Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is bringing in the bucks for Rhode Island but the state’s Republican Party is now demanding a default on the $100 million it owes on the 38 Studios debacle.
38 Studios may be dead and buried but the one game it was able to produce before it cratered, the RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, is still doing a pretty brisk business. Lawyers for the state of Rhode Island, which now owns all rights to the IP, said the game has brought in $713,000 for the state through Steam sales alone. It also raised roughly $430,000 through the auction of computers, office equipment and everything else formerly owned by 38 Studios.
It’s a nice chunk of change, but that’s really about all it is – pocket change – when compared to the $100 million the state owes as a result of 38 Studios’ disastrous collapse last year. Because of that, the Rhode Island Republican Party is now demanding that the state default on its debt, saying there’s no legal obligation to pay the bonds it issued to support the loan guarantees that brought the developer to the state. State Republican Chairman Mark Smiley also pointed out that people who bought the bonds can recover their losses through insurance policies that were part of the investment, and said taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for a decision they didn’t make.
It was reported last week that the state administration is considering the possibility of ditching the debt, but Governor Lincoln Chafee and Treasurer Gina Raimondo both said defaulting on the loan could hurt the state’s reputation and, one would assume, credit rating. An investment expert is scheduled to make a presentation to a legislative committee on the pros and cons of defaulting on the loan today.
Sources: Providence Journal, RIPR
