General Treasurer Gina Raimondo says she is still waiting to hear back from Governor Lincoln Chafee about rescheduling a meeting to discuss the financially struggling 38 Studios.

The treasurer pointed the finger at Chafee saying as EDC Chairman he should have monitored the financial situation with the company a little closer.

“To me the much bigger question what has been happening over the past 17 months? How has the Governor and his staff in his capacity as chair of the EDC board been monitoring this investment? The company does not run out of money overnight. The company does not find itself six or twelve months behind product development overnight,” Raimondo told WPRO’s Dan Yorke. “These problems to the extent they exist with this company have been simmering for a number of months and I think at some point tax payers deserve accountability. What has been happening here for the last year and a half.”

Raimondo says her staff has called the governor’s office several times requesting she be briefed on the situation involving former Red Sox Pitcher Curt Schilling’s video game company and a state backed loan for $75 million. The company defaulted on that loan last week ,however, was able to make a late payment of $1.125 million to get the loan out of default. The company is also struggling to make payroll and will need to execute layoffs.

“I don’t know enough to know precisely how I could be helpful but I know a lot about the venture business. I manage a team of professionals. We do all the state’s bonding. If someone wants our help we are here. It is time to get in the boat and make this thing work if we can,” Raimondo told WPRO’s Dan Yorke.

Raimondo suggested her office may be able to offer the expertise necessary to help save the struggling company. “One way we could be helpful is to help evaluate the deal. We could have been called in maybe still could be called in to help the company raise private capital. We may be called in to restructure the bond,” said Raimondo.

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Powerful words Governor Chafee but I am compelled to ask what has the state done to actually help 38 Studio as you claim?

What’s that Governor? Oh that’s right nothing, nothing at all.

In fact is it not true your trying to prevent 38 Studios from accessing film tax credits? Chafee said, “I want to know with absolute certainty and finality that we are going to get somewhere that is profitable before another penny goes in.” Again how is that helpful?

Chafee said the first game released by 38 Studios, “Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning” was not successful and “did not perform.” His rational for saying this? “If the game had been successful the company would have attracted private investors.”

Considering that EA was the publisher for KoA: Reckoning and thus paid for the development of the game which has sold over a million copies how is that not considered a success for 38 Studios? Was the plan to have the game be so successful investors would have clamored to invest in the MMO?

All I know is that while Chafee claims to be doing everything to help 38 Studios all I see is him doing is watching it crash and burn and maybe even adding a little fuel to the fire while it ends up costing tax payers millions just so he can say “I told you so.” That Governor Chafee is what I call “insanity.”

In reality everyone should be supporting and praying that Curt Schilling can turn this around. A successful MMO means a future for the company, the employee’s, gamers and a win for the state of Rhode Island. 38 Studios going under means gamers, the company and all its employee’s and most importantly the tax payers of Rhonde Island all lose. No one, even the most jaded critic should want this but that did not stop the hate from flowing in comments and message boards. I guess it just goes to show haters gonna hate.

Out of the blue today comes the news that 38 Studios made the payment to the REIDC and not only that they released the first peak of their MMO and its been announced the target launch date for the game is now June 2013. Great news for sure but bitter sweet if Curt and company can’t find a way to make it through this dark time. Curt is a fighter and I still have faith that this can all turn out right for everyone involved.

Now 38 Studios is under no obligation to tell us anything until they are good and ready. I am also not mad or even disappointed as I know developing a game like this takes a ton of work and things get pushed back. I would even prefer they delay the release of the game to do it right instead of rushing out a buggy POS game. That said part of bringing a new MMO to market is managing fans expectations and in this area I feel 38 Studios could do a better job. Common guys, give us MMO fans something, anything!

So to some this may seem like a big suprise but not to me because I reported back in Sept 2010 that Copernicus scheduled release date is September 2012.

So to recap we have the RIEDC who drafted the deal with 38 Studios for the 75 million state backed loan which has the sheduled release date for the game as Sept 2012. You add two big salary VP’s to your team, this has to be because your entering the next phase of your business which is gearing up for release in 6 months time. Last but not least you have Todd McFarlane confirming the game is supposed to come out later this year. The game has been in development for over 5 years with many veteran MMO developers and they said from day one they were not going to show the world their game until it was ready. I think that time is very near and I hope for all us MMO gamers its going to redefine and move the genre forward and be filled with AWESOMENESS!

The latest RPG franchise from Electronic Arts has stormed the charts in its debut week, taking No.1.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the first new IP to reach the top of the charts since Deep Silver’s Dead Island last September – and the first new RPG IP to grab No.1 since Nintendo’s Pokémon Red way back in 1998.

It knocks last week’s No.1 – another RPG, Final Fantasy XIII-2 – down one place, followed by another new entry at No.3, 2K Games’ The Darkness II. The only other new entry to make it into the Top 20 was Deep Silver’s Catherine at No.20.

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