14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that one of the main reasons for the problems that have hit developer 38 Studios was a refusal from the governor’s office of Rhode Island to offer more assistance to the company, despite the potential benefits to the state.
Steve Danuser, the creative director who worked on Kingdoms of Amalur at 38 Studios, has told NECN, a local news outlet, that, “We just needed a little more help, and we thought the state would have our backs on that.
“We thought the governor was an ally. It didn’t turn out that way. Why did you do it? Why didn’t you help us? Said a lot of things, he’s broken confidentiality. He’s done a lot of things to materially hurt us and I don’t understand it.”
Danuser also believes that the governor needs to be held accountable for the fact that “turned his back on a lot of taxpaying Rhode Island citizens” as the developer ”wanted to contribute to Rhode Island” and can no longer do so.
When 38 Studios relocated its operations to Rhode Island from Massachusetts after the governor’s office allowed the company to secure a 75 million dollars (59.5 million Euro) in order to expand its operations and develop both the Copernicus MMO projects and its predecessor, the action role-playing game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
When the February release has failed to deliver the expected sales, which the governor’s office has estimated at 3 million on all platforms, 38 Studios failed to repay loans and had problems paying its own employees.
The company initially tried to play down its problems and even leaked some screenshots from Copernicus in order to create interest and support but since then it has been forced to fire its entire staff.
A number of its employees have already been offered jobs at other studios and some analysts have suggested that another company might buy the Kingdoms of Amalur game universe in order to develop other titles based on it.