As we reported earlier, former Red Sox pitcher Curt Shilling’s video game company, 38 Studios, is in financial trouble. The studio made an overdue payment to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. Regretfully for the studio, it didn’t have the funds to actually cover the million dollar payment.
The studio paid its $1.125 million “annual guarantee fee” that it defaulted on earlier this month. The studio then informed that state that it did not have enough money to cover the check so the state sent it back, according to a report from WPRI.
In addition to not being able to cover the payment to Rhode Island, the company is also unable to pay their 379 full-time employees.
23 Studios representatives met with Rhode Island’s EDC for an emergency meeting after defaulting on the repayment. State officials have stated they hope to keep the studio solvent, but no decisions will b made until Monday.
Following the economic debacle and controversy surrounding the state-backed loan to 38 Studios, RIEDC director Keith Stokes resigned.
WPRI reports that 38 Studios founder Curt Shilling’s picture and profile had been removed from the developer’s web site. Other studio leads’ pictures and profiles have also been removed, including: CEO Jennifer MacLean and COO Bill Thomas. The missing executive profiles have since been restored to the studio’s web page.
The developer is currently working on a massively multiplayer online game titled Project Copernicus. The studio’s first release, Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning was published through EA in February and reportedly sold 330,000 units in the first month. The latest downloadable expansion pack for the game, Teen of Naros, was released last month.
(Via The Verge)