Curt Schilling Fires Staff at Video Game Firm 38 Studios

Curt Schilling’s faltering video game company 38 Studios has fired its entire staff, and has also closed down Big Huge Games, which the studio acquired back in 2009.

The devastating news follows a number of grim reports from Schilling’s company that suggested that the studio, and Big Huge Games, were both in major trouble. Earlier this month, 38 Studios defaulted on its loan payment of $1.25 million to the state of Rhode Island, and there were also reports that 38 Studios had stopped paying its staff on May 1.

The news of the layoffs at 38 Studios and Big Huge Games’ closure first surfaced from Kotaku yesterday afternoon. Since then, Rhode Island’s WPRI has confirmed the layoffs, and has published a memo reportedly sent out to employees of both companies yesterday.

The memo reads:

“The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary.

“These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary. This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.”

In a press conference yesterday afternoon, Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee noted that 38 Studios needed to sell three million copies of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, its debut game, in order to break even. Schilling, in a post on his Twitter, said that the game sold 1.22 million in its first 90 days.