How Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning Nearly Bankrupted An Entire State

They accepted his proposal. Oh boy did they accept. Rumors circulated that it was because the board was instantly impressed with the name value of having the Curt Schilling in Rhode Island, so greenlit an astonishing $75 million dollars to fund the project.

75 million dollars: that is some serious loose change, and it was all going to be sunk into Amalur. The game began development immediately - and most likely, with a big smile on the faces of those involved and the 160 employees they brought with them to their new studio in Empire Plaza, Rhode Island.

Those smiles however, were not likely to be shared with Rhode Island economists nor the taxpayers, had they known public funding was been wasted on a video game, of all things, in the middle of a recession.

Reports stated that for 38 Studios to even come close to clawing back this money, it would need to release hit after hit without any mistakes or missteps for years to come. Not even current triple A publishers can maintain that sort of consistency.

However, on they slugged, signing up with EA to publish the game and acquiring another developer Big Huge Games to help them flesh out the fantasy world. And gosh did it need fleshing out: Salvatore had reportedly created over ten thousand years or lore for the world. It was perfectly in line 38 Studios' business philosophy. They doled out money like they were in The Wolf of Wall Street, as everybody took home huge wages in the expectation they were about to change the industry. Everybody was wrong.

[CON'T. P3/5]