TITLE
Curt Schilling’s $150 Million Fail Shows What’s Broken in Video Games
AUTHOR
Jason Schreier
PUBLICATION
Bloomberg Businessweek
YEAR
2021
ARTICLE TYPE
Book Excerpt
FROM THE ARTICLE
38 Studios was the type of company a teenager might dream up when fantasizing about what it’d be like to make video games for a living. The company was building a wildly ambitious game to compete with the megahit World of Warcraft and appeared to be flush with cash. Employees received top-notch health benefits, gym memberships, and personalized high-end gaming laptops worth thousands of dollars. There were free meals, lavish travel expenses, and Timbuk2 bags customized with an illustration of the world map for their in-progress video game, code-named Copernicus. The man behind 38 Studios was Curt Schilling, the retired pitcher best known for his time with the Boston Red Sox. Schilling was a legend, famous for his performance on the field and his combativeness off it. In the 2004 playoffs, he’d pitched two games with an ankle that had been injured so badly it soaked his sock in blood. The performance helped the team win its first World Series in almost a century, and Schilling’s bloody socks earned a place in baseball lore.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
38 Studios
GAMES MENTIONED
Project Copernicus
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Curt Schilling
TOPICS MENTIONED
Canceled Games
ALTERNATE LINK
Archived Copy @ Internet Archive
EXCERPTED FROM
Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry
SEE ALSO
A look inside BioShock Infinite’s troubled development – Polygon (2021)