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The Rhode Island economic delvelopment corporation held an emergency closed-door meeting with 38 Studios founder and baseball hero Curt Schilling this morning to discuss the studio’s missed payment of over one million dollars on a $75 million state-guaranteed loan.
News the company behind Kingdoms of Amalur was in financial difficulty broke this week, and puts taxpayers on the hook for over $112 million through the year 2020 should the studio default on the loan.
The EDC offered 38 Studios the loan on the condition they move from Massachusetts to Rhode Island and provide up to 450 jobs.
WPRI reports that Schiling made a plea for more aid in the meeting, described by a spokesperson as "a good candid dialogue."
Officials declined to comment on the nature of the requested assistance.
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee says the state is still trying to decide if offering the company more assistance is worth the risk, but noted that 38 Studios still has the option of making the missed payment of $1.125 million.
"How do we avoid throwing good money after bad?" remarked the Governor.
Schilling left the meeting in a hurry at 12:30, refusing questions and saying, "my priority right now is to get back to my team."
Develop has heard sales figures for Kingdoms of Amalur currently stand at around 500,000, but it is unclear if those numbers take into account digital, online, and sales outside the U.S.
38 Studios has not made any public statement concerning the default or alleged cash flow issues.
