38 Studios on the Verge of Collapse?

38 Studios the studio behind Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning is basically on the verge of collapsing, as they haven't paid employees since May 1st. In addition, health benefits for employees are scheduled to end today. Finally several high ranking executives were releases from their duties yesterday, CEO Jennifer MacLean and Senior Vice President John Blakely profiles on Linkedin show they are no longer with the company. MacLean did later confirm she has left the company but Blakely was only brought on earlier this year and had experience in creating MMOs, his experience on DC Universe Online and Everquest 2 was suppose to be a big boost to 38 Studios MMORPG code-named Project Copernicus. When asked if the studio was shutting down this was the response:

"Unknown at this time. Outlook is not good."

Project Copernicus was actually scheduled to be released June 2013 but at this point it is unknown whether 38 Studios will be around next month let alone next year. The company co-founder Curt Schilling did say on Twitter last night that Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning has exceeded sales projections and moved 1.2 million copies. However, it is unknown whether those numbers are actual sales numbers or how many copies have shipped. This comes just a few days after numerous employees were let go after a check for 1.125 million, that was being used to pay back part of the loan 38 Studios had from the state, basically bounced because the studio didn't have the funds to clear the check. The check was later cleared after the funds were made available. The situation is still fluid at this time, when asked if 38 Studios will make it to next month Rhode Island Gov. Chafee responded: "I have no idea". UPDATE: Kotaku is reporting that 38 Studios is basically shutting down, earlier today they reported that 38 Studios had shut down Big Huge Games the developers that 38 Studios owns and is responsible for developing Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning. However, it know looks like 38 Studios itself is shutting it's doors as an anonymous source has indicated that all of 38 Studios staff has been laid off. Here is what the source stated:

"38 Studios just laid off its entire staff, both Providence and BHG studios are being shuttered. We have not received a paycheck since April 30th. On May 15th, we found out we were not getting paid when our checks did not hit our accounts. Our medical insurance runs out tonight at midnight. We found this out when an employee's pregnant wife was told by her doctor, this was on Tuesday 22nd May this week. The company has not communicated anything concrete to the team throughout this process, leaving team members to figure out insurance stop-gaps (where people could afford it), etc. on their own."

What all this means to the Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning franchise is still unknown at this time, but I do hope another studio picks up the rights to the game but who knows at this point. As of right now this is all unconfirmed but no one has come out to deny these reports as of yet, we will keep people posted as soon as we get more news.