Curt Schilling on 38 Studios' MMO and the move to Rhode Island
It's been nearly half a year since the deal was signed, but 38 Studios head Curt Schilling tells us that his company's "150 - 160" employees are already in the process of moving to Rhode Island. That includes full relocation for everyone involved (read: selling that dream Boston house for a cottage in Quahog), though the company's own website still reflects 38's original address. Surprisingly, he says morale hasn't been affected negatively.
"The team is incredibly excited. It's our building! We have all six floors -- it's our studio and we're alone. It's our space," Schilling explained to us this afternoon at a San Francisco club-turned-EA event. "Gavin -- the studio GM -- and I, we really took a Disney approach," he said. "There's no detail too small for us in the new studio to make it a place where people walk in and say, 'I wanna work there.'" At the time, he wouldn't say much about what exactly the happy folks inside his company's new digs are making.
While keeping light on details, Schilling -- fittingly -- compared the game's development to his last profession: baseball. "If it were a baseball game, we'd be in the fifth inning maybe?" he posited, staying intentionally vague while a PR overseer eyeballed him. He did admit that we'd be hearing more about both Reckoning and the still unannounced MMO in the coming months.
As far as competition for the company's MMO, Schilling isn't targeting anyone in particular. And he's not afraid of the current MMO trend of going free-to-play, either. He told us, "That's the new buzzword in this industry. It's free-to-play' yadda yadda yadda -- all the things that go with that." And when we pushed him on the possibility of his company's MMO going the same route, he was equivocal.
"We have an open mind about everything, except the game," Schilling told us, adding, "We look at what we're creating and we say, 'What is the best possible guest experience we can create with this product?' And that'll answer your business model questions and your goals and objectives for the game."
He also made sure to point out that Reckoning will be given live demos throughout PAX East and two panels by the game's developers are also on deck. Perhaps Mr. Schilling and his studios will have more to say about their grander plans next week.
