14 DAY TRIAL // A number of employees affected by the recent measures have confirmed to various news outlets that 38 Studios, the much-troubled Rhode Island based development studio, and its subsidiary Big Huge Games have let their entire staff go, stating that the layoffs are both non-disciplinary and non-voluntary.
An official e-mail message from the leadership of the company reads: “The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary.”
38 Studios had 379 employees on March 15, 288 located inside the state of Rhode Island.
Trouble started for the developer when it failed to repay a loan to the state and from there things quickly escalated, with the leadership reported to be leaving the company and with many employees told that their jobs were in danger.
The company initially tried to assure the public and fans by saying that it was still working on its Copernicus MMO and has even managed to release some screens taken from it via a leak.
38 Studios, which was led by Curt Schilling, agreed to move to Rhode Island in 2010 from Massachusetts, agreeing to expand its operations to create Copernicus and expand its staff to 450 people in exchange for a loan of 75 million dollars (59.8 million Euro).
Since then the company created the action role-playing game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in order to introduce players to the game world and show them some of the concepts that it would then expand upon for the MMO.
The game was launched earlier this year and did not manage to impress critics or the public and sold just over 300,000 units during its first month in the United States.
A number of now former 38 Studios employees have already received offers from other companies.