38 Studios check clears

There was some commotion last week as 38 Studios were unable to pay a $1.125 loan repayment to the state of Rhode Island, while the payroll also went unpaid. Not good signs from a company with more than 300 employees who have just released their first title. Late last week, 38 Studios made the loan payment, and they now have until November to secure private funding when a larger chunk of the loan is due for repayment. Regardless, fresh capital is direly needed.

Meanwhile, 38 Studios are burning through cash, alledgedly around $4 million per month as the Rhode Island studio is working on {Project Copernicus} - an ambitious MMORPG dreamed up by the minds of Curt Schilling, R.A. Salvatore, and Todd MacFarlane - set in the same world as the recently released open world RPG {Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning}.

In a somewhat unorthodox turn of events Rhode Island governor Linoclon Chafee announced the release date of the game: "What I understand is Copernicus is June of '13." The governor is under pressure as the loan to 38 Studios granted by his predecessor to see them move their operations from Massachusetts to Rhode Island is a quite substantial $75 million.

Company founder Curt Schilling, who has invested $30 million in the venture himself, posted the following message on Facebook:

"To all the prayers and well wishes to the team and families at 38. God Bless and thank you! We will find a way, and the strength, to endure.''

Meanwhile, the first video, a world fly-through trailer, from {Project Copernicus} was released and well, let's hope this game makes it out some day even if June 2013 sounds very optimistic to us.