38 Studios Unable to Repay State or Employees

<p>As <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;38-studios-financial-trouble&sol;"><strong>we reported earlier<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&comma; former Red Sox pitcher Curt Shilling’s video game company&comma; 38 Studios&comma; is in financial trouble&period; The studio made an overdue payment to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation&period; Regretfully for the studio&comma; it didn’t have the funds to actually cover the million dollar payment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The studio paid its &dollar;1&period;125 million &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;annual guarantee fee” that it defaulted on earlier this month&period; The studio then informed that state that it did not have enough money to cover the check so the state sent it back&comma; according to a report from <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wpri&period;com&sol;dpp&sol;news&sol;politics&sol;local&lowbar;politics&sol;38-studios-pays-edc-not-employees"><strong>WPRI<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition to not being able to cover the payment to Rhode Island&comma; the company is also unable to pay their 379 full-time employees&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>23 Studios representatives met with Rhode Island’s EDC for an emergency meeting after defaulting on the repayment&period; State officials have stated they hope to keep the studio solvent&comma; but no decisions will b made until Monday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Following the economic debacle and controversy surrounding the state-backed loan to 38 Studios&comma; RIEDC director Keith Stokes resigned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;blogs&period;wpri&period;com&sol;2012&sol;05&sol;17&sol;schilling-and-top-2-execs-disappear-from-38-studios-website&sol;"><strong>WPRI<&sol;strong><&sol;a> reports that 38 Studios founder Curt Shilling’s picture and profile had been removed from the developer’s web site&period; Other studio leads’ pictures and profiles have also been removed&comma; including&colon; CEO Jennifer MacLean and COO Bill Thomas&period; The missing executive profiles have since been restored to the studio’s web page&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The developer is currently working on a massively multiplayer online game titled <em>Project Copernicus<&sol;em>&period; The studio’s first release&comma; <em>Kingdom of Amalur&colon; Reckoning<&sol;em> was published through EA in February and reportedly sold 330&comma;000 units in the first month&period; The latest downloadable expansion pack for the game&comma; <em>Teen of Naros&comma;<&sol;em> was released last month&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Via <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;theverge&period;com&sol;2012&sol;5&sol;17&sol;3027327&sol;38-studios-hands-over-1-125m-payment-to-state-cant-pay-its-employees"><strong>The Verge<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;