Company to Create Video Game Developer Jobs in Rhode Island
Posted on July 27, 2010
38 Studios, Curt Schillings’ online game company, has announced they are moving from Maynard, Massachusetts, a move that will create new video game developer jobs in Rhode Island.
The studio has agreed to sign a $75 million loan guarantee for the move.
Rhode Island is attempting to make itself an attractive area for video game developers to set up shop, and this move demonstrates their initiative.
The Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. approved the loan.
Schilling told the Boston Globe: “I’ve invested a significant amount of my life’s earnings in 38 Studios and I will protect the loan guarantee that’s been given by the state with the same passion and interest that I’m protecting my own investment in this company. Our paths are very much aligned.”
But 38 Studios has yet to even release a game, and some opponents of the loan say that tax payers will be left with the bill if the company is not a success.
Politicians have said the amount is an extraordinary amount of money without any guarantees. Rhode Island’s governor thinks it was a risk worth taking.
According to Gamasutra, if successful, the company could attract 450 jobs to Rhode Island by the end of 2012, the studio said. 38 Studios also said it would pay a penalty if it comes up short.
The company’s first game will be the recently-revealed single-player console and PC RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, due in fall 2011. The game was already in development when 38 Studios acquired Maryland-based developer Big Huge Games in May 2009.
According to their website, 38 Studios is an entertainment and IP creation company in development on a broad range of products, including online and console video games, toys, novels, comics, film, TV, and other forms of digital media.
Founded by Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling in late 2006, 38 Studios has assembled a team of world-class creative talent to bring to life an epic new intellectual property to redefine conventional multi-player gaming as it exists today, and nothing less. Furthering that goal in May 2009, 38 Studios acquired Big Huge Games and its body of extremely talented people and award-winning products and IP, ensuring the growth, market position, financial stability, and long-term success of 38 Studios.
38 Studios’ first original products will feature the artistic vision of world-renowned comic book and toy creator Todd McFarlane (www.spawn.com) and best-selling fantasy author R. A. Salvatore (www.rasalvatore.com). To bring this epic world to life, 38 Studios employs skilled and dedicated artists, programmers, designers, writers, and others drawn from the world’s most successful companies, all of whom join 38 Studios with the common goal of creating a most unique company by combining the ages-old art of the story with 21st century interactive entertainment.
