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(Image Source: WHDH) BY BRIAN BONDUS
ANCHOR JIM FLINK Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling
is feeling the heat instead of delivering it this spring. His entrepreneurial video-game
venture has reportedly failed and now taxpayers are out money. WHDH has the story.
“Kurt Schilling’s video game company received a $75 million loan guarantee from Rhode Island,
but still jobs there could not be saved.” Schilling named the company 38 Studios, after
the number he wore while he pitched in Boston. 38 Studios fired all 380 of its employees
last week. The company released two video games in 2012,
but in May failed to make a one million dollar interest payment to the state of Rhode Island.
The release date for its biggest project, Copernicus, was a year away.
The business needed $4 million a month to stay running, and Rhode Island’s governor
said — no more money. The state now owns the company.
So now 38 Studios is out of business and many are wondering why Schilling was given the
loan in the first place. One CNN analyst says, the Rhode Island officials who made the deal
may have been starstruck by Schilling’s World Series rings.
“They just think it was good business, but an awful lot of people feel that if his name
had been Curt Smith, none of this would have happened.”
Schilling and the Red Sox also invested in the company. Schilling spoke to the Providence
Journal about the situation — blaming the state for going back...
“...on a deal to approve film tax credits to which 38 Studios was legally entitled,
and to allow the company to defer a $1.12-million payment … Schilling also criticized [the
governor’s] ‘devastating’ public remarks about 38 Studios' financial health, which
he says scared off private investors.” There could be a way out of this bad situation
for Rhode Island and Schilling. An investor could decide to buy the company to finish
Copernicus, but according to a WBUR reporter — that’s a longshot.
“Tens of millions more dollars would have to be invested to complete the game. The state
of Rhode Island says it would allow Schilling to find such an investor or buyer if there
is one. But Sliwinski says the market for these types of games is not good.”