Kingdoms of Amalur studio lays off entire workforce

[Amit]

Things took a downward turn for the Kingdoms of Amalur studio this month when they
failed to make a big repayment to the state of Rhode Island (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/17/kingdoms-of-amalur-devs-in-difficulty-after-missing-state-loan-payment/). They soon managed to foot the bill, but missed payroll and lost their CEO shortly after. Now
Gamasutra (http://gamasutra.com/view/news/171015/38_Studios_Big_Huge_Games_lay_off_their_entire_sta ff.php) report that everyone at 38 Studios and Big Huge Games has been laid off with this email.

“The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary.

A group of state lawmakers passed a resolution yesterday demanding that the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and Governer Chafee “immediately release all records related to 38 Studios’ financial situation and its $75 million loan guarantee” as questions arise as to how such a large state loan was offered to an unproven studio.


Source (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/25/kingdoms-of-amalur-devs-lay-off-entire-workforce/)

Jesus Christ. Almost 400 people laid off.

[DarkHalo003]

Makes good game -> Makes good headline.

[Higuy]

Damn. That must reallllly suck.

[PenGuin1362]

I have some friends there, this is pretty rough. Fortunately there are other studios out there hiring and willing to help those laid off

[Hotrod]

Damn... It's really a shame that Kingdoms of Amalur didn't sell more than 300 000 units, it's a really fun game. Just shows how hard it is to succeed nowadays without resorting to making a sequel in a well-known franchise.

[Rainbow Dash]

Damn... It's really a shame that Kingdoms of Amalur didn't sell more than 300 000 units, it's a really fun game. Just shows how hard it is to succeed nowadays without resorting to making a sequel in a well-known franchise.

but if they made a really good game they did succeed???

oh wait, capitalism :]]]

[Arteen]

Damn... It's really a shame that Kingdoms of Amalur didn't sell more than 300 000 units, it's a really fun game. Just shows how hard it is to succeed nowadays without resorting to making a sequel in a well-known franchise.
Game sold ~1,200,000 actually.

[neuro]

Damn... It's really a shame that Kingdoms of Amalur didn't sell more than 300 000 units, it's a really fun game. Just shows how hard it is to succeed nowadays without resorting to making a sequel in a well-known franchise.

it sold WELL over a million units.

[Hotrod]

Oh, did it? Hmm, I must have been misinformed then. Well that's much better actually, still a shame that they had to shut down...

[DarkHalo003]

Reminds me of how Ensemble went down even though Halo Wars did pretty well. :(

[neuro]

well it's hard to disagree with that's just what capitalism does.
it doesnt matter if it's a good product in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER.

because MONEYMONEYMONEY

[Amit]

Reminds me of how Ensemble went down even though Halo Wars did pretty well. :(

They didn't go down, Microsoft put them down because they didn't want any more good Age of Empires games on PC because that would take away from the cash bucket that Age of Empires Online (developed by Robot Entertainment and Gas Powered Games :ugh:)is. Apparently Ensemble was shut down during the recession due to financial strain, but if Microsoft just let Ensemble stick around to collect the cash that Halo Wars would have brought them, there wouldn't be much fear of financial burden.

[Llama Juice]

Nothing said in the post above is true or accurate.

BTW: Robot Entertainment is made up of mostly ex Ensamble employees.

Anyhow, back to the topic.. One of my good buddies from college worked at this studio (38 Studios). I had an art test there that I failed haha.

[Limited]

I'll be honest I have never heard of that studios, or even of that game. But this truely sucks and I wish all the employees the best in finding a job. Considering the games industry is beating movies in revenue, its shocking how all these companies are collapsing and yet I havent heard of a single film company going under, bloody Hollywood =\

[TVTyrant]

I'll be honest I have never heard of that studios, or even of that game. But this truely sucks and I wish all the employees the best in finding a job. Considering the games industry is beating movies in revenue, its shocking how all these companies are collapsing and yet I havent heard of a single film company going under, bloody Hollywood =\
unions dawg

unions

[DarkHalo003]

Modern unions suck. The people who need unions don't often have them either.

[Donut]

yeah, heard about this.

its not like i live in rhode island and was trying to apply there or anything... :smith:

[Amit]

Nothing said in the post above is true or accurate.

You don't seriously expect them to tell you that, do you? At least 3/4 of what I said is true. Microsoft shut down Ensemble due to "fiscal issues", Ensemble regrouped as Robot Entertainment, developed AoE Online for Microsoft, and handed it off to GPG. They could have kept Ensemble around at the least instead of creating a whole new studio for stupid kinect adventures.

[Llama Juice]

"They put down Ensamble because they didn't want any more good Age of Empires games released on PC"

The weeks leading up to the release of AoEO on Steam they released nearly all the old Age games on Steam as well. Also, Ensamble was closed down like 3 years ago man.

I worked with Robot and GPG on AoEO. Robot got fired from the project, they didn't "hand off" the game to GPG. They got fired and we lost like a months worth of code to the game. Robot couldn't pull their weight on the game and were putting price and money in front of user experience. GPG has spent the past year going in and redoing nearly everything that Robot put into the game because it was so broken. GPG is the reason why the game is remotely worth playing today. Hell, they even removed nearly all of the Robot Entertainment logos and stuff from the game and in any ads for the game.

The shut down of Ensamble is usually credited to the cancelation of their Halo MMO that they were working on. Apparently they had 3 different dev teams (in Ensamble) working on this project trying to figure out how to make the game work. That project got canceled, M$ told them to finish Halo Wars and then pack up their things.

[Amit]

Of course they would release AoE games on Steam, they know how many people would love to play those games and would buy them. More money for M$. No point in making more real AoE games if you can still make money off the old ones.

Well if you know the people who work there, personally, then I'll take your story as the truth. The funny part is that this interview with the Robot Entertainment President says otherwise: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/02/24/age-of-empires-online-swaps-devs/

Then again, interviews to the public aren't always the whole truth, are they?

[Rainbow Dash]

Of course they would release AoE games on Steam, they know how many people would love to play those games and would buy them. More money for M$. No point in making more real AoE games if you can still make money off the old ones.

strange

I only see aoe3 and aoe:online

and those don't even count???

[Llama Juice]

GPG was scheduled to take over for Robot after the launch of the game. GPG was supposed to be the studio that just maintained the game and created "DLC" for it. They ended up switching dev studios in February 2011 rather than as scheduled in August 2011 because Robot wasn't pulling their weight and wasn't going to meet their release date by a long shot.

My point is that Robot/Ensamble was tired of the Age of Empires series, hence them jumping to the Halo Wars project and trying to jump to the Halo MMO series. They didn't do their job well and got fired because of it.

The closing of Ensamble was justified, it's just that nobody is going to put out bad press on their own studio or former studio. That's why the Robot/GPG flop was shown the way it was. Nobody wants to buy a game that the development studio got fired from while making it.

[Amit]

Hmm, well that seems to make the most sense. Thanks for clearing that up or I'd still be spreading that nonsense I said before. Also, why is it that you continue to spell Ensemble as "Ensamble"?


strange

I only see aoe3 and aoe:online

and those don't even count???

What do you mean they don't count?

[Rainbow Dash]

Hmm, well that seems to make the most sense. Thanks for clearing that up or I'd still be spreading that nonsense I said before.



What do you mean they don't count?

they're not real aoe games, so no.

[Amit]

they're not real aoe games, so no.

Oh, now I get it. Yeah, a lot of people were not pleased by the changes that came in AoE3 and even less with AoE Online. However, they are both still very successful games. AoE3 is its own game which is why I enjoy it and still play it regularly. However, I, like you, was still hoping for another AoE game that was more along the lines of what they did with AoE2, but now that will never happen thanks to Microsoft.