Rhode Island Receives $713K Kingdoms of Amalur Revenue

[Guest]

Rhode Island's lost out on quite a sum of cash in Kingdoms of Amalur's development.

Rhode Island Receives $713K Kingdoms of Amalur Revenue : Read more

 

[Spooderman]

Too bad, it was really a good company that made a good game.

 

[xerroz]

$75 million loan? Looks like these people weren't out to make a good game but cheat the state out of millions. What a scam this was.

 

[falchard]

Can I please have a $75 million loan to make an mmo? Im good for it.

 

[brucek2]

Is the $713,000 the total sales for the game? I'd have expected it to do much better than that.
Now $75mm, that's a much taller order.

 

[eklipz330]

75 million? what was he smoking? i remember gta iv cost 100 mill, that was staggering, but the game clearly showed it; the cost incorporated the design of a brand new engine and i believe the marketing campaign!
KoA had a borrowed engine [i believe] and absolutely no marketing! i didnt even hear about until a week before it was released, and it was only because i worked at a gamestop!

 

[lpedraja2002]

I think it would be very interesting to study the causes on why the product while critically well received, failed miserably.

 

[alidan]

$75 million loan? Looks like these people weren't out to make a good game but cheat the state out of millions. What a scam this was.

the money was to set up a studio, which he did
a AAA game costs about 50 million to make, which is what i believe he was shooting for
he also was heavily in the development of a franchise, which was this game, and an mmo with a whole world behind it.
all in all, 75 million for it sounds about right.

75 million? what was he smoking? i remember gta iv cost 100 mill, that was staggering, but the game clearly showed it; the cost incorporated the design of a brand new engine and i believe the marketing campaign!
KoA had a borrowed engine [i believe] and absolutely no marketing! i didnt even hear about until a week before it was released, and it was only because i worked at a gamestop!

than you dont go to game websites, because i knew about this game for about 2 years before it was launched, and there was more or less an every other week till it was launched for months of new stuff for it

I think it would be very interesting to study the causes on why the product while critically well received, failed miserably.

this game was a new franchise
it had an ok concept...
the story, from what i remember, i rented it, was interesting, but wasn't carrying it
honestly, i want to buy it, but the price of the game on the pc never goes down to where i would jump at it.

loot games always have it a bit tough, this had an rpg and action which also don't do well unless you are an existing franchise.

--------------

now if i remember right, the state decided to call the debt in a real douchebag way, royally screwing the company, this was an investment that they should have stuck it out till the mmo, as it was shaping up to be something good. im glad the state got screwed,

 

[somebodyspecial]

The witcher 1 & 2 each cost ~7mil. AAA games don't cost 50mil unless you are an idiot with a bunch of fat cats (ea, activision etc...LOL). I think Torchlights were both made for under 2mil. For fun factor I call those AAA games.

 

[Krisk7]

The witcher 1 & 2 each cost ~7mil. AAA games don't cost 50mil unless you are an idiot with a bunch of fat cats (ea, activision etc...LOL). I think Torchlights were both made for under 2mil. For fun factor I call those AAA games.

Your analogies are not quite correct: The Witcher 1 costed over $6mln to produce and The Witcher 2 costed over $9mln. Additional factor is that they were produced in Poland entirely so to produce them in the US you would need double/triple the amounts. Also you need to add marketing costs on top. Although I agree that $50mln is way too high for a single player, an MMO development can be a bottomless pit.

 

[jack1982]

So the politician's wasted $75 million of the taxpayer's money. Pretty typical ten minutes worth of work for them.

 

[catswold]

Just another example of your government at work.
More than any other entity, a government excels at wasting large amounts of money. It's what happens when representatives lose their fear of the people they are supposed to represent and feel as though they have an unlimited amount of money to spend.

 

[shoggothh]

Typical that there's idiots blaming the government, when this is an individual using his fame to get a loan and then creating a corporation to absolve himself of any wrongdoing when his poorly handled concept fails.

 

[Antimatter79]

Some game I bought months ago offered some free items or something if I completed the included Amalur demo, which I did. That was the most boring hour of my life I could remember in recent times. The game didn't look very good, the main character's animation was very clunky, and it was just a chore to finish the demo. Others may have their reasons for liking the game, but it was awful to me. I wonder how much of that $75 mil actually went towards the development of the game b/c I've seen lots of Indie and free to play titles that were far better efforts.

 

[DRosencraft]

In New England Schilling's name carries a ton of weight simply because he was a decent pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He leveraged that to make a steal in terms of securing loans - remember, this loan from the Rhode Island government isn't even the only loan he got to help make his game. Rhode Island was drawn in by his name, and his promise to make a ton of jobs for them. Except his company never had anywhere near the promotional power to sell a game like this at the numbers needed to come close to recouping the loans.

 

[chicofehr]

So the only one who wins here is EA as they published it and didn't pay anything to make it.

 

[evewhiran]

Just a few notes:
First, Kingdom of Amular sold over 1.3 million copies in its first 90 days of being on sale. Unfortunately for 38 Studios apparently it needed to sell over 3 million copies. That's not a failure.
http://www.shacknews.com/article/73968/kingdoms-of-amalur-needed-3-million-sales-to-break-even
Second, the State of Rhode Island actively courted 38 Studios and enticed them to move there. This was a bad business decision on the part of 38 Studios since they paid the moving fees for all of their employees.
For whatever reason 38 Studios was hiring like mad and as part of the 75 million was required to have 450 employees. Think about that for a moment, 450 employees in a high tech environment is a -lot- in salaries. If the average salary was $50,000 USD (this doesn't include insurance, benefits, or anything else) that means it would cost 38 Studios under 2 million a month in salaries alone.
As it was, they had 160 employees by April 12, 2011. That's just under 1 million a month in salaries alone. Plus moving expenses, plus benefits, plus operational costs, plus outfitting a new building, plus... the costs added up really fast. Oh, and loan payments on top of that.
RA Salvatore was reported to have been promised to be paid over 1 million dollars to create 10,000 years of backstory. He claims he didn't get paid the full amount (being owed, according to bankruptcy filings 1.7 million) he did receive money for "day to day" expenses and "traveling." So whatever that is.

 

[evewhiran]

Apparently I don't know how to delete. Ignore the first part about 22 million a month in salaries. I thought I had deleted that sentence and this comment system doesn't seem to allow for editing.
450 employees at 50k / year is just under 2 million a month in salaries.

 

[olaf]

Lol that much for a game that bad ? sigh ... "open world" my a$$ ... it was friggin linear and i saw 10y old console games that were better and they did't pretend to be open world. I like RPG's a lot but this game just couldn't hold me i gave up on it after like 2h of desperate trying .... saying to my self : cmon its just the beginning that's slow things will pick up ... NOT. Horrible console game ported even more horribly to the PC.... Skyrim is definitely a console port but there atleast they did a good job.

 

[cmartin011]

I love my state we can't make good political decisions we cannot participate in any toms contests it is a wonder of a place to live in.

 

[catswold]

Typical that there's idiots blaming the government, when this is an individual using his fame to get a loan and then creating a corporation to absolve himself of any wrongdoing when his poorly handled concept fails.

Only an idiot would believe that it was the place of government to be loaning money for start-ups, that's what banks are for . . . they're experts, government isn't qualified to pick what businesses receive loans--that's why we are seeing so many failures among the Obama Administrations favorite "green" companies.

If venture capitalists won't pony up the cash in a situation like this, then it's a good bet the project's a loser.

Wow! You joined this forum just to troll this topic? "Member since: June 9, 2013"

 

[echozero]

Serious? 75 Million? Where did those money go when 3D Modeler average salary is 36000 to 42000 a year. Animator salary is more than 3d modeler but the number isn't that far apart.
I am 3d modeler, my friends and classmates are 3d modeler, animation, render wander, compositor. It is also a brute industry because you are live on contact to contact. 3months to 6 month contact. Once your contact is up and studio has no more projects you are usually let go.
Since 38 studio co-develop the game with big huge game. It makes you wonder if big huge game pulled Aliens: Colonial Marines stunt as well.
It appear 38 studio had to promise the state to bring 450 jobs by 2012 which is ridiculous. Blizzard has 1700 staffs in their Irvine headquarters but they have 3 teams for diablo, warcraft and starcraft. (It also takes 20 years for Blizzard grow to this stage.)

 

[lindethier]

A state government betting big and losing. I don't think government should be in the business of making investments such as this. State governments as well as the federal government seem to have a knack for choosing the losers, over and over.
Then again, had the game done well in sales the state could have made some profit.

 

[somebodyspecial]

The witcher 1 & 2 each cost ~7mil. AAA games don't cost 50mil unless you are an idiot with a bunch of fat cats (ea, activision etc...LOL). I think Torchlights were both made for under 2mil. For fun factor I call those AAA games.

Your analogies are not quite correct: The Witcher 1 costed over $6mln to produce and The Witcher 2 costed over $9mln. Additional factor is that they were produced in Poland entirely so to produce them in the US you would need double/triple the amounts. Also you need to add marketing costs on top. Although I agree that $50mln is way too high for a single player, an MMO development can be a bottomless pit.

Symantics My total 14, your 16...the point was (in either case, mine or yours) it's far from 50mil. Advertising today is done for next to nothing and a lot is done free by gaming sites previewing/reviewing your games.

Totally agree MMO's are pits. I wish those would just die Every failure of one of those kills tons of money that could have been spent on a great SINGLE player experience for far less money (ok, MANY great single player experiences as one of these MMO's=many games).

My numbers came from a translated POLISH site so not sure why they'd be off. Many games were in the list giving their costs and not all polish (a COD game or two was in there and Final Fantasy etc games). Even if you double polish wages you'd still be talking 14-16 (depending on which of us is right)...Still far from 50mil, which is the point. Grimrock was made by 4 GUYS in a year and a half. Torchlights are done by Runic (americans aren't they? - ex diablo guys etc Based in Seattle WA) and they were done for 2mil. Gog/steam/review sites etc basically give free promotion today. Raise your hand if you still get gaming mags in paper format?

You can make games cheaply (I could point to a dozen kickstarter projects that are being done for under 4mil and look great), and do it in america we just have to kill all the FAT CAT people at the top and make them all at indie devs with like 40ppl or less and no BRASS to pay millions to. All of the workers get a great cut then, and players don't have to be milked to get the SMALL company some great profits for the next sequel etc. The Grimrock guys got enough they said to cover them for years and adding people for grimrock2. That is what we need to go back to...Less EA/Activision's and more Almost Human/Runic etc devs.

 

[John Hadley]

Holy cow why would anyone loan anybody $75 million to make a new game studio run by a baseball player when game studios fail and go bankrupt constantly in the gaming industry and usually end up having their labors acquired by big companies like EA, 2k Games, Ubisoft, etc. on the cheap. I'd guess there are only a handful of titles in the history of gaming that have made that much money out of tens of thousands of games. No one in their right mind should loan someone $75 million to make a game unless they made at least $150 million on their last one and you are getting a huge share of the profits.