No one really benefitted from the closure of 38 Studios. The state ended up with a closed game studio on its hands, 200 employees lost their jobs and some got stuck with second mortgages, and even Curt Schilling didn’t make out like a bandit. Though it was previously reported he didn’t lose that much money on the venture, Schilling recently admitted during an interview that he was “tapped out” by the company closure, losing $50 million as a result.
“Obviously, it’s been a challenging couple of months, and I couldn’t imagine this. But I’m not asking for sympathy,” he said. “That was my choice. I chose to do this. I wanted to build this. I wanted to create the jobs and create something that had a very longstanding world-changing effect. We were close. We were close to getting there. It just fell apart.”
Schilling does feel bad he couldn’t disclose the matter to his employees. “They didn’t deserve it. It was not how we ever did business. The employees were everything. That was what the company was and it was about,” he said. “I always told everybody, if something were going to happen you’re going to have a month or two lead time. And I bombed on that one in epic fashion.”
Lesson learned? Too bad, we wanted a Kingdoms of Amalur sequel…
