Rhode Island Receives $713K Kingdoms of Amalur Revenue

75 million? what was he smoking? i remember gta iv cost 100 mill, that was staggering, but the game clearly showed it; the cost incorporated the design of a brand new engine and i believe the marketing campaign!
KoA had a borrowed engine and absolutely no marketing! i didnt even hear about until a week before it was released, and it was only because i worked at a gamestop!

I think it would be very interesting to study the causes on why the product while critically well received, failed miserably.

10937088 said:

$75 million loan? Looks like these people weren't out to make a good game but cheat the state out of millions. What a scam this was.

the money was to set up a studio, which he did
a AAA game costs about 50 million to make, which is what i believe he was shooting for
he also was heavily in the development of a franchise, which was this game, and an mmo with a whole world behind it.
all in all, 75 million for it sounds about right.

10937920 said:

75 million? what was he smoking? i remember gta iv cost 100 mill, that was staggering, but the game clearly showed it; the cost incorporated the design of a brand new engine and i believe the marketing campaign!
KoA had a borrowed engine and absolutely no marketing! i didnt even hear about until a week before it was released, and it was only because i worked at a gamestop!

than you dont go to game websites, because i knew about this game for about 2 years before it was launched, and there was more or less an every other week till it was launched for months of new stuff for it

10937970 said:

I think it would be very interesting to study the causes on why the product while critically well received, failed miserably.

this game was a new franchise
it had an ok concept...
the story, from what i remember, i rented it, was interesting, but wasn't carrying it
honestly, i want to buy it, but the price of the game on the pc never goes down to where i would jump at it.

loot games always have it a bit tough, this had an rpg and action which also don't do well unless you are an existing franchise.

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now if i remember right, the state decided to call the debt in a real douchebag way, royally screwing the company, this was an investment that they should have stuck it out till the mmo, as it was shaping up to be something good. im glad the state got screwed,

The witcher 1 & 2 each cost ~7mil. AAA games don't cost 50mil unless you are an idiot with a bunch of fat cats (ea, activision etc...LOL). I think Torchlights were both made for under 2mil. For fun factor I call those AAA games.

10938388 said:

The witcher 1 & 2 each cost ~7mil. AAA games don't cost 50mil unless you are an idiot with a bunch of fat cats (ea, activision etc...LOL). I think Torchlights were both made for under 2mil. For fun factor I call those AAA games.

Your analogies are not quite correct: The Witcher 1 costed over $6mln to produce and The Witcher 2 costed over $9mln. Additional factor is that they were produced in Poland entirely so to produce them in the US you would need double/triple the amounts. Also you need to add marketing costs on top. Although I agree that $50mln is way too high for a single player, an MMO development can be a bottomless pit.

So the politician's wasted $75 million of the taxpayer's money. Pretty typical ten minutes worth of work for them.