rhode-island posts

After months of debate and even some political sniping, game developer 38 Studios announced today that it is moving its main offices in Massachusetts to a location in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. The move was due to the developer, founded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, getting tens of millions of loan guarantees from Rhode Island's state government.

The new office, which should be fully operational in 2011, will be located in a six story building with 104,000 square feet of space. 38 Studios plans to hire 450 people for its new location where it will create its long-in-development fantasy MMO code named Copernicus. The loan guarantees were the subject of political debate earlier this year among some of the candidates for the governor of Rhode Island which opposed the approval of the loans.

The controversial decision by the state of Rhode Island to approve $75 million in loan guarantees to developer 38 Studios earlier this year is still generating lots of opposition from local political officials. GamePolitics reports that the state's general treasurer Frank Caprio has now fully thrown his hat against the deal after previously sitting on the fence.

Caprio, who also happens to be running for Rhode Island's governor seat for the Democratic party, has now said he wants credit rating firms Moody's and Standard & Poor's to "hold off on reviewing the project until a new governor can take office." Naturally some of his political opponents have accused Caprio of flip-flopping on his views. 38 Studios, which is currently based in Massachusetts, wants to move its main offices to Rhode Island in order to make its fantasy MMO title code named Copernicus.

It looks like the decision to give a huge state-assisted load to game developer 38 Studios is still generating some political heat. While the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. voted 8 to 1 last month to give 38 Studios $75 million in loan guarantees, the Providence Journal web site is reporting that some of the candidates for that state's governor are protesting the move.

Lincoln Chafee, a former Senator and now an independent candidate for governor, has asked the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp to 'reconvene and suspend its commitment" to 38 Studios and check out some other proposals. Also, the state Treasurer Frank T. Caprio, who also happens to be the Democratic candidate for governor, has ask the board to make modifications to the 38 Studios deal in order to "adequately protect and benefit taxpayers." There's no word yet on if the board will take up these requests.

[Via Gamasutra]

It's been a while since a state has proposed regulating sales of video and PC games (perhaps because all of the previous attempts have been deemed unconstitutional) but the state of Rhode Island now has a bill going through its state legislature that, if passed into law, would impose fines and perhaps even some jail time for retailers that sell games that are rated "M" or "AO" to minors.

As expected, GamePolitics reports that the Entertainment Software Association has already announced its opposition to the bill, saying, "This bill is the same as all the other legislative proposals found unconstitutional by numerous federal courts." What is unexpected is that the bill is also opposed by former Florida attorney and video game critic Jack Thompson. He's quoted as saying, "Since 1930, it has been unconstitutional to restrict the sale of entertainment products to anyone based upon a private sector standard, which the ESRB ratings are." However he hasn't made a big change in his attitude towards games. Thompson will be giving his advice to Rhode Island lawmakers in an attempt to make their bill pass muster.