Curt Schilling's vanity project strikes out | 10 Years Ago This Month
Brendan Sinclair
Managing Editor
Thursday 26th May 2022
As far as industry cautionary tales go, 38 Studios is a first ballot Hall of Famer.
In 2006, Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling set up the studio (then known as Green Monster Games) with lofty ambitions, promising to revolutionize an MMO space dominated by World of Warcraft with an original property created with the help of comic creator Todd McFarlane and fantasy novelist R.A. Salvatore.
"The challenge is not simply in publishing a game but in publishing a game that changes the landscape of the online marketplace," Schilling said at the time. "Our company motto is 'If you can't do it better than it's ever been done before, work for someone else.'"
He was also determined to treat his staff well, promising a 50-50 profit share with employees and acknowledging the industry's often shoddy treatment of developers.
"GMG's team of employees will more closely resemble the pride and respect I experienced in my years as a baseball player," he said at an MIT Enterprise Forum event.
Things did not go as planned.
A shot from the never-finished MMO code-named Copernicus
In 2010, the studio changed its name to 38 Studios and relocated from Boston -- where Schilling was virtual royalty for helping bring the city its first World Series championship in 86 years in 2004 -- to Rhode Island, lured there by the state government's Economic Development Corporation with $75 million in loan guarantees in exchange for its commitment to create 450 new jobs in the state by 2012.
The guarantees were part of a program offering $125 million in such backing to create new jobs in the state, and the fact that 60% of that amount was being swallowed up by a single business did not go unnoticed at the time,
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
