Merrick wrote on May 26^th, 2012 at 3:05pm:


It's struggling because the share return on investment is lower than the two digit number shareholders whine to have.

But the gaming industry ( and lots of other industry ) are in truth doing well... it's just that the income ratio of the shares is lower than what the institutions making today's world finance want to see.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2012/05/28/demand_high_for_ga...

“We are taking advantage of the situation,’’ said Adam Mersky, spokesman for Needham’s Turbine Inc., one of Massachusetts’ biggest game makers, which attracted 300 candidates - including many from Schilling’s company - to a job fair Tuesday held down the street from the 38 Studios offices. “You’ve got to be aggressive if you want to find good people.’’

Flav wrote on May 28^th, 2012 at 1:16pm:


If you can't pay the debts, you are struggling.  I was also under the impression that they closed down Big Huge Games, the ones that made the game that represents their entire income (and also based where I'm from:( ).

Dying companies certainly hire on a whim.  They aren't concerned with getting the best person as it won't matter much longer anyway.

wumpus wrote on May 29^th, 2012 at 11:21am:


They laid-off everyone at Big Huge Games too.  It's very fishy.  Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, released to a good deal of critical acclaim and even sold nearly a million copies.  Now, you figure at $60 per a copy... Publishers get around $27 per a copy so that's close to a $27 million dollar return less than 6 months ago. 

It makes you wonder...

Eladiun wrote on May 29^th, 2012 at 11:39am:

Honestly, chump change.

This is the not the case of needed a few more months of runway. 38 Studios was a cash-burning machine — with some back-of-the-envelope stats and assumptions — it appears that the company’s salary and benefit costs alone were close to $3.4 million per month. Given that they had at least another year of development to go, if not more, then you can see the funding challenge. The notion that a few more million in tax credits was the solution is not rational.http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/news/final-thoughts-on-38-studios/

And thats not counting lease costs, building rental ect, just labor costs per month.

Schillin has a big attitude.  I doubt many in the industry wanted to work with him.  Politicians lined up to give him money, because they loved pretending to be rock starts and hang out with Schilling.

But Shilling himself was hard to work with.  He was unwilling to part with any of the equity stake, and promised $1 million bonuses to the first 38 hires if the company became worth $1billion.  Hello Ego.  Its easy for him to say that someone was about to step in, but RI started crapping on the company AFTER it was going down.  No company was going to step in when Shilling is bouncing checks to the RI state government.

"He had massive ambitions. The company promised each of its original 37 employees a bonus of $1 million if 38 Studios reached $1 billion in value, a huge stretch for a start-up. By comparison, Warner Bros. agreed to pay as much as $160 million for Turbine Inc., one of the Boston area’s largest established video game companies."
http://articles.boston.com/2012-05-18/business/31767697_1_video-game-economic-de...

Remember this is a guy that can throw a leather ball hard and with great accuracy.  He has little other talent then being a bitch in the locker room, and no education or business sense

Eladiun wrote on May 29^th, 2012 at 12:22pm:


This

I like it when people call successful writers bad writers.  See, it doesn't really matter what anyone thinks about his writing.  Society deems it amazing, therefore, he is rich.  One day, people will realize that the masses actually declare what is good and bad, not critics.  How many books and movies are viewed as crap by critics and the public eats them up as the best thing ever?  Your opinion is equivalent to the shit I took this morning, no one cares.

I should inform you all, I did have to not only turn on the fan, but open the windows and the door. 

You are welcome.

Financial success does not a great (or good, for that matter) writer make. If you're seriously characterizing Salvatore as a 'great' writer, I'd say you haven't gotten out enough.

I've read probably twenty of his books, so I'm not saying his writing sucks because I'm unfamiliar with it.

Mithran wrote on May 30^th, 2012 at 10:16am:



Sounds like he writes peanut butter.

Mithran wrote on May 30^th, 2012 at 10:16am:


I don't think I said financial success makes a good writer.  I think I said, the masses decide what is good and what is not.  A lowly critic like yourself can say it is bad all you want.  To this I say, you still live in a preconceived narrow pathetic little world where your opinion is more important then the masses.  You think you know good writing, you don't.  The only thing you know is what you believe to be good writing.  From reading your posts I am afraid to say you even know what that is.  You think he is a bad writer, yet you read 20 books.  He is obviously a good enough writer to keep you reading his stuff.  Good enough, is still good.  Thank you for allowing me to break this down for you.  I know infallible logic isn't your specialty, fortunately for you, it isn't that hard to understand.

Epoch wrote on May 30^th, 2012 at 10:38am:


The opinions of ignorant people don't matter to me, so your characterizations of my opinion bear as much significance as your shit, much like the validations of your opinion.

If you think Salvatore is a good writer, you need to read more.