Breaking: 38 Studios Lays Off Entire Staff

<p>According to a report from <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;theverge&period;com&sol;gaming&sol;2012&sol;5&sol;24&sol;3041662&sol;38-studios-lays-off-entire-staff">Polygon<&sol;a>&comma; the financially struggling developer has laid off their entire staff&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The financial woes for the developer first started when they failed to make a payment of &dollar;1&period;125 million to the state of Rhode Island&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We reported yesterday that CEO Jen MacLean and senior VP or product development John Blakely were <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;38-studios-ceo-vp-product-development-leave-studio&sol;">among those laid off<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As of March 15&comma; the studio employed 379 full-time employees&period; The studio also owned Baltimore&comma; MD-based Big Huge Games&period; At the time of layoffs&comma; the studio was working on a massively multiplayer online game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After missing the &dollar;1&period;125 million loan payment to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation on May 1&period; When the studio was <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-admin&sol;213&period;&percnt;09http&colon;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;38-studios-unable-repay-state-employees&sol;">unable to pay their employees<&sol;a> the state said it would not give any further financial assistance to the ailing studio&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Following this debacle&comma; the director of Economic Development Corporation for Rhode Island resigned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>38 Studios was founded in 2006 in Massachusetts as Green Monster Games&period; 38 Studios was persuaded to relocate to Rhode Island in 2010 by a &dollar;75 million loan guarantee from the state&period; The state’s argument was that the studio would bring hundreds of jobs and millions in tax revenue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Via <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;theverge&period;com&sol;gaming&sol;2012&sol;5&sol;24&sol;3041662&sol;38-studios-lays-off-entire-staff">Polygon<&sol;a>&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;