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Game over: Schilling's 38 Studios files for bankruptcy

The video game company's debt -- and games -- may be Rhode Island's problem now, Reuters reports.

Donna Tam Staff Writer / News
Donna Tam covers Amazon and other fun stuff for CNET News. She is a San Francisco native who enjoys feasting, merrymaking, checking her Gmail and reading her Kindle.
Donna Tam
Kingdoms of Amalur 38 Studios

The fate of 38 Studios' video games -- and the company's debt -- may now rest in Rhode Island's hands.

The video game company run by former Red Sox star Curt Schilling filed for bankruptcy, with plans to liquidate, Reuters reported today.

The news comes shortly after 38 Studioslaid off nearly all of its staff and lost its funding from Rhode Island. The state's officials, hoping the video game company would bring in more jobs, had given 38 Studios a $75 million loan guarantee.

The company, which released the well-regarded "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning," in February, was late on a $1.1 million payment last month, and was trying to create a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game dubbed "Project Copernicus" -- which eventually have had to square off against Blizzard's popular and all consuming World of Warcraft.

In the bankruptcy filing, the company listed $21.7 million in assets, mostly personal property, and $150.7 million in liabilities, according to Reuters.

The problems for 38 Studios don't stop at bankruptcy. The Rhode Island State Police and other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, are investigating 38 Studios in relation to its loans, the Providence Journal reported.