Schilling on Amalur MMO: “The Game Wasn’t Fun.”

I’m sure we’ll keep hearing more about the collapse of Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios—which took place very publicly from May to June—but yesterday Boston Magazine published a thorough and detailed account of just what happened to the former baseball star’s video game studio.

The read is long, but some of the highlights that are being seized on by the press are the revelations from Schilling himself, who said, apparently unprompted, “The game wasn’t fun,” referring to the Kingdoms of Amalur MMO that his team was working on for the past six years. “It was my biggest gripe for probably the past eight to 12 months.” The article notes that during their lunch breaks, the staff working on the Amalur MMO wasn’t actually playing it—instead they “were all on some other game.”

In addition, Schilling claims in the article that Take-Two Interactive was the publisher in talks to take over the sequel to Reckoning, the one game 38 Studios and subsidiary Big Huge Games were able to finish, which was released to solid sales and reviews earlier this year. According to Schilling, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chaffee’s public comments about the studio’s financial insolvency scared the publisher away.

But when asked for comment on the claims, the article reports that Take-Two more or less denies Schilling’s account. Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis is quoted as saying, “I am not aware that there were any negotiations. We do not comment on rumors and speculation.”

Take some time to read through the whole article today—it’s a good read, and will help shed some light on one of the biggest and most tragic stories in the gaming industry this year.

Via Boston Magazine