismanagement and shady dealings, or something like that.
Essentially, Rhode Islands wanted to get a video game development company to move to Rhode Islands, and offered up $75 million as incentive. 38 Studios took that offer, but in hindsight, it's a fairly stupid deal for all parties involved. Packing up and moving an entire business, along with meeting development deadlines along with payment schedules, is somewhat unrealistic.
End of the day, 38 Studios probably could have been a moderate success had they not been sucked into Rhode Islands' financial incentives.
EDIT: Just realized the article I read about was about 38 Studios having to lay off most of its staff. So...Bankruptcy was basically inevitable.
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Rumor has it, they ended up spending a lot of money on employee residencies and moving people to RI. Essentially, terrible mishandling of money, but a superb development staff.
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no surprise being KoA was their only game. I got bored 5 minutes in....
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That game had potential...too bad they didn't meet it. It was too easy and too repetitive. More variety in quests and better dungeon layouts would have gone a long way. A deeper combat system and actual challenge in the game would have made it a great game...
Too bad.
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Being a credit manager as a profession I always feel for the Creditors...
Now it's Rhode Island as a creditor? So basically the tax payers? Sad...
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What about Curt Schilling? Didn't he invest most of his baseball savings into the company and is down like A LOT of money now?
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Curt Schilling: hey rhode island da you know that game world of warcraft? it makies 10000000+ a year lets do it
Rhode Island: Wow, i cant think of anyone better to make a fantasy rpg for nerds then a proffesional baseball player
Rhode island unemployment: ~12%
on the plus side my manager told me today im not getting fired after all so things are looking up rhode island
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If you're aiming for a AAA (maybe it wasn't but it was big if i recall) as a release, you better do it right. A "meh, it was ok" won't cut it.
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On June 08 2012 11:36 Rinny wrote:
Curt Schilling: hey rhode island da you know that game world of warcraft? it makies 10000000+ a year lets do it
Rhode Island: Wow, i cant think of anyone better to make a fantasy rpg for nerds then a proffesional baseball player
Rhode island unemployment: ~12%
on the plus side my manager told me today im not getting fired after all so things are looking up rhode island
To be fair to Schilling, he has plenty of nerd cred (lol, did I just write that?)
Check out this interview from 2001, for example. Those who followed baseball closely in the latter part of Schilling's career were likely to hear about his exploits in EQ at one point or another.
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It really sucks, because I really liked Reckoning. I thought it was a really nice game.
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EPT
