38 Studios

38 Studios, LLC, formerly Green Monster Games, LLC, was an American entertainment and IP development company founded in 2006 by Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling and named for his jersey number. Originally based in Massachusetts, the company moved to Rhode Island as part of securing a $75 million loan guarantee from that state's quasi-public Economic Development Corporation (EDC). In February 2012, the company released its only title, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a single-player action role-playing video game for several platforms. The game received positive reviews and sold an estimated 330,000 copies in its first month, rising to 1.2m copies in the first 90 days. 38 Studios shut down a few months later. The failure of the controversial Rhode Island loan spurred investigations by the news media and the government.

History

During a family holiday gathering in December 2005, Schilling approached his wife's uncle, Bill Thomas, a retired business executive, with the idea to start a video game company focused on building a new MMORPG, a type of game that Schilling frequently played and enjoyed. Later the next year he announced his plans to six of his gaming friends while chatting online, asking them, "I'm seriously contemplating starting a gaming company. Who else is in?" Schilling recruited these friends, his uncle Thomas, and author R. A. Salvatore and author/artist Todd McFarlane to join his venture, and formally announced the formation of Green Monster Games (GMG) in a press release in September 2006.