Rhode Island treasurer seeks to block $75M loan to 38 Studios

Isn't that Kurt Shlling's (?) studio?

This isn't a politics board and I don't like to go into politics in places like this, but that is way too few jobs for the money involved, IMO.

It would be more efficient to offer a tax rebate of some kind.

They could even make it tech related. If you hire people for work that meets x,y.z tech job criteria, you get X tax rebate.

Just my take. These special loans really annoy me because not everyone can get them. You have to have the right connections, which I worry leads to campaign contributions or worse and a messy system that isn't geared in the right direction.

I live in Austin. I have seen tons and tons of tech jobs come here from California. Taxation and regulation have a huge impact on that.

I hope the company can make it, without the loan. It's a tough economy, particularly up there. $75 mill is a ton of cash, too. I know some games cost that much to develop, but I think they could make something profitable at a much lower cost, and work their way up. That kind of thing is slower, but it's more stable. Maybe that's a solution to some of the problems we see economically, particularly in the tech sector.

It would be better of the State wasn't playing favorites as to which industries are going to form or not.

Ok its probably a bad thing when I have to google a game studio to figure out who they are and what if anything they make. I am a bit out of the loop but I'm not that far out of the loop.

well it is $75 million, you can't blame the treasurer for trying to do his job, he knows the pros and cons of this loan in this economy. He prob just wants to know 110% that this loan will get paid off so the state does not lose any money and the taxpayers (aka the people) wont be stuck paying off the bill.

i dont know 38 studios track record, but its not a company like EA or Activision where you know you will most likely get alot of that money back. Its a HUGE gamble to take out a loan that big. its $75 mill for god sakes.

Has 38 Studios released an actual game? I haven't seen anything from Copernicus and it's been in development for ages.

@Fminus Negativity To The Rescue

Oh, Sorry man I left my wallet in my other pants and I've got this recital thing to go to for my second cousins third brothers twins kid.

Gotta run! Ciao!

If they were getting cold feet, they should have just not chosen to offer 38 Studios the money in the first place.

To say, "Oh, sure, definitely!" and then to try and block it isn't that fair to the company.

i don't know how far along the company is in relocating but if the funding is pulled i hope the game studio has some legal repercussions against the state for pulling it. if they had relocated employees, leased space, and so forth based on this loan they could be facing some huge hurdles to moving forward with any game creating.